These are soft-bodied insects that are green, brown, black, and sometimes pale yellow to white. They have piercing sucking mouthparts and can pierce the surface of plants and almost continuously suck plant sap.
Most aphids produce droplets of honeydew as they feed. Ants use the honeydew droplet produced by aphids as food. Aphid populations rely on ants to remove the honeydew; ants rely on honeydew as a food source. This is a food for many species of ants that are indoor pests, including pavement ants, carpenter ants, odorous house ants, ghost ants, and white- footed ants.