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DESCRIPTION
There are many (over 10,000) ant species. Adults are black, brown or red insects, 1 to 3 mm long, with narrow waists and bent antennae. Some species also have wings. Ants are social insects, living in nests, which appear in lawns, old tree stumps, under rocks, cracks in cement and even in house walls.
DAMAGE
Common ants are not destructive, in fact they help clean up debris, aerate the soil, prey on other insects and aid in pollinating some varieties of fruit as they collect nectar.They can become a nuisance when entering the house or if numbers get high outside. Some will also bite if crushed against bare skin. Ants like to feed on aphid secretions; they will actually 'farm' aphids by carrying them onto plants, tend to them and protect them from predators. Carpenter ants can cause structural damage to wooden homes; these ants are much larger (8 to 19 mm long). They expel sawdust from their nests and will appear indoors in spring with wings. Control of carpenter ants is most satisfactorily done by a licensed pest control company with proper equipment.
LIFE CYCLE
Queens lay hundreds of tiny eggs which hatch in about 30 days into blind legless larvae. There is often only one queen per nest. Some species have multiple queens per nest, however.
Female worker ants feed and care for larvae from 11 to 61 days, which then pupate for 12 to 25 days before becoming adults (female workers and males).
Workers enlarge, defend and repair nests, collect food, care for the young and the queen.
CONTROLS
• Monitor ants’ movements to determine their food source as well
as their nest location.
• When the outdoor food source is aphid secretions in a tree or
shrub, place Tanglefoot barrier around the tree trunk.
• If the food source is inside the house, store food and waste in
tight containers, seal cracks where ants are entering and/or apply
pesticide dust in cracks.
• Drench nests with boiling water or pesticide in early morning
before ants are active
• Apply liquid boric acid or set out borax traps - workers eat bait as well as carrying it back to the nest to share with the colony.
• Keep a pest journal recording food source, location of nests,
controls used and when ants first became a problem.
PESTICIDES
• Chemical-Sevin at label rates (dust).
• Diazinon at label rates (drench).
• Ant Killer Dust at label rates.
• Alternative-Diatomaceous Earth at label rates (dust).
• Trounce at label rates (drench).
Safer's Ant Killer
This product contains bait blended with borax in a squeeze bottle to apply where ants live.