Summer Is Here: Watch Out for Ants

Summer has arrived and the ambient temperature of our natural environment is generally increasing. As our minds turn to thoughts of holidays and summer romance, colonies of ants turn to thoughts of foraging, which can inadvertently cause a nuisance in your home or commercial premises

Taking both the natural and man-made, synthetic world on the whole, the vast majority of ant species can be found to inhabit warm, hot countries that experience plenty of sunlight. The climate experienced by the UK is not suitable for most species found in the world. The small number of species found in the UK can, however, be source of consternation and inconvenience when they have entered your domestic or commercial premises.  Garden ants and Black ants are not considered to be serious problem because they are not thought to carry diseases. Problems can arise from their presence in your domestic or commercial premises because they might carry unsavoury material into your buildings from where they have been foraging. Taking into account this consideration, we might well reflect that we would not be overjoyed to find them marching through our food cupboards.

It is typical of ant behaviour for them to march across a wide ranging area in search of food. They will follow well established trails that cluster around a source of food and might lead through commercial and domestic property therefore can cause a nuisance. The origin of such trails can be identified by small plies of earth and matter around holes in soil and at the base of external walls. You can take action yourself in order to prevent the nuisance once detected. You should:

1.       Identify the point at which the ants are entering your premises and seal off this entrance

2.       Clear away and cover/ seal foodstuffs which might act as a source of food for ants

3.       Clear and clean sticky, sugar-related residues on work surfaces. Ants are attracted to sweet food

Certain facts about different species of ants are worth considering if you are to identify them

Pharoah Ant

•Workers 1.5–2mm long, yellow–brown with brown abdomen.

•Males 3mm long, black and winged.

•Queens 3.5–6mm long, dark red in colour with wings.

•Black eyes. 2 small segments at the pedicel.

Lifecycle:

•Multi–queen colonies.

•Swarming can take place at any time of the year.           

•Winged adults seldom fly so rarely seen. Wings are soon lost after mating.

Habits :

•Well–defined trails are laid which are often associated with heating systems. Feeds indoors on high protein foods — meat, fats, blood, dead insects, etc.

•Swarming characteristics — new colonies are often formed through nests that have been disturbed e.g., as a result of insecticide spray treatments. Each queen produces up to 3500 eggs in its lifetime.

•Nest locations — deep seated in cavities in heated buildings. Often found in hospitals. Associated with humid conditions. Colonies can range from a few dozen to 300,000 individuals.

Garden Ant

•Workers 4-5mm long.

•Queens 15mm long.

•Dark brown-black in colour.

•1 small segment at waist point (pedicel).

•No sting present.

•Queens over winter in soil. The eggs are laid in late spring and the larvae hatch 3–4 weeks later.

•Larvae feed on secretions from the queen’s salivary glands until the first worker ants emerge.

•Worker ants continue with larval care, nest building and food foraging.

•Fertile males are produced later in the season.

Habits :

•Foraging worker ants follow well–defined trails around food sources. Sweet foods are preferred but high protein foods will also be taken.

•Swarming characteristics – mating between queens and fertile males takes place on the wing during late summer and the males perish after mating.

•Nest locations – often outdoors in soil and below paving slabs on the sunny side of buildings. Nest locations can be identified by the presence of finely powdered soil around nest exit holes.

A small garden ant problem might be easily dealt with via the use of DIY products. Multiple infestations or even one large infestation of, for example, Pharoah, Fire or Ghost ants will require professional preventative services in order to ensure that it will not recur. That’s where Key West Pest Control comes in. We will identify the particular species of ant in the infestation and calculate which type and power of insecticide to apply to the problem such that it will not happen again. In such a situation we always act in such a way that causes no harm to your family and pets.