Ants are extremely well adapted insects, who will quite happily make their home in your home. They may be resilient little creatur...
Case Studies
Ants are amazing creatures.
They carry food many times their body weight. They solve problems and have jobs. They build elaborate colonies with special rooms for storing food and mating. They labour in concert to advance ant society, a million individuals working as one. (Not all ant activity is so pleasant – they also raid each other's nests and enslave the conquered).
But wondrous as they may be, you don't want to see them marching on your kitchen floor, leaving a trail of pheromones for their friends to follow.
Once they're in, it can be tough to get them out. And this time of year, they are particularly active: in the UK, ant season is June through to September.
If you've got ants, the first task is identifying which ant you're dealing with: an ant is not an ant.
Pharoah ants are a health nuisance - they like to burrow in open wounds, and will most often be found in or around hospitals.
Black garden ants, on the other hand, are most likely to be found in your home or garden.
Getting rid of the black garden ant is no small task. Some of the ant-afflicted try folk treatments: Cayenne pepper, baby powder or cinnamon. Commercial traps are another option. You can use baits inside in the form of boric acid, whereby the unwitting ants carry poison back to the nest.
If attempting DIY treatments, be aware that the efficiency of over-the-counter treatments varies.
Commercial traps are also much weaker than professional grade. While commercial ant traps are inexpensive, sometimes the problem has to be tackled at the source. "It's really a matter of search and destroy," Steve Anderson from SDA Pest Control said. "You can't always rely on pesticides. You're treating the symptoms but not the core of the problem."
That means a direct assault on exterior nests. Many are well-camouflaged. "You might have to move rocks or splash guards and really dig," Steve said. "Sometimes people don't realise what we're up against. They just see a few ants in their house. We'll show them the number of ants in a tree stump and it's mind-boggling."
Once identified, the ant nests are typically exposed to a chemical treatment.
"You have to look at how they get inside," Steve says. "Check openings: Vents, screens, windows, utility lines and pipes." Large piles of leaves and grass can also harbour the insects and gutters are also overlooked.
Because the spring food supply is limited, leaving even the smallest bit of food around is an invitation ants can't refuse.
Though ants are his adversary, Steve said he can't help but admire them for their resiliency. "It's an amazing animal," he said. "They were here long before us and they'll be here long after us."
Article provided by SDA Pest Control