Appearance
The workers are about 1/16-1/8" (2.4-3.25mam)long There body is brown to black.
The antennae have 12 segments.
Reproduction
Females in the nest lays one egg daily. It takes an average of 24 days
for the young to reach adulthood.
The nest colonies range from 100 to 10,000 ants,
but can be driven away by invading Argentine ants.
Inspection
They forage day and night
The nests can occur in a great variety of situations.
Inside, these ants usually construct their nests in wall voids
especially around hot water pipes and heaters, in crevices in sinks,
cupboards, etc .Outside, they are found in exposed soil, usually shallow,
often located beneath a board,brick , stone walk, etc.
They are most likely to enter buildings when their honeydew supply or
sweet supply of food is reduced such as during rainy weather
or with leaf fall in the autumn.
Diet
They can feed on anything such as insects, honeydew,seeds,
plant secretions, but do prefer sweets.
They are extremely fond of honeydew and attend such honeydew-excreting insects
as plntlice(aphids),scale insects, mealybugs, etc.
Ant Trails
An excellent article(click on the PDF button-the top right corner
of the document)by Univ. of Florida Extension Service can be found at
.
It gives an overview of management with baits.
How to Get Rid of Odorous Ants
Baiting would be the preferred treatment over
typical residual spraying,
so you can eliminate the entire colony, unless you use a non repellent spray.
When choosing ant baits, it is best to choose from both the sugar based baits and protein based baits .
Why Ant Bait?
The use of residual
sprays or dusts will cause stress on the colonies,
causing them to split
into sub-colonies that scatter to other areas in the structure.
This is also called budding.
After spraying, your problem can be worse than at the beginning.
When you bait, you will want a slow acting bait. Quick kill insecticides
and baits will only kill the foraging ants, not allowing the foraging ants
to take the bait back home to feed the queen,nest workers and brood.
If the current ant bait that you are using is not acceptable to the ants,
if they are not visiting the bait, it is recommended that you change the baits.
Ants require carbohydrates-sugars, proteins and greases.
They find a variety of these sources in nature.
Examples are: other insects(proteins and greases), nectar, aphid honeydew ,
plant products(sugar and carbohydrates)
Choosing a ant bait would require knowing what they are currently feeding off of,
according to the nutritional needs of the colony.
To be sure that you have all the ant baiting needs met, you may want to be ready
with a sugar-carbohydrate bait, a grease-fat bait, and a protein based bait.
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO REMOVE ANY OTHER FOOD COMPETITION WHEN BAITING
AND LEAVE THE BAIT ALONE ONCE THE ANTS START FEEDING ON IT.
Non Repellents For Outside and Inside Ant Control:
Spraying for Odorous Ants: Non-Repellents
The best insecticides for ant control are non repellent insecticides such as Taurus SC, Termidor SC, Optigard Flex, Alpine Aerosol, and Phantom Aerosol. Termidor SC and Taurus SC are labeled for inside usage.
Unless you can treat the nest directly, spraying
is not an effective solution for Argentine Ants, unless you use
a non repellent insecticides or "undetectable" liquid treatments
Phantom Aerosol or Alpine Aerosols labeled for the inside. Optigard Flex is another very good non repellent labeled for inside for Argentine Ants(ants popular in California)
Unlike older insecticides,
non repellent insecticides can't be smelled, tasted, or even
felt by pests. So they crawl through the treated area, not
knowing that by ingesting treated materials or merely contacting
the insecticide, they'll die.
Again, workers must eat the bait, take it back to the nest, and feed to the queen and larval ants. This type of control is incompatible with treatments(such as repellent sprays)that prevent workers from returning to the nest with the bait.
