Ants are small, but they can create huge pest control issues for property and homeowners. Take your first step to learning all about ants and how to best handle any ant infestations around your property.
Ants’ Appearance
Ants can be divided into their colony castes, which consist of three separate groups: queens, males, and workers. Female wingless ants are workers. Their job consists of finding food, protecting the colony, and maintaining the nest. They do
not reproduce. The only fertile female is the queen and it is her job to lay all of the eggs. Male ants have wings and their only job is to mate with the queen. While ant species come in many different shapes and sizes, generally ants are
small and often have dark colors, such as brown, black, or red.
Are Ants Serious?
Ants may be small but they can pose a huge risk for homes and families. Most ants enter homes in search of food to carry back to their colony. These small creatures can spread bacteria and contaminate food wherever they wander. Not all ants
transmit disease, but it is important not to discount that risk when dealing with ants. Some ants can cause additional damage. Carpenter ants can chew through important structural beams whereas fire ants can give a powerful, painful sting.
Pay extra attention to these ant species if they are active around your property.
How Do Ants Enter My Home
Ants are small, determined pests that are constantly on the lookout for new food sources. Any food left out in your home, even just small scraps on the ground, can attract ants into your home. Dirty dishes, unattended garbage, and messy
countertops can bring ants to your door —from there, all they have to do is locate one crack or crevice to enter your home.
Types of Ants
There are over 12,000 different species of ants —and while most are not interested in entering your property, there are still hundreds that are. These ants commonly cause pest control issues all across America and especially in California.
- Argentine Ant
- Carpenter Ant
- Harvester Ant
- Little Black Ant
- Odorous House Ant
- Red Imported Fire Ant
- Southern Fire Ant
Life Cycle and Reproduction
The life cycle of an ant is broken down into four distinct stages; egg, larvae, pupae, and adult. To begin with, the queen ant selects a location to begin a colony. She then lays eggs that are round, white, and small. After about 1 or 2
weeks, the eggs hatch and the larva emerge. At this stage in the ant’s life cycle, the ants have an enormous appetite and consume a large amount of food. In the pupae stage, ants shed their larvae skin and grow into a more adult body. Pupae
begin white but darken as they grow. Some pupae grow in cocoons. Once ants become adults, they separate into the three colony castes. Female workers gather food while males only exist to mate with the queen.
Behavior and Diet
Ants thrive in almost every type of environment. They can be found all across the world, creating nests and searching for food. They consume a variety of different things as food sources. As omnivores, they eat a combination of plants and
animals, including the eggs of other insects and food scraps left out in houses.
Ant Control
Getting a handle on ant infestations is important in order to prevent a small problem from getting bigger. As soon as you spot the first signs of ant activity, take these steps to keep ants out of your home.
- Block all entry points in order to keep small ants from entering your home in search of food sources
- Locate and disrupt scent trails, which ants leave behind in order to guide others from their colony to the location of a potential food source
- Identify and locate colony in order to stop ants directly from the source
- Remove any scraps of food left around your house in order to discourage ants from entering
- If attempting a DIY solution, be aware that most self-treatments only target visible ants, not the source of populations…
- …which is why contacting a professional pest control specialist is the best course of action for stopping ant infestations in their track
Work together with AIPM to effectively handle any and all types of ant infestations on your property. Keep your home safe and ants outside with AIPM’s comprehensive pest control services.