PEST CONTROL LIBRARY
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Ants
There are over 10,000 species of ants found worldwide. These social insects live in colonies with one or more queen present. Queens can live up to 15 years while the average lifespan for workers is between 4-7 years. Nests are found underground, in trees, or within structures such as your home. Ants are a common household insect that have been known to transmit diseases such as Salmonellosis and Staphylococcus.
Ants enter a home in search of food and water, feeding on sweets, starches and greasy substances found inside your home. Ants are usually found indoors, along walls, or hiding under baseboards and carpets. Outdoors they are found under decorative landscaping, wood piles, or rocks.
The worker ants range in length from 1/8 – 1/2 inch, with the queens being slightly larger. They are most commonly black, although some species are red, red and black, or brown.
What is a Carpenter Ant’s Diet?
Carpenter ants do not actually feed on the wood. They feed actively from sunset until the early morning hours on most human foods, particularly sweets and other insects.
What is a Carpenter Ant’s Reproductive Cycle?
Soon after mating, swarmers lose their wings. The female selects a nesting site to lay her eggs and begins the process of hollowing out tunnels and galleries to lay her eggs. Mature colonies can range in size from 10 to upwards of 15,000.
Where Do Carpenter Ants Live?
These ants are social insects that prefer nesting in wood. They commonly hollow out galleries or tunnels in trees, structures, wood, and foam insulation.
Carpenter ants are often found in conjunction with moisture problems. An indication of a possible infestation is evidence of sawdust, pieces of insulation, nesting materials, and winged adults, known as swarmers.
Carpenter ants have main colonies and sub (satellite) colonies. The main colony takes about five years to mature and is most often found in the woods. Once mature, the large colony needs help so it sends out swarmers that locate spots in the vicinity where the sub-colonies can thrive. Once a spot is found, they rip off their wings and start setting up shop. Each sub-colony has a job (such as caring for all the eggs or collecting water) but they all depend on the main colony and frequently travel back to the main colony at night to help out.
Once mature, the main colony will continually be setting up sub-colonies. Homes are ideal for them since there are reliable water sources there – we often find the colonies around window or door frames or in the kitchen or bathroom.
Why are Carpenter Ants a Pest?
Carpenter ants are more than a nuisance pest because they prefer to nest in moist and/or rotting wood, making your home an ideal location to set up shop.
For instance, a leaky or sweating pipe may be creating moisture in wall voids, which is undetectable to you and perfect conditions for carpenter ants. They will excavate the moist or rotten wood to create a new sub-colony, therefore compromising the integrity of the structure.
What Is The Modern Solution?
In protecting your home against carpenter ants, Modern takes into account the biology of this pest, and that is why we try to get people on a seasonal visit program. This allows us to get to your home before the wood-destroying ants do each year. Our seasonal visit program guarantees you protection from these continual, wood-destroying invaders throughout the spring and summer.
Homeowners’ insurance rarely covers the cost of carpenter ant damage. Therefore, prevention and protection against carpenter ants is a worthwhile investment to protect your home and business.
Cornfield ants vary in size. Workers tend to be 2.5-4mm. Males range from 3-4.5mm, and the queens can be from 4-9mm. They are light brown to very dark, reddish brown, and can be any combination of these colors. They emit an acidic odor when crushed.
What is a Cornfield Ant’s Diet?
Cornfield ants feed primarily on live and dead insects, nectar, seeds, and the honeydew of aphids. They will sometimes venture indoors to try and find sweet foods. Ants are omnivores. They have two stomachs, one for themselves and one that holds food for the colony.
What is a Cornfield Ant’s Reproductive Cycle?
Cornfield ants generally mate between August and September, usually on hot, humid days. The male dies right after mating because he is unable to feed himself. The female then moves away to start a new nest. The first few eggs she lays will become the workers of her colony. The queen will nurture the workers until they are old enough to care for her and themselves.
Where do Cornfield Ants Live?
Cornfield ants don’t reside exclusively in cornfields. They get their name from hatching the corn root aphid and transferring it from grasses to growing corn. Cornfield ants are frequently found nesting in lawns, and build visible, crater-like nests. The nests may appear near or underneath bricks, stones, sidewalks, cracks in pavement, and in rotting logs, wood, and bark. They seek out the moisture that damaged and decaying wood provides. It is very unlikely for cornfield ants to enter homes, but if they do, it is usually to scavenge for sweet foods. Although it could also be indicative of a moisture problem. They are rarely found nesting in homes or other structures.
Worker crazy ants are 1/16-1/8″ (2.2-3.0mm) long. They are usually brown to black and very slender. The antenna and legs are very long compared to their body size.
What is a Crazy Ant’s Diet?
Though crazy ants prefer insects and sweets, they will eat just about any type of household food.
What is the Crazy Ant’s Reproductive Cycle?
Crazy ant colonies tend to be small and are composed of up to 2,000 workers and up to 40 queens. Crazy ant colonies have been known to completely abandon one nesting site and move on to another for no reason.
Where do Crazy Ants Live?
Crazy ants usually nest underneath floors and wall voids, most often near heaters or hot water pipes.
Field Ants are part of a large group of subspecies and varieties in the Formica family. Worker field ants grow to 1/8 to 1/4 inch in length. Body color may be brown, black or reddish.
What is the Field Ant Diet?
Field ants mostly feed on mealybugs, scale insects found on trees and shrubs, and honeydew. Honeydew is a substance from plant-sucking insects such as aphids.
What is the Field Ant Reproductive Cycle?
Field ant colonies are founded by a single inseminated female. Most species of field ant have gynecoid workers that can lay eggs, so they can also function as substitute queens.
Where do Field Ants Live?
Most species of field ants usually cause problems around structures, most commonly masonry walls, concrete sidewalks, etc. They will also construct mounds made of plant materials, grass, twigs, leaves, and pine needles. Field ant nests are usually found around shrubs, rocks, and small trees.
The worker fire ant is between 1/16 – 1/4 inch in length. The queen averages 1/4 inch. Their head and second body segment is a reddish color, but the abdomen is generally black. Their stinger is at the end of their abdomen.
What is a Fire Ant’s Diet?
Foods high in protein are preferred, but they will feed on almost anything. Some examples are other insects, meats, breakfast foods, fruit, plants, etc.
What is a Fire Ant’s Reproductive Cycle?
A typical fire ant queen can produce about 1500 eggs per day. From egg to adult is approximately 22 – 38 days. Although the average fire ant worker ant usually lives less than 6 months, the queen tends to live 2 to 6 years.
Where do Fire Ants Live?
Fire ants received their name because of the fiery pain the victim receives from their sting. Fire ants usually develop their colonies in the ground, under rocks, under wood, and in voids in structures. The size of colonies can range from 80,000 – 250,000 ants. They are often attracted to electrical junction boxes, such as air conditioners or traffic signals. Fire ants can cause this equipment to malfunction by chewing on the wires. They also follow pipes and wires into structures.
What Is The Modern Solution?
With no known natural predators, fire ants can be a challenge to control. Modern Pest Services offers a highly effective program designed to significantly reduce fire ants on your property. The program starts with a thorough exterior inspection to accurately identify the pest, locate the nest(s), and any onsite conditions which promote activity, and determine the level of infestation. This includes the application of baiting materials.
House ants’ bodies are normally brown or black and are approximately 1/16 – 1/8 inch in length. Their antennae have 12 segments and are without a club (the thicker, base segment of the antenna).
What is the House Ant Diet?
House ants are not finicky – they will eat almost anything. They normally eat insects, honeydew, and almost any household food.
What is the House Ant Reproductive Cycle?
A queen house ant can lay dozens to hundreds of eggs a day. The general time frame from egg to adult is 34 to 38 days, with the exception of winter, when it may take 6 to 7 months.
Where do House Ants live?
When they’re outdoors, house ants usually live under rocks, in cracks in the pavement, or in larger ant nests. Indoors, house ants may invade walls and insulation, as they prefer to be near a heat source. Most house ant colonies house several queens and between 100 to 10,000 workers. House ants are not known to be aggressive, but the workers can bite and sting.
Why are House Ants a Pest?
Often, house ants are considered more of a nuisance pest. They do not appear to cause too much harm and are usually considered extremely annoying and perhaps even embarrassing to find in your home. However, while foraging for food and water, it is possible for house ants to contaminate food, potentially posing a risk to the health and well-being of you and your family.
What Is The Modern Solution?
Modern’s HomeCare Green program is a wise investment to ensure your home is protected against 60 pests year-round, including ants! By customizing treatment to the season and biology of the target pests, we take a proactive approach to getting rid of pests in your home before they become an issue.