Ants Stirred Up
Are common household ants driving you crazy? With all the recent rainfall in South East Queensland, common household ants are on the move, seeking the drier conditions inside houses. Most home owners think that it is impossible to control household ants, and in the past that has been somewhat true. However, the termite barrier chemical “Termidor” has recently been approved for use on common household ants, and the results have been spectacular.
Termidor tests in Australia were carried out on Funnel Ants (which are the variety that create those unsightly mounds through your lawn); within a 2 week period the results were a 97% reduction in Funnel Ant nests. I have been getting equally astounding results on all other common ant species I have been treating, since the approval of Termidor for common ant control.
Ant control
The Termidor spray treatment is a very effective stand-alone treatment for long term common ant control, but there are also some very good professional common ant baits on the market as well. This gives me the ability to treat nests which are located in areas where it is not possible to treat with conventional methods, and also in situations where the home owner may have a health or environmental concern regarding the use of pesticides. Certain common ant species eat carbohydrate or protein based foods, and the bait matrix used in the professional ant baits supply these elements in order to create immediate bait acceptance.
It is a possibility that common ant activity in yards will decline in the cooler months, but it is more likely that home owners will experience an increase in common ant activity inside their homes, as the ants will nest in the new drier environment they have sourced. The roof space is a favourite nest site due to the heat that is generated during the day and remains for many hours into the evening. Wall voids that catch a large amount of sunlight are also favoured.
An often-quoted misnomer is “If you have common ants you won’t get termites (white ants)”; however this couldn’t be further from the truth. Common ants will prey on termites if they can get at them, but as termites work within shelter tubes (which are often totally waterproof) the ants rarely come in contact with the termites.
