Ants Control
Ants are among the most prevalent pests in households. They are also found in restaurants, hospitals, offices, warehouses, and other buildings where they can find food and water. On outdoor (and sometimes indoor) plants, ants protect and care for honeydew-producing Insects such as aphids, soft scales, whiteflies, and mealybugs, increasing damage from these pests. Ants also perform many useful functions in the environment, such as feeding on other pests (e.g., fleas, caterpillars, and termites), dead insects, and decomposing tissue from dead animals.
Damage.
Inside buildings, household ants feed on sugars, syrups, honev, fruit juice, fats, and meat. Long trails of thousands of ants may lead from nests to food sources, causing considerable concern among building occupants. Outdoors they are attracted to honeydew, produced by soft scales, mealy bugs, and aphids. This liquid excrement contains sugars, and other nutrients. Frequently outbreaks of scales and aphids occur when ants tend them for honeydew because the ants protect scales and aphids from their natural enemies.
Areas where found & Local Habitats.
- Hotels, Restaurants, Houses, ….etc.
- Labors Camps.
- Agricultural and Animal Farms.
- Gardens and Parks.
Monitoring and inspection.
Monitor for ants near attractive food sources or areas of moisture. Ants may invade kitchens. bathrooms, offices, or bedrooms. Inspect under sinks, in cupboards, along pipes, and along electrical wires. Look for large trails of ants or for just a few stragglers. Straggling ants are scouts randomly searching for food or nesting sites. When you spot ant trails, try to follow the ants to where they are entering the building and to the nest if possible. Look for holes or cracks in foundations or walls that provide entry points to buildings.
METHOD OF ANT CONTROL.
Indoor Treatments (Non Chemical).
If ants can be thoroughly washed away and excluded from an area, an insecticide is probably not necessary. Vacuuming up ant trails or sponging or mopping them with soapy water may be as effective as an insecticide spray in temporarily removing foraging ants in a building because it removes the ant’s scent trail, especially if thorough cleaning is done at the entry points.
some soap products such as window cleaners can kill ants on contact but leave no residual toxicity. Certain plant-based oils are also applied for this purpose, but their odor can be offensive. Also we can use non-toxic ants bait station to destroy the Ant Colony.
Chemical Control (Very low Toxicity).
Most ant problems are resolved using baits of various types, liquid, gel and granular depending on the safety, site and ease of application. For outdoor garden use, granular bait is the best product to face tough weather under exposed conditions. However ant baits work within few hours as they have good attractant added to that, which makes the worker ants to accept and carry the granules into their nests to feed the colony members and more importantly the queen. Ant colonies are very small when compared to complex massive termite colonies.
The granules are dropped or applied on the ant hills or near ant trails using a powder or Granule Applicator. Gel spots will be used for indoor residential and commercial sites for safety reasons. They eliminate the entire colony within few hours to 2-4 days.