Home › Posts tagged Ants
Tag: Ants

Ants — When is the best time to start managing for pest ants?

Posted on August 7, 2020
For most ants, foraging activity usually declines in late fall when temperatures cool, and picks back up again in early spring as days get warmer. Timing your management strategies to coincide with these seasonal changes in activity can improve management success, particularly into the summer... more
Tagged with: ,

Carpenter Ants — Control Tips

Posted on July 28, 2020
The key to control is finding the nest or nests. Look for piles of sawdust or carpenter ant trails at night when they are most active. Carpenter ants prefer damp wood over dry wood. Increase ventilation in areas like attics, basements, and crawl spaces to reduce moisture. Repair all leaks... more
Tagged with: ,

An Introduction to Ants

Posted on July 9, 2020
Ant facts Ants belong to the insect order Hymenoptera and are close relatives of bees and wasps. More than 12,000 species occur throughout the world. Ants are common pests in homes, restaurants, hospitals, and warehouses. Ants enter buildings seeking shelter, food, and water. ... more
Tagged with: ,

Invaders called Ants

Posted on June 8, 2020
Ants are among the most prevalent pests in households. Ants also invade 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,... more
Tagged with: ,

Signs of a Carpenter Ant Infestation

Posted on May 29, 2020
The only external sign of a carpenter ant infestation other than the presence of workers and/or swarmers is the appearance of small openings on the surface of wood. Through these, the ants expel debris, which consists of sawdust-like shavings and/or fragments of insulation and insect body... more
Tagged with: ,

Carpenter Ant Colony Dynamics and Life Cycle

Posted on May 18, 2020
Carpenter ants feed on dead and living insects, nectar, fruit juices, and sugary honeydew excreted by plant-sucking insects. They will enter buildings in search of nesting sites or moisture and can build nests containing several thousand ants. Typically, the nests they construct indoors are... more
Tagged with: ,

How to Identify Carpenter Ants

Posted on April 19, 2020
Carpenter ants play key ecosystem roles, particularly by aiding in the decomposition of decaying trees. They also can infiltrate homes and other buildings, nesting in moist, rotting wood and causing significant structural damage. Being able to properly identify and distinguish carpenter ants... more
Tagged with: ,

Quick Ant facts

Posted on April 16, 2020
Ants are some of the most common pests found in and around homes. Most ants are primarily a nuisance and cause little damage. Some ants infest food. Carpenter ants can weaken wood in structures. The species of ant determines the nesting site, food preference and the best method of... more
Tagged with: ,

From chaos to order: How ants optimize food search

Posted on April 13, 2020
Ants are capable of complex problem-solving strategies that could be widely applied as optimization techniques. An individual ant searching for food walks in random ways, biologists found. Yet the collective foraging behavior of ants goes well beyond that, as a mathematical study to be... more
Tagged with: ,

Carpenter Ants AKA Big Black Ants

Posted on March 26, 2020
Carpenter Ants are often referred to as "black ants" or "big black ants" although some species are not black and they are not always large.  In reality, there are thirty possible sizes for carpenter ants.  Larger ants indicate a more mature colony: one that has been located in the same area... more
Tagged with: , ,
Older Posts