Doing Pest Control in North Carolina for a couple of years now I have experienced customers that get an abundance of ants. I needed to understand their behaviors, life cycle, and their eating habits so that I could properly treat a customer’s home for these pests.
So, how do ants reproduce? This is done 2 ways depending on species: A female and male ant of the same species, but a different colony will meet during the mating flight in the spring and the (drone) male ant will inseminate the female’s seminal receptacle. Once this happens the female (queen) ants will find a good place to reproduce which is her sole job in the colony. The other way this is done is through cloning.
Read On To Find Out More!
When the female finds a suitable nesting site, she will remove her wings never to fly again. The queen will now go to work starting her colony. She uses her flying muscles where wings used to be as a source of nutrients.
When the queen mates she will never need to mate again. Instead of repetitive mating, she stores the male’s sperm in a specialized pouch until such time as she opens the pouch and allows sperm to fertilize the eggs she produces. After mating, queen ants and male ants lose their wings.
Ant colonies can grow to be anywhere between 3,000 – 7,000 ants strong in size in a single year. If left unchecked for a few years the colony can grow over 20,000 ants.
How Do Ants Clone?
There are some ant species that can make more ants asexually. The queen will produce a replica of herself over and over. This is done through a reaction when the queen is subjected to different fungi and bacteria.
Here is a neat fact: Some queen ants can live up to 30 years.
A german entomologist by the name of Hermann Appel held a queen ant in captivity for almost 29 years. source
How Ants Find Food?
Ants have antennae that they use to search for food, they keep their antennae low to the ground so they can smell while they scan slowly side to side until they find crumbs and food left on floors or countertops.
Once they have located a food source they will guide themselves and their families back and forth from the colony to the food by using pheromones that they emit while foraging. If their food is too large to carry they will bury it until they can break it up into smaller pieces and carry it or until they can get enough others to help.
How Do Ants Communicate?
Ants are a very social community. Ants communicate in many ways such as sound, touch, and smell.
It is a known fact that ants will use their antennae to communicate with each other, this would be the equivalent of how we just talk, but what are some other ways they communicate?
Ants do communicate through sound as well they will use their legs to make sounds by rubbing them together or against other body parts. They can tell other ants about different types of distress or harm, they can use sound to get help carrying solid foods, they can also use sound to express sexual interest.
Ants will follow each other along the same path, they know where the ant ahead is or was because of a smell that the ant ahead leaves behind. Ants will use these smells to let the other ants know that they have found food. If there is danger they put out a distress pheromone, and it puts all the ants in the colony on high alert, usually when this happens they will split the colony into several colonies and the queen ant will create fertile females to become future queens of the new colonies.
Ants also use these smells or pheromones when another fellow ant has died they will be marked with a smell that tells the others that they are no longer with us. Ants do carry their dead and give them a proper burial.
Why Is It Hard To Keep Ants Away From Your Home?
It is funny to think when we see a couple hundred come inside of a home that it pales in comparison as to how many are in that particular colony. Which helps me make this next point.
So many times I have gone into a customer’s home and they have told me I killed the ants that came in my home a few days ago, I saw them die they said.
I will tell you guys what I tell them.
Ants talk to each other if you kill a few or a couple hundred, you have barely scratched the surface.
Ants will send out a distress pheromone that warns the others that there is a problem. When ants are put in this situation they will split the colony sometimes into 3 or 4 colonies and now you have created a bigger problem.
Since ants have a keen sense of smell and touch they can sense chemicals that have repelling properties. As a pest technician we know this, so, when we treat a home for ants we use non-repelling insecticides to eliminate ants.
This is the only way to ensure that the chemical will reach the queen and stop the colony from producing.
Like I mentioned above the queen is fed and well protected once she is inseminated. So, the pesticide used to take out ant colonies will chronically eliminate ants by getting them sick, as the chemical is passed along from ant to ant it slowly reaches the queen to properly get rid of the nest.
The Solution
The Chemical I recommend for ants is called Termidor SC. Termidor is an (OUTSIDE ONLY) chemical that is used on the foundation of your home. Once Termidor is mixed in the soil and along the building where the soil and foundation meet. Now you are ready to take out these ants.
Here is some more information about Termidor SC on my recommended products page.
There is another chemical you should use to eliminate ants and that is called optiguard. Optiguard is a sugar bait and can be used inside your home where the ants are getting in, you will want to place it next to the entry hole they are getting in at. Optiguard helps keep ants out of unwanted areas while you are waiting for the Termidor to do its job on the outside of your home.
You should only use the optiguard when ant activity is present.
Once you have put the optiguard out, get ready because in the next 15 minutes that clear gel you just put out can be covered in ants… Let Them Eat, don’t stop them this is a good thing. Just resist the urge to squish them, or spray them with Windex.
Here is a link to my recommended products page to see more about how to use Optiguard.
Summary
It is good to know how ants reproduce, find food, and communicate so that you may know how they work and the best way to get rid of them. I hope this article was able to help you understand behaviors so that you can keep them out of your home. Check out my Recommended Products Page to find out more about the places you should use these chemicals to eliminate ants.
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