Garden Ant
Biology
The swarming flight of the newly emerged males and females is a common sight on a hot sunny afternoon in July or August.
This flight is their mating flight and males and females mate whilst in the air. After a few days the males die off. The females bite off their wings and either return to the original colony or find a suitable location to over winter. Normally by digging a tunnel under a stone, here she will remain until the following spring before she commences to lay eggs.
These eggs will start the new nest, they hatch in about 28 days, during this time the new young queen rests. When the larvae hatch she feeds them. This stage lasts about 23 days until new workers hatch, these new workers then start to nurse the new larvae, search for food and tend to the queen.
The workers lay scent trails as they move to guide other workers to food, this is why you often see them “marching” in such an organized way, this process carries on until the next mating flight and everything starts again.
Disease and Economic Importance
These insects are not known to be direct carriers of any disease, but they can cause cross contamination by walking over infected areas.
For most householders intrusion of Black ants can be of great annoyance and if they find a suitable sweet food source they can ruin food by their presence within it. This can often be the case in care homes and hospitals where Black ants find sticky residues of fruit squash or bowls of boiled sweets. This sight often brings with it the impression that house keeping standards are not what they could be.
For the bakery or food shop the sight of ants crawling over cakes and biscuits can cause significant financial loss. Not many customers like to buy there afternoon treat with added protein!
Treatment
We have been involved in professional Black ant treatment in its various forms for over 10 years. During this time the main technique used was a barrier spray technique whereby a liquid insecticide was sprayed onto surfaces and would kill ants on contact.
Although every case is different and we do still sometimes use this technique, more and more we are using professional ant gel baits.
In the past there have been many various gel formulations available but until now we feel they have not been that successful. Now we have Maxforce Quantum available and the results have been fantastic.
Do not get this mixed up with anything you have seen for sale in supermarkets. As you can see from the photo which we took in the back garden when we tested the product, ants find it highly palatable, Maxforce Quantum’s unique non-drying formulation remains active for up to 3 months due to its exclusive bait matrix technology. Ants are drawn to the droplets to feed, before returning to their nest along with some of the droplet and subsequently eradicating the colony, suffice to say we have been extremely impressed with the results.
What we can offer you
Our professional pest control services include anything from the treatment and eradication of a wasp nest to a full commercial pest control and prevention contract.
Our Pest Control Contract Service will not only help to prevent a problem. With over a decade of experience you can be sure we will have the answer to your Pest Control needs.
Our Guarantee to you
The Price we give is the price you pay
We will give you an effective solution
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Help to prevent a problem
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How do I get rid of pests in my home?
Give PGNW a call today to see how we can remove any unwanted guests in your business.
We undertake Domestic Pest Control across the UK.