Pest problems are many, but ant infestations take the day when it comes to the most common issues people face. The small size of the scavengers makes it easy for them to find their way into all kinds of premises including commercial and residential areas. They usually go looking for moisture and food sources. Ants feed on a number of things and this means that different things can end up attracting them. The most common attractions for them are damp wood or rotting wood that turns moldy, cheese, meats, sugar, grease, vegetables, dead insect and peanut butter and many others.
Ants can find their way into homes through small cracks around doors and windows, but they can also use any other way to enter into a home or a building. When they are inside where there is an abundance of food, the ant colony grows and it can turn problematic. This is especially considering that the juveniles mature into adults within a few days. To control the ants effectively, the first most important step should be to identify the species present at the facility. There are thousands of ant species and some require different approaches with the eradication for the best results to be achieved. Below are some of the most common ant species reported and found in the US.
Carpenter ants – These ants burrow into wood that is damp but they also have a reputation of damaging solid wood. The wood damage is not as a result of eating on it for food, but basically removal of parts of the wood to give way to a nest. They measure around five eighths inches in length.
Red imported fire ants – The fire ants can be different when it comes to size with the range being in between one-eighth to around three eighths inches. The stings administered by these ants are extremely painful and they are also responsible for the unsightly mounds of nests many properties have.
Pavement ants – These ants tend to build nests along or in pavement cracks hence their name. They are however very much capable of making infestations inside a building. They measure about one eighth inch in length.
Pharaoh ants – The pharaoh ants measure one sixteenth inch in length and they are very common in nursing homes and hospitals. Infestations in these sensitive areas are very serious because they could end up transmitting Pseudomonas and staphylococcus infections. Apart from the hospitals and nursing homes, these ants can also invade apartment building, restaurants and other kinds of dwellings.
When looking at ants, it is important to remember that there are species that have wings. These species are commonly mistaken to be termites, but they are actually ants. If there is a wrong identification, then the wrong treatment is done and it could fail to work on them. Compared to termites, ants have a midsection or thorax that is very narrow whereas the termites come in more uniformed bodies. For the best results with any ant infestations, it is best to let professional pest control technicians do the job.
