Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
7
Products and Strategies for Nuisance
Urban Ant Management
Grzegorz Buczkowski
1
* and Changlu Wang
2
1
Purdue University, USA;
2
Rutgers University, USA
Introduction
ation and diversity and play important roles
in most ecosystems. Numerous ant species
are, however, also considered pests. These
ants are adapted to live inside or around
structures or in disturbed environments.
The dominant species vary from region to
region, and 'tramp ants' have a worldwide
distribution.
Ants are the most frequent and persistent
pests around homes and buildings. Although
ants play a benefi cial role in natural
environments, ants in or around structures
are undesirable because they are a nuisance
when present in large numbers, build
unsightly mounds, damage and contaminate
food, cause structural damage, and also
infl ict painful stings. Ants will continue to
be challenging pests in the future and their
ecological and economic importance may
increase with the global rise in urbanization,
transportation and travel.
Ants are one of the most successful
among insects and they thrive in most
ecosystems on earth, including urban areas.
The success of ants is attributed to their
social organization, their ability to modify
habitats and build intricate nests, highly
variable feeding and nesting habits, and the
ability to defend colonies. In most eco-
systems, ants are typically the fi rst insect,
and often the fi rst organism, that one
encounters. Indeed, ants are highly ubiqui-
tous and present on every continent except
Antarctica. Living ants are classifi ed into 21
subfamilies, 283 genera and approximately
11,700 ant species (Bolton, 2003). They
display remarkable adaptation, specializ-
Ants as Urban Pests
Urban pest ants are typically a mixture of
native and exotic (invasive) species. They
obtain their pest status by appearing in
homes and structures, contaminating food
and equipment, damaging plants directly or
indirectly, or by stinging people and
animals. This has made ant control a steady
revenue source for the pest control industry.
In the USA alone, ant control generates an
estimated US$1.7 billion annually (Curl,
2005). Their pest status depends on the
region, season of the year, where they occur
and the numbers. The single most econom-
ically important ant in the USA is probably
the red imported fi re ant,
Solenopsis invicta
.
The annual expenditure for fi re ant
management in fi ve metropolitan areas in
Texas totalled more than $581 million
(Salin
et al.
, 2000).
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