Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
control services for ants generally fall into
three categories: those willing to tolerate
some ants inside and outside the house as
long as the numbers are not a nuisance,
those who do not want any ants inside the
house, but will tolerate ants outside, and
those who do not want any ants on their
property. It is important for PMPs to gauge
the type of customer they are interacting
with in order to customize the management
plan to individual expectations. This can be
done either during the initial talk on the
phone or during the site visit. It may be
necessary for the PMP to change the
customer's threshold upwards, especially
for customers who have unrealistic expect-
ations about ant management. This includes
customers requesting guarantees on com-
plete ant elimination. It is important to
explain to the customers that such expect-
ations are unrealistic, expensive, potentially
harmful to the residents and the environ-
ment, and simply impossible to guarantee.
In addition, it is important to educate the
customers that not all ants are pests and that
eliminating all ants from the property may
result in a signifi cant increase in other
insect pests.
In most cases, complete ant elimination
can be achieved inside by using a com-
bination of sanitation, exclusion, habitat
modifi cation and chemicals. Such results
remain temporary, however, because it is
diffi cult to completely ant proof a structure
and it is likely that the ants may enter the
house. It is even more diffi cult to achieve
complete ant eradication outside and
attempts to do so should generally be
avoided. In most cases, a substantial reduc-
tion in ant numbers outside (ca. >75%
control) will result in a satisfactory level of
control inside. In summary, the PMP should
educate the customers about realistic
expectations regarding ant management and
should work with the customer to set a
realistic level of control. For example, a
realistic goal would be to keep ants out of
the house 80-90% of the time and for
approximately 3-4 months following the
treatment. It is also realistic to expect
80-90% reduction in ant counts (nests,
mounds, trails) outside the house assuming
a proper integrated pest management (IPM)
programme is in place.
Importance of exclusion and sanitation
Ants enter homes in search of one of three
things: food, water or nesting sites. Some
species of ants (e.g.
Linepithema humile
,
Tapinoma sessile
and
Monomorium
pharaonis
) are very mobile and will readily
move nests when disturbed or to take
advantage of new food sources or nesting
locations. Other ants (e.g.
Camponotus
pennsylvanicus
,
Tetramorium caespitum
and
Crematogaster cerasi
) typically invest
more time into permanent nest construction
and do not readily abandon nests or move
very frequently. Ants typically enter homes
in the winter when they look for places that
are warm and dry or in the summer when
they look for places that are cool and moist.
There are numerous day-to-day actions
that could be undertaken to eliminate
feeding and nesting resources, both inside
and outside a structure, and prevent ant
infestation. To remove food and water
sources, food spills should be wiped clean,
food stored in tightly sealed containers,
bottles and cans cleaned before storing for
recycling, access to pet food prevented and
rubbish bins placed away from the house.
To remove and discourage nesting sites, all
exterior entry points should be sealed,
rotten and damaged wood replaced, mulch
removed away from the foundation and
fi rewood stored away from the house.
Habitat modifi cation is also important in
preventing ants and should include
controlling insects that produce honeydew
on plants next to the house, trimming
vegetation away from the structure,
repairing leaking irrigation pipes, etc. In
suburban neighbourhoods that are densely
populated and harbour ants that have
extensive super colonies that may span
several houses (e.g. Argentine ants, odorous
house ants or fi re ants) it may be necessary
to engage in a community-wide approach to
control ants. In such situations, individual
house treatments are only temporarily
effective and re-infestations from nearby
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