Ants are particularly troublesome when they come indoors and get into food. Once a few ants come indoors, hundreds more can quickly follow. Foraging ants will enter the house when outside conditions are extremely dry or wet. Colonies are large, often containing hundreds of queens. The queens and larvae form will eat the protein / grease combination almost exclusively, while the workers will eat the sugar based foods.

Ants are extremely mobile and will move colonies frequently. The use of quick kill, liquid residual repellant sprays or dusts may cause stress on the colonies, causing them to split into sub-colonies that scatter to other areas in the structure. This is called budding. Buyers should beware of over the counter pesticides. After spraying with such repellant pesticides, your problem can be worse than when your first noticed the ants. In addition to increased toxicity from the misuse of over the counter pesticides, colony budding is the reason why such pesticides should not be used, or in this case misused.

Baiting is the preferred treatment over typical residual spraying. When baiting, OBPC will use slow acting baits so that we will eliminate the entire colony. Quick kill insecticides will only kill the foraging ants, not allowing the foraging ants to take the bait back home to feed the queen, nest workers and brood. It is very important to remove any other food competition when baiting. Leave the ants & bait alone once the ants start feeding on it, give the foraging ants time to take the bait back home to feed the colony.

Ants generate strong pheromone trails when foraging for food. They can be easily tracked by other ants to locate a discovered food source, or in this case a bait. In many areas, you will see them pathing three and four abreast. An excellent article by Univ. of Florida Extension Service can be found at Ant Trails: Baiting. It gives an overview of management with baits.

New to the pest control industry are liquid and aerosol non repellent sprays. They are increasing in popularity because they have proven to be a reliable control method for ants and other insects. This innovative technology is undetectable, which means the ants cannot see, smell or taste the insecticide. As a result, the ants unknowingly acquire the chemical generally by contact with treated surfaces. Like baits, with these products, ants contacting the treatment are killed slowly enough to allow them to return to their colony, and transfer the chemical to other ants.

Once we obtain control, it is recommended that you continue outside treatments to insure that pest pressures are kept at a minimum which will prevent future ant colonies from invading your home.

Ant problems can be controlled using this approach because it is complete. It is very likely the ants will persist if all listed treatments are not done.

1. Baiting the inside
2. Treating the inside with a liquid non-repellant residual spray
3. Treating the outside foundation with a liquid non-repellent residual spray
4. Baiting the outside

1. Inspection & Consulting
2. Exclusion
3. Sealing cracks and crevices
4. Trapping
5. High population cleanout
6. Baiting
7. Residual treatments