/24-7PressRelease/ - UNIVERSITY PARK, PA, May 16, 2008 - With arrival of spring and warmer temperatures comes an influx of unwanted pests into your home. One of the most common home invaders this time of year is ants. How do you keep them out? By removing the conditions that attract them in the first place and allow them to enter.
Most ants live in colonies underground. Because ants are "cold-blooded" they are inactive in the winter, yet in the early spring, the queen of the colony begins to lay eggs in preparation for building up her work force for the summer. By the time temperatures warm up in May, there is a nest full of hungry larvae! All the worker ants, who are sisters, must obey the queen and find food. They fan out in all directions and when one ant finds something good (like in your sink!), she leaves a chemical trail back to the nest so all her sisters can find it too. So . . . how do you get rid of them if they found your food?
Step One: Pest Identification
Detecting and positively identifying the ants will help you decide on a plan of action. It can also help determine how severe the problem is.
• Pavement ants are one of many species of small nuisance ants that occasionally invade homes. They are 1/16 to 1/8 inch long, and light to dark brown.
• Carpenter ants are ¼ to ½ inches long, shiny dark brown to black, can be destructive to homes and require different tactics than household nuisance ants.
Step Two: Prevention
By eliminating what is attracting ants, such as food, water and shelter, you can get long-term control and avoid the need to use pesticides, which generally provides only short-term results.
• Watch the ants to see where they are entering your home. Prevent ants from entering your home by sealing off all cracks and crevices around windows, baseboards, doors, wires and pipes with silicone caulking on the interior and exterior surfaces.
• Eliminate sources of food and water - repair water leaks, clean up all spills and crumbs, and don't leave snacks or pet food out overnight.
Step Three: Control
• Follow ant trails to see where they are entering your home and what they are after. Wipe up ant trails inside your home with soapy water or vinegar and water.
• A vacuum cleaner can also be used to catch ants in hard to reach places. Be sure to discard or empty the vacuum bag to prevent the pests from escaping later.
• Avoid using foggers, sprays and dusts - you can't control where the chemicals go, and you are more likely to increase the risks of human exposure. These products can also trigger asthma.
• If you use a pesticide, choose the least-toxic products by reading the active ingredients on the label. Pesticides with boric acid, insect growth regulators (hydroprene), diatomaceous earth or botanical essentail oils listed on the label are generally less toxic if used carefully and according to label directions.
• Use enclosed, tamper-proof bait traps that mix food with the pesticide. Workers will carry the pesticide/food mixture back to the nest and feed the queen, thus killing the colony. Choose baits containing hydramethylnon, boric acid, fipronil, sulfluramid or abamectin.
• Using the wrong product for the type of pests you have may result in risks to your health without any benefit of ant control.
For more information on controlling ants and other pests, visit the PA IPM Program's Pest Problem Solver at
http://paipm.cas.psu.edu/452.htm.
The Pennsylvania IPM program is a collaboration between the Pennsylvania State University and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture aimed at promoting integrated pest management in both agricultural and urban settings. For more information, contact the program at (814) 865-2839, or Web site http://www.paipm.org. To view our archived news releases, see Web site http://paipm.cas.psu.edu/10.htm.
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