Question: Can you eliminate my ants with one treatment?
Answer: Sometimes yes! The problem with ants is that, depending on the colony type, can store up to six months of food inside their colony! Reproductive ants never leave the nest but the workers do. These worker ants are the ones we encounter on our kitchen counters and bathtubs. After a treatment the workers will stop taking food back to the nest. If the nest is inside the house then the reproductive ants can hide out inside the nest and create more workers until the residual chemical has stopped working. Then the new workers will be ready to resupply the colony with fresh food and water.
Question: I think I have fire ants living in my house. They bite me all the time. Can you help?
Answer: For starters, all ants bite. This is a defense mechanism to protect the colony. Fire ants have been moving into the northern states but still pose most of their threat in the south. Florida, Texas and the Carolinas are where they reside mostly. They have not really gotten a good foot hold in Virginia yet. The most common type of ant that invades a home, sets up a colony, and bites those who get close are Acrobat Ants. Acrobat ants are a very small carpenter ant. While these ants do live in the wood, they normally do not pose a structural threat. They can normally be eliminated with a regular pest control service.
Question: I think I have ants in my wall, I can hear them chewing. I was told I need to make holes in my wall to kill them! Can you help me?
Answer: Yes. These are probably carpenter ants. Chewing noises can be wood bore beetles but most of the time when a customer calls me out on a job, I find an ant infestation. With a regular pest control service these pests can be eliminated WITHOUT opening the walls of the home. As mentioned earlier, ants store food that can last them for many months. If a pest control service is performed in a regular manner these insects can be starved out of the wall and will eventually vanish.
Question: A friend told me I can use tea tree oil, peppermint oils and pepper to eliminate my ants myself. Does this work?
Answer: Quite a few people have approached me with this question. So many people are worried about an increase of chemicals in their home and would like to eliminate as many as they can. While peppermint oils and other natural remedies may seem to work, they are actually aggravating the problem. I have been to many homes where the nest was forced into other rooms of the house because of irritating chemicals and remedies tried by the home owner. The ants were only in the kitchen at first but after trying home remedies, they ended up forcing the ants into many rooms that they never would have been in if they had called me first. While our technicians can use natural methods to eliminate ants, chemical methods will work much faster and to the customer’s satisfaction. With natural methods expect longer knock down and elimination.
Question: I have flying ants swarming out of my walls! Are these termites?
Answer: After an inspection of the insects swarming we can better judge if these are termites or ants. Subterranean Termites do swarm JUST LIKE ANTS. The main differences between termites and ants are, ants are insects so they have a 3 segmented body; Termites have only a head and body. Flying termites are always black, never red or brown and they also lose their wings when they swarm; Ants keep their wings the duration of their lives and they are all sorts of colors, red, brown and black.
Question: I sat a soda on my table and in 5 minutes it was covered with ants. Is my problem out of control?
Answer: Ants send scouts after food and water but in cases where the food is covered by ants in only minutes of being sat down, this is usually a sign of an ant trail nearby. For example; if a soda is sat on a coffee table one can check under the lip of the table for a trail of ants. These trails can be eliminated with a regular pest control service.
- Other Sites with Information on Ants :
- Virginia Tech. Identification of Ants
- Sites with Information on Termites:
- Virginia Tech. : Subterranean Termites
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