A Brief History Of Ants Farms

How to Get Rid of Ants

While there are wide range of do-it-yourself products available in the market to get rid of ants, an effective control requires a professional pest control service to manage the infestation and minimise recurrence. Our service technicians understand the habits of different types of ant and can offer discreet and targeted ant control

Identify Your Pest

Have you put down food on the dining table and moments later only to find the food being attacked by a swarm of ants? If you have experienced this before, it is highly possible that your home or work place is infested with ants!

While the warning signs of an ant infestation are usually quite obvious such as with the presence of ants itself, ant trials and having ants found in food supplies, they are all easy-to-spot signs for home owners. With the presence of ants or ant nests, they are abe to grow in number over time, becoming a colony. The number of ant trials along different areas in the same kitchen could be seen increasingly more as they travel to and from their food source in an organised manner

Ants are social insects living in colonies. Foraging ants come out in the early morning and early evening when the temperature outside is not very high. Food and water is key to the colony survival. Knowing the common ants species is important as you understand the biology and behaviour of certain species to carry out an effective ant control.

Choose Your Method

DIY or Professional?

When it comes to getting rid of ants, you have two basic options: DIY or hire a professional.

The DIY option requires the purchase of ant spray from your local home store. Insecticide spray is the most common ant control item for a household. The usage of an insecticide spray should work together with good sanitation. DIY spraying of insecticide may kill some foraging ants which happen to be out of the nest and disrupt the ant trials temporarily.

How to Choose an Ant Control Provider

Ants are incredibly annoying to deal with. You see one crawling in your kitchen, then you see another scurrying across your dining room table. At this point, you’re probably wondering how to keep ants away!

We’ll be the first to tell you that there are many ant control tips and tricks on the internet. Now, do they work? That’s up for debate, but the pest experts are committed to making sure your ant control issues are handled swiftly and safely.

Integrated Pest Management or IPM is an effective yet environmentally sensitive approach to pest control that uses a combination of common sense practices to remove pests, like ants, and prevent them from returning in the future.

Proven Ant Repellents & Deterrents

Certain species of ants require specific ant repellents and deterrents in order for the ant colony to be exterminated. Your pest specialist should be trained to identify ants and locate their colony so the source of your ant infestation will be targeted during our treatment process.

Proactive Ant Control

The most effective way to keep ants away from your home or business is with the help of the pro. Our preventative treatments are strategically applied throughout your property so you will get the most out of our professional pest control treatment.

Choosing the Proper Ant Bait

You arrive at a home to do a routine service and the customer lets you know they’ve been seeing ants inside. Depending on where you are located, the offending ants could be one of several to many different species. You’ll need to identify the ant because the type or species of ant will determine your approach to inspection and treatment.

Is the ant a soil- or wood-nesting ant or is it opportunistic in nest site selection? Is it a type that is polydomous (many nest sites) or polygynous (many queens)? Is it a species that will respond to baits well enough to affect control? Soil nesting ants will be found near ground level while wood-nesters typically associate with moist wood. Opportunistic species that are polydomous and polygynous are the most difficult ants to control due to the widespread nature of their infestations around structures

The fastest way to control ants is finding and treating the ant colony or colonies directly which with polydomous species is easier said than done. In most all cases, most of the infestation originates from outside with possible satellite colonies indoors. Even with Pharaoh ants which are primarily nesting indoors, a great deal of foraging is done on the outside of a building.

You’ve identified the ant involved and done your inspection. If you’re dealing with Pharaoh ants and maybe rover ants, you should head straight for the ant baits. For other types of ants, you should first attempt to find and treat the colonies involved and use ant baits as a supplement to treatment. If the colony has been difficult to locate or with a hard-to-solve case, then ant baits become the key tool to select.

Many times, ants may start feeding on a bait then, after a short time, begin ignoring the bait. Ant colonies also have different nutritional needs at different times of the year or by preference. For these reasons, it is a good practice to offer ants two or more different baits, including types of formulations to find out which the target ants prefer. For example,  you might offer a drop of 2 different gel baits and 1 or 2 different granular baits. Whichever the ants prefer, give them more of that bait.

Preparing for Pest Ant Control Service

You’re seeing ants trailing across your kitchen floor or found them in droves in the bathroom. What can you do? There are a number of DIY options to get rid of ants, or you can choose to use a pest control service. If you opt for the latter, you’ll get the best results if you know what to expect from the service and you take some simple steps to get ready for the extermination. This will not only make it easier for the pest control pros to do their job, but it also will improve the chances of eliminating the ants entirely.

Professional Ant Control Services

Today’s professional pest control operators (PCOs) often use gel bait insecticides to control and eliminate small ants from homes. This requires the placement of small beads of gel bait, primarily in areas where ants have been seen feeding or trailing. The bait may be placed on small pieces of cardboard or another type of holder, or it may be contained inside an ant bait station.

Preparing for Ant Control Service

Prior to arriving at your home, PCOs typically provide you with a specific list of preparation steps for you to complete. The following steps are some of the most common requests or recommendations made by PCOs (you can take the same steps prior to using any over-the-counter pest control products yourself). Failing to prepare your home could make a treatment unsafe or lead to reinfestation of the entire home or building. For these reasons, many PCOs will not treat areas that are not prepared to their specifications.

After the Pest Control Service

Some common steps to be followed after an ant service has been performed (or if you are placing ant bait yourself):

Be patient. Because baits do not immediately kill the ants, it can take time for the results to be obvious. Rest assured that baiting is the best way to eliminate the entire nest of ants.

While the baits are taking effect, do not spray any insecticides or kill ants that you see, as they need to continue to feed to take the poison back to the colony.

Avoid using strong cleaners near the ant bait. This would eliminate the ant pheromone trail that the ants are using to find the bait.

Do not disturb ants that are heading to or away from the bait, or eating it. If ants are seen in areas where no bait has been placed, you can move a bait placement that the ants are not consuming over to this area.

Tips on Selecting Pest Control Services

Why Select Pest Control Services?

People vary in their tolerance for pests that periodically invade our homes and cause us some level of discomfort. The need for monthly, quarterly or yearly pest control services is a matter of your personal preference and your perception of what is (and is not) a problem. Ultimately, the decision on whether you need a routine pest control service is a matter of what you feel is needed to make your home a comfortable and relatively “pest-free” environment.

Although you may prefer a “do-it-yourself” approach to pest control, there are situations where the job is best left in the hands of a pest management professional (PMP). This is particularly true with wood-destroying insects such as termites, carpenter ants, and wood-boring beetles. Treatments for these pests can be complex and expensive, depending upon the size of the home, the type of construction, and the extent of the problem. We cannot endorse specific pest control companies, but we can offer some tips to help you reach an informed decision on the type of service you need or want. The emphasis here is on solving specific problems, particularly for wood-destroying pests, but the same general principles apply to regular service contracts for other common household pests, such as cockroaches and ants. Becoming an informed educated consumer is the best way to protect yourself and to make sure you get the kind of service you need and want. Here are some issues to consider when deciding what type of service you need or want.

There are three phases or types of licenses based on the type of work or pest involved:

P-phase – covers household pest control (cockroaches, ants, spiders, etc.) both indoors and outside. P-phase also includes vertebrates such as mice and rats.

W-phase – covers wood-destroying pests (such as termites, powderpost beetles, etc.) Individuals with W-phase licenses also perform WDIRs (the so-called “termite inspections” for residences being sold).

F-phase – covers pests in both the P and W phases, but it specifically involves the use of a fumigant. Please note that a fumigant is not the same thing as a fogger (“bug bomb”) that you can buy in many retail stores. Fumigation involves the use of special (and highly toxic) gasses that are released into structures that have been completely sealed or enclosed under a tarpaulin.

The removal/exclusion of vertebrate animals, such as snakes, raccoons and bats from houses is usually done by wildlife damage control agents (WDCAs). However, WDCA’s cannot apply pesticides (e.g, to get rid of fleas that may be the result of a raccoon or oppossum in the house). Many WDCAs work for pest control companies or they are licensed in structural pest control so they can perform any necessary insecticide treatments

all pest control companies must have at least one licensed individual (licensee) on their staff. The other employees work under that licensee’s supervision. Details about these categories can be found at the NCDA&CS website. License numbers have 3-4 digits followed by letters that designate which phases or types of pest control the company employees are allowed to perform. For example, a company (licensee) with a license number “9999PWF” is able to provide all phases pest control services. On the other hand, a company with the license number “9999P” can perform pest control for household pests (such as those mentioned above), but they cannot perform any treatments for termites or other wood-destroying pests, even if the treatments are applied indoors, rather than to the soil. Make sure that the company with whom you deal has a valid license issued by the NCDA&CS to provide the service you need. All employees of the company who sell pest control contracts or perform pest control services must have an identification cards issued by the NCDA&CS. This card will have their employer’s SPC license number on it. Under NCDA&CS rules, the company’s name or its SPC license number must be displayed on both sides of every service vehicle. Vehicles used strictly by company sales representatives are not required to carry these markings, although most companies do as a form of advertising). Whether or not the vehicle is marked, ask to see the person’s identification card as proof of his/her employment with an authorized pest control company. If he/she cannot produce a valid identification card, you should contact the NCDA&CS.