PAVEMENT ANTS

Pavement ants are small and as their name indicates, they make their nests under pavement. The nests are easily recognizable due to the small sand mounds found on the ground near cracks or on the grass. Pavement ants are very active at the end of the spring and at the beginning of the summer. Pavement ants are light brown with a clearer appendix than the rest of their body. They measure from 2.5 mm to 3 mm, have a small waist and angled antennas. They also have parallel lines on their heads and thorax.

Development and morals

Ants are social insects that live in colonies and their favorite food is aphid honeydew. They also feed of live and dead insects, flower nectar and all other sweet organic materials found in their reach. They make their nests in sandy soil whether in grass and other surfaces. Multiple small craters topped with fine openings are visible from the outside of an ant’s nest. Ants will use cracks found at the bottom of building foundations to infiltrate themselves inside and this, most often after abundant rainfall.

Recommendations

If the presence of ants manifests itself near your home, have the visible nests treated on your property. By excavating the sand under your landscaping and paving stones, ants end up creating inequalities under the blocks. It frequently happens that they try to penetrate buildings in search of water and food, causing problems necessitating the intervention of a technician in pest control. Most of the time, ant colony growth can be destroyed by treating the exterior of a building with the help of bait that is not harmful to the environment. Contact us to obtain a free estimate.

Carpenter ants

Carpenter ants live within ant hills where a strict organizational society of hierarchy rules. Within these are found queens and working ants with males having each a role and a different physiognomy. The queen distinguishes herself as being the biggest insect within the colony, as where the working ants have a morphology that vary depending their function. Due to this, it’s very hard to identify the ant species that is infesting your home based upon size.

Development and morals

When it comes to Carpenter ants, only one queen is found within a colony. It all starts with a massive flight of sexual adults which will mate in flight, in what is called a swarming. After having mated, the female will become a queen, lose her wings and will look for the perfect place to lay her first eggs: a dead tree, a rotten tree stump or place inside of a building. It’s important to mention that carpenter ants are not xylophage insects, they don’t eat wood. They carve galleries in order to create colonies, principal or satellite (without a queen).

For a colony to reach its full maturity, a minimum period of three years is required. It’s than composed of a minimum of 2000 working ants. The queen reproduces at the end of every summer, sexed and winged insects that will, in their turn, be destined to start a new colony.

Carpenter ants carve their nests in places favorable to their expansion like insulating urethane panels or pieces of wood which the density was affected by humidity, in turn allowing them to carving galleries.

A house can be infested by ants by four different ways:

• A queen arrived in your home and founded a new colony;
• A colony or the portion of a colony migrated after a major stress;
• Material containing ants, like firewood, was introduced inside the house;
• A satellite nest was formed without a queen. This is the most frequent cause within Québec.

Recommendations:

• Conduct a thorough survey to discover the location of the nest.
• Modify the conditions that are favorable to the proliferation of carpenter ants; eliminate all rotten or infested wood around the building.
• If necessary, remedy problems related to water infiltration, for, this damages wood structures.
• Conserve all foods within sealed containers.
• If ants come from outside to feed within a building, a seasonal exterior intervention can resolve the problem. In the event ants are present within your home, a plan that will consider the environment and the security of the inhabitants will be established with a technician from Extermination Leblanc. Contact us now for a free quote.