Tag Archives: ant

Spring has Sprung

Spring is here, which means so is everything (or everyone) that comes with it. We’ve mentioned these months being the mating season for various wildlife, but we have yet to touch on the creepy-crawlies that decide to make their way out of hiding as the snow dissipates.

When pests wake up in spring, they’re hungry, thirsty, and ready to find mates. To make up for their long winter’s nap, they tend to enthusiastically pursue these activities. Their valiant pursuits create problems that are all-too-common this time every year. Here are the most common pests you’re bound to encounter this spring, what they’re up to, and the challenges they cause.

Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs (BMSB)

During the fall, BMSB’s desperately seek out any warm place where they can hunker down for the winter. Once they find their spot, they become dormant until temperatures rise back up to survivable levels. Once this happens, they wake up with a one-track mind: mating. In their earnest attempts to get back outdoors, however, they tend to get trapped inside.Luckily for homeowners, BMSB’s don’t nest or reproduce indoors, bite, or spread disease. True to their name, however, they do stink. When threatened, BMSB’s secrete a foul-smelling substance from a particular scent gland. The scent is reminiscent of rotten vegetables. These smelly secretions can also leave behind a dark yellow stain on carpets, furniture, and window sills.

Boxelder Bugs

Starting in the early fall, boxelder bugs seek out warm, dry places where they can wait out the winter months. Unfortunately, those ideal places often include homes. When spring makes its appearance, boxelders become active again to reproduce and find newly rejuvenated food sources. When this happens, they vacate their winter hideaways in droves. If they were overwintering in your home, you’re going to run into them again in spring.

Boxelder bugs are a nuisance, but like BMSB’s, they’re not dangerous. Boxelders spread disease, don’t bite, lay eggs indoors, or eat fabrics or stored foods. Instead, they vacate the premises to seek flowers and the seeds of trees such as, you guessed it, the boxelder. The nuisance part comes from the quantity you may notice as they vacate. Boxelder excretions can also stain window ledges and other favored areas.

Pavement Ants

The short but very active pavement ant mating season begins in late spring. During which you may notice swarms of larger-than-average, reddish-black ants moving in alarmingly large groups, called clusters. After mating, the ants lay eggs in the tight crevices of pavement (aptly named). When young pavement ants emerge, they begin to look for a food source almost immediately.

In the home, pavement ants are most often encountered in swarms in your kitchen. They break down and carry off many types of stored food, especially sugars and grains. When food is available, they tend to linger. It’s not uncommon to find an ant infestation in pantries, cabinets, cupboards—anywhere food is readily available. They indeed will attack whatever they can get their mandibles on. Unlike other pests on this list, they tend to stay active as long as they’re warm and have food.

Carpenter Ants

During spring, these infamous wood-infesting ants come marching in to nest and search for water. Carpenter ant infestations tend to be the most noticeable at the beginning of the season. Starting in mid-spring, the reproductive carpenter ant castes swarm to seek mates and start new colonies. After mating, queen ants find ideal places to lay eggs. These eggs hatch into worker ants, and the infestation begins.

Carpenter ants are a problem because they colonize in wood. The tunnels they bore can compromise the structural integrity of wood products. Carpenter ants don’t eat the wood they infest like termites. Instead, they hunt for sources of sugar and protein. You may find forager ants in your basement, kitchen, or garden. Keep a close eye out for swarmers (winged) in particular. If you notice these flying ants in your home, chances are their nest is also inside your home.

Spring is always a lovely, refreshing time of year–, especially after the brutal Michigan winters. Don’t let any of these pests ruin that new-season bliss for you. If you need any help combating an infestation so you can enjoy the beautiful parts of spring, give us a call. We can deal with the dirty work so you can enjoy the rest.

Citronella Ants

During the late summer and fall and also in late winter/early spring months, the invasion of flying yellow or reddish-brown to black ants is common. Also known as citronella ants, the winged female swarmers are golden-yellow while the males are black. Their nickname is the citronella ant because when crushed or alarmed, it gives off a pronounced citronella or lemon verbena-like odor. Homeowners often fear that these 3.0 mm to 5.0 mm long-winged insects are termites. However, in most cases, they are usually reproductives of either the smaller or larger yellow ant.

Although there is one species of subterranean termite living in Michigan that will swarm in the fall months, most termite swarms are active March to late May. This necessitates knowing the difference between the flying ants and flying termite species.

Antennae: Termites have beaded antennae similar to keychains; flying ants have elbowed antennae with the bend at or near the middle.
Wings: Termites have four wings, all equally lengthed and almost twice the length of their thorax. Though ants also have four wings, their hind wings are shorter than the front wings and are not twice the body length. Also, ant wings have prominent wing venation. The wings of termites have no prominent veins and resemble milk glass.
Body shape: Ants have a three-segmented body, with their waists constricting like an hourglass between each segment. Flying termites have two body segments without the constricted waist.
In most instances, termites shed their wings shortly after swarming.

Habits

Citronella ants typically nest outside next to foundations or under concrete or wooden slabs. They survive almost exclusively on honeydew, which is a sweet material made by root-feeding mealybugs or aphids. Therefore, workers seldom invade homes or structures in search of food in contrast to many other ant species. However, they may cause problems by pushing dirt through cracks in foundations and slabs. The winged yellow ants can and do cause concern when flying into living quarters, creating a termite-like fright. Also, a very large number of yellow ant reproductives (with wings) and the smaller workers (without wings) may congregate on the side of a building on a mild fall to an early spring day, which can also cause a scare.

Tips for Control

Colonies do not require professional pest control unless the swarmers enter a home or structure. Even in these cases, treatment may not be possible because it is difficult to know precisely where the colony is located beneath the structure. Sealing all cracks in the floor where the swarmers enter can stop the swarm from entering a home or building, but the ants will likely find other cracks. Any treatment of extreme cases will involve drilling and treating beneath the slab, thus requiring the services of an experienced professional.

What’s That Smell?

Have you ever noticed tiny ants congregating on a droplet of melted ice cream that has fallen to the ground? Those tiny ants are known as ‘sweet ants’ or ‘sugar ants’ because their affinity for all things saccharine. The technical name for these ants is the ‘odorous house’ ant, and they are most commonly found in the kitchen snacking on sugary substances. These ants won’t cause any damage to the home, unlike carpenter ants and acrobats ants, but they are a nuisance insect that licensed pest control professionals can eradicate.

How To Identify

The odorous house ant does not get its name from a foul smell, per se. For instance, if you have discovered a trail of ants in your home, you will not notice any odor emitted. To an untrained eye, the species of ant does not have any physical traits that set them apart from others right away. They do look similar to pavement ants, but their bodies only have one node as opposed to two. Due to their size, this can be difficult to distinguish at first glance.

To properly identify an odorous house ant (this is actually something we pest control professionals always do), you can crush one between your thumb and index finger. If the crushed ant smells like coconut, then you know for certain that it is an odorous house ant! You read that right, the odorous house ants smell shockingly similar to rotting coconuts. This scent is actually a chemical compound that is very similar to those emitted by rotting food— more specifically, the penicillin mold that causes food to rot.

Diet

Odorous house ants particularly enjoy carbohydrate-rich materials, such as plant nectar, honeydew from aphids, and sweet human foods. As a result, these ants tend to invite themselves to picnics and into kitchens. However, their saccharine-loving ways can also lead them to their demise; in most cases, odorous house ants respond well to sugar-based baits if they do find their way in to your kitchen.

Odorous house ant will essentially nest anywhere. They create large colonies that usually split into sub-colonies, often making them difficult to control and eliminate. If you notice odorous house ants in your home, it is important that you do not attempt to self-treat. Many store-bought products will simply deter the ants, which forces them to take an alternative route. This only displaces the ants rather than eliminating them.

Many forms of self-treating often affect large quantities of ants at once; however, they do not affect the rest of the ants living in the colony. If your DIY fast-acting spray kills the first, unsuspecting victims that it touches, the other ants will take notice to the spike in mortality rate and re-route to a new food source. This food source will always be near water; in kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry rooms.

Takeaway Tips:

To identify an odorous house ant, squash the ant between your fingers; it should smell like coconut.
We advise that customers DO NOT attempt to spray or treat odorous house ants with store-bought products. Spraying will cause budding and make the problem much worse and harder to deal with.

The key to eliminating an odorous house ant colony is a professional pest control treatment. If you have been noticing ants inside of your home, don’t hesitate to reach out. We have been eliminating issues with these ants for 25 years, so give us a call today!

Sources

Liesch, P. “Identifying Insects by Smell, Part 2: Odorous House Ants.” Insect Diagnostic Lab, UW Madison Department of Entomology, 24 Apr. 2019, labs.russell.wisc.edu/insectlab/2019/04/24/identifying-insects-by-smell-part-2-odorous-house-ants/.