Ant Control Services

Ant Colonies

Ant colonies can number from 300,000 to 500,000, and whole colonies can uproot and relocate quickly when threatened.

A colony can live a relatively long lifetime, with worker ants living up to seven years. The queens can live as long as 15 years. Ants leave an invisible chemical trail which contains pheromones for other ants to follow once they locate a food source.

They can enter through even the tiniest cracks, seeking out water and sweet or greasy food substances in the kitchen pantry or storeroom areas.

With their ability to live long lives and proliferate quickly, and the fact that there are a total of 270 different species of ants in the area, they are a fact of life in California. To control them you will need to  get expert ant control services.

Ant Life Cycle

The ant life cycle has four distinct and very different life stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. The completion of all the stages is known as complete metamorphosis.

It generally takes several weeks to several months to complete the life cycle, depending upon the ant species and environmental factors.

Egg

A female ant that successfully mates with a male ant will become a queen ant that lays eggs. Fertile queens select a sheltered place to begin a nest (colony) and begin laying eggs.

Ant eggs are very small – only about a half-millimeter in diameter. The eggs are also oval, white and transparent.

Larva

After about one to two weeks in the egg stage, a grub-like, legless ant larvae hatches.

This stage has a voracious appetite, and the adult ants spend much of their time feeding the larvae with food and liquids they digest and regurgitate. After the larvae molt and shed their skin, they change into the pupal stage.

Pupa

Pupae appear somewhat like adults except their legs and antennae are folded and pressed against the pupal body. Initially, ant pupae are usually white, but slowly become darker in color as they age.

Depending upon the ant species, pupae may be housed in a protective cocoon. Once the pupal stage is complete, the adult ant comes on the scene.

Adult

At the time of emergence, the adult ant is fully grown, but darkens in color as it ages. Adult ants are in one of three different colony castes: queens, workers or males.

Queens are fertile females that lay all the eggs in a colony. Workers are females that do not reproduce, but do gather food, feed the larvae, and maintain and clean the nest.

Workers are wingless, and it is the worker ants that are seen foraging around for food or defending the colony from intruders. Male ants are winged and their only job in the colony is to mate with the queen during the swarming process.

As mentioned previously, the first step in eliminating an ant infestation in your home is to identify the species of ant present.

Once our trained and state-licensed technicians have obtained an understanding of the biology and feeding habits of the type of ant(s) present in your home, he/she will be able to provide a proper diagnosis and treatment plan to fit your situation.

Diagnosis and Plan of Ant Control Services

When presenting a plan for ant control in your home, your technician will present you with a plan that will accomplish two main goals:

1) keep ants away from you, your family and your pets

2) control the source (colony) of the ant infestation for long-term results

Ant Control Products Used

The products that your technician will include in your customized treatment program may include the use of sprays, gels and baits.

Regardless of the products chosen, an Accurate Termite and Pest Control technician will never recommend or use products in or around your home that have not been properly registered and cleared for use in residential and living spaces.

The actual product types are chosen carefully by your technician depending on the products’ active ingredients and label. Failure to consider which products will work best to control the ant species infesting your home may result in the counterproductive effect of having the ants go on alert and split the colony into multiple satellite colonies.

This is a major risk and weakness of blanket one-size-fits-all ant-control treatment programs.

Social Killers for Ant Control

Your technician will likely include products that have residuals or long half-lives in nature. These products are typically known as “social killers,” meaning they do not have the kill-on-contact effect of poisons and products typically found over the counter.

They are designed to be picked up by the target ant and be shared with the colony. This may mean that you may still see minimal exterior, and possibly interior, ant traffic for one to two weeks following your initial treatment as it takes time for enough ants to pick up, travel, and share the product with the colony.

Though a few ant sightings here and there may be uncomfortable, be assured that your technician has chosen a product that

(1) does not expose your home and family to noxious kill-on-contact products

(2) the product being used will produce more desirable long-lasting results as it is working to control the source of the infestation.