An Ode To An Ant, The 'One-Node' White-Footed Ant

"Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise.” This counsel by King Solomon is well founded. (How did he know ants were a female society?)

Unlike humans, these hymenopterans cooperate with each other in perfect harmony. Each individual works as a cell in a huge megaorganism, selflessly performing her allotted task, caring for larvae, transporting eggs to nurseries that were constructed by other ants and carrying helpless larvae to new sites as often as needed based upon the availability of various food and water resources. They also feed the queens, ward off enemies and forage for food (especially sweets) to satisfy the colony’s “sweet tooth.” This they get from the “honeydew” produced by aphids, mealybugs and scale insects. When needed, they get their protein for egg production from an abundance of recently dead arthropods found in the soil. With such a diverse menu at their disposal, it is no wonder that their fickle tastes confound the PCO who is anxious to have them consume a single type of bait product. Can you imagine a restaurant with only one item on the menu?

The white-footed ant is known for producing huge colonies of more than a million individuals. These “supercolonies” — often composed of dozens of interconnected satellite colonies — contain hundreds of queens and thousands of intercaste reproductives. Peculiar to this species, the intercastes (a kind of “warrant officer”?) lay eggs that can hatch into sterile workers. Some of their eggs, along with eggs of the queens and workers, are “trophic” eggs and are used for food for non-foraging ants. More information about the white-footed ant can be found in the second edition of Stoy Hedges’ Field Guide for the Management of Structure-Infesting Ants, available from PCT magazine.

MY OWN FIELD TESTING. Because I am surrounded year-round by so many active colonies of white-footed ants (along with other species) in my Deerfield Beach, Fla.-condo, I volunteered to test a new bait for Stanley Baker, president of J.T. Eaton & Co. Inc. The bait contains 1% boric acid, potentiated with caffeine in a syrup base. It is called Dr. Moss’s Liquid Ant Bait. I also agreed to participate in the field trial so I could help Kenny Steinlage, the PCO in charge of controlling various turf and household pests in our 950-acre Century Village condo complex. He had all but given up hope of controlling this new ant invader. He was only too happy to try anything that would help reduce his callbacks for white-footed ant control.

In his first test, Steinlage found columns of ants feeding on the bait steadily for a week before stopping. But after two weeks, they showed up again. Then, he kept several 4-ounce jars of the bait available at favored sites. He found no dead ants at the feeding site, unlike other sweet liquid baits. This is probably because the low level of boric acid in the product allows more time for the foragers to distribute the toxic bait. While this ant may be seen dragging a dead insect to its nest for protein, it also has a sweet tooth. It constantly attends to aphids, mealybugs and scale insects for their secretions. Because Dr. Moss’s Liquid Ant Bait kills so slowly, the ants have plenty of time for horizontal transfer before they die. The only ones that die at the feeding site are those with a gaster so swollen and heavy they get trapped in the syrup. A new delivery system is being de-veloped to overcome this problem.

It is our hope that while the foragers represent only a small percentage of the colony, with time and patience, the population may be eliminated. To achieve such an ambitious goal, it is important for the PCO to change bait placements frequently since ants are nomadic and readily move their nest in search of better resources. (Note: It’s a Myth Conception that the absence of ants is always due to the PCO’s efforts.) By having several jars of this new bait placed in various locations monthly (or more often with very mature colonies), the white-footed ant and other multiple-queen species may be controlled. Steinlage found the bait also was attractive to ghost ants, crazy ants, fire ants and carpenter ants.

CONTROL IS DIFFICULT. In my own apartment building, I was able to control a satellite colony of white-footed ants in a bedroom with the new bait. However, in an infestation on the terrace where a sheffalera tree was touching the building, the ants continued to feed on the bait after two weeks. A 4-ounce jar placed at the foot of the tree was visited by the ants, but with too many mouths to feed, the foragers still kept coming as of mid-February. It is my hope that by placing one or more containers with several ounces of bait at known sites of white-footed ant activity outdoors, some measure of interior control will be possible if a supply of fresh bait is maintained.

It’s not just the white-footed ant that we had success controlling with the new bait. Shannon McAlister, in charge of pest control for the golf course in our condo complex, helped me with the perennial problem of fire ants. After trying replicates of different delivery systems with mixed success, a serendipitous discovery resulted in successful control. A small plastic container with an ounce of bait in a tiny cup was stepped on by a golfer. The next day, there was no sign of fire ants at the mound. McAlister also achieved control of a large carpenter ant nest in the bark of a dead tree on the golf course with a 4-ounce jar of the bait tied to the tree.

Even with these successes, however, we may need the wisdom of Solomon to contain the white-footed ant in Florida and other parts of the United States. My best advice is to be honest with the customer. Tell them you’ll do your best to control the problem, but there’s no way to guarantee that white-footed ants won’t eventually return — although maintaing an outdoor baiting/monitoring program could hold them down.

Harry Katz, a contributing editor to PCT, may be contacted at Berkshire E-3076, Deerfield Beach FL 33442, 954/427-9716.