Supplier Case Study: On the Trail of Argentine Ants

Editor’s note:  The value of add-on services was the primary focus of August PCT. Find out how Home Pest Control Company, West Columbia, S.C., has been successful offering control of Argentine ants and fire ants as part of an add-on service. The following case study was submitted by FMC Pest Solutions.

David Hill has learned how to follow a trail over the past few years. As a Pest Management Professional (PMP) based in South Carolina, he frequently deals with Argentine ants - a super colony ant which follows elaborate trails that often branch off in various directions.

“Argentine ants make control measures very tricky,” says Hill, Operations Manager at Home Pest Control Company in West Columbia, S. C. “Sometimes I feel like a detective, following trails that lead to satellite nests and other trails, but eventually lead to the main nest.”
Hill tackles Argentine ants and fire ants as part of an add-on service provided by Home Pest Control. Called a “pest lawn treatment,” the service generally consists of:
•    broadcast granular treatment throughout the lawn
•    granular mound or nest treatment
•    liquid application around the perimeter of home - at possible entry points to keep ants escaping the lawn treatment out of the home.

“Our quarterly service covers all common household pests inside the residence, but outside the foundation walls is part of our add-on service,” adds Hill. “The lawn treatment is additional, but we give breaks in prices for our quarterly customers. We also offer half-price retreatment, if necessary, within a certain amount of time.”

Though fire ant mounds are generally visible, the nests of Argentine ants present more of a challenge. And without finding the main nest, PMPs will never gain control of the colony, Hill adds. For example, he recently had a customer who discovered hundreds of small black ants trailing up and down the cabinets in her kitchen. His technician identified them as Argentine ants and treated the interior as well as making a perimeter treatment outside.

“We knocked them back pretty well, but got a callback a few days later,” continues Hill, who started with Home Pest Control as a college student eight years ago. “When we went back, we realized the ants were trailing up and down the 15 big oak trees on her property. The technician hadn’t located the main nest on the first go-around. It took some time - and detective work - but we found it and took other measures to ensure lasting control.”
In this case, Hill used Transport® GHP insecticide as a liquid perimeter treatment, in addition to a broadcast granular application of new Talstar® XTRA insecticide. The combined approach provides a total of three active ingredients in two different formulations.

Trial by Fire. “We weren’t getting results with our other granular product and continually had to retreat,” explains Hill.  “You can’t retain accounts when you keep getting callbacks and we didn’t want to damage our reputation. But we also didn’t want to put anything in our routes until we tested it.

“We tried Talstar XTRA last summer when it first came out,” adds Hill.  “I first tested Talstar XTRA at my own home.”  He discovered Argentine ants trailing on his driveway and followed them down the road and across the street, where he found them going up and down a pine tree. They continued through the grass, where they veered off and followed secondary trails to several satellite nests, and eventually to the main nest.

“These ants form super highways to the extent that they wear patterns into the ground,” he adds. “In a case like this, you have to treat the trails with a liquid, in addition to making a broadcast granular treatment. As long as you get to the main nest, you will gain control.”

He applied Talstar XTRA as a broadcast treatment on his own property, as well as on several other locations for both Argentine ants and fire ants. Depending on the severity of the infestation, he got control on the first treatment. For fire ants, he uses a broadcast application across the lawn, as well as a mound treatment of ½ cup Talstar XTRA granules per mound, followed by a thorough drenching with water.

“We feel that we have our ant program figured out at this point,” Hill states. “Our customers are happy with it and so are we.”

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Moving Up the Ranks. Though he got into pest control “by accident,” David Hill is there to stay. As a political science major at the University of South Carolina, Hill needed a part-time job to make ends meet. He started as an office helper for Home Pest Control, filing papers and taking out trash. One thing led to another and he started doing pest control routes, then termite treatments, then a Supervisor and, eventually, became Operations Manager.
Home Pest Control covers an 80-mile radius of Columbia, offering a full range of pest control services. The company provides quarterly treatments for all common household pests, as well as biannual, annual or one-time service, as needed. With 90 percent residential accounts, Home offers an add-on pest lawn service for supplemental insect control. Commercial accounts generally receive monthly services.

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Super Colony Ant with a Sweet Tooth
A small, dark-colored ant about 1/8-inch long, the Argentine ant invades homes in search of food and water. It feeds on sweets, fresh fruits and oils in homes. It also tends honeydew-producing species. Argentine ants travel rapidly in distinctive trails along sidewalks, up the sides of building and along tree branches. Inside, they trail along baseboards and under edges of carpets.

They tend to nest outdoors in soil, under wood, and in debris or mulch, in addition to branches of trees and shrubs. Their nests are one to two inches deep in open habitats. Each colony may have millions of ants, with multiple queens and many subcolonies.

Argentine ants are well adapted to urbanized areas of the U.S., especially in mild climates. They can pose a serious threat to native wildlife by upsetting delicate food networks.