That crazy feeling of managing especially hard-to-control ant species can leave the most practiced pest management professional feeling stuck. But the market is constantly introducing solutions. Here is how some PCT readers are dealing with prolific and invasive ants.
Knocking Down Pyramids
Pyramid ants love dry, sandy soil — so the elevated beach rentals Brad Drawdy maintains as owner of Apex of Edisto Pest Management in Edisto Beach, S.C., are ripe grounds for the native species.
“They multiply fast and have multiple colonies in the sand, and they can cover the yard,” Drawdy relates. He invited an entomologist from Clemson University to educate his team about how to manage pyramid ants. Usually, they stay out of homes, but if an infestation explodes, all bets are off and vacation renters (and the homeowners!) want nothing to do with ants inside.
The residual effect of treatments knocks down the ants for a good week — in time for the next round of renters. Drawdy has found better luck with granular baits that extend the control time. Pyramid ants are only an issue during summer months and they infiltrate about 50 percent of the homes Apex services. The company has about 2,000 customers.
Pyramid ants are certainly a public enemy for vacationers, but Drawdy has discovered he can keep them out of homes with baits that surpass the longevity of residual treatments in this case. Optimistically, he adds, “At least they are not active in the winter.”
Dealing with Crazy
Controlling tawny crazy ants can be a real uphill battle. Daniel Shank is grateful that a deep freeze in February 2021 seemed to wipe out this pest from his area in Livingston, Texas, where Broken Arrow Pest Control has operated for 47 years.
“I remember riding around as a kid with my dad or grandpa on service calls, and there were about five different ant species we’d see,” Shank says. “Now, there are anywhere from 15 to 20.”
Problem pests are introduced by travel, shipping and environmental factors. The notorious tawny crazy ant entered his market about 10 years ago — before it got “frozen out.”
He recalls an especially tough case. A customer sent him photos and vidoes of an infestation at a fenced-in dog kennel, which sat on an 8-by-15-foot concrete slab in the backyard. “I thought, ‘Why is there all of this dirt on the slab,’ when I saw the picture. I zoomed in and it was mounds of dead ants. On some videos, you can see other ants walking on top of the dead bodies.”
Shank applied a product that resulted in some population control but the cold weather ultimately shut down the crazy ant show at this property.
In the case of crazy ants, or any pest, Shank likes customers to commit to a monthly service program. “I also explain with tawny crazy ants, what we are doing is population control,” he says. “If we keep the numbers down, they will stay outside.”
Outing Argentine Ants
Once the tawny crazy ant pressure dropped out of Shank’s service area in Texas, he saw a surge in Argentine ants. “That is the biggest one we deal with and it has even surpassed fire ants, which is typically what people deal with outside,” he says.
Argentine ant colonies can contain hundreds of queens and create networks of interconnected nests that form supercolonies containing millions of ants. They can even occupy entire city blocks. “Before, we would see pockets with Argentine ants, but once we had that freeze, it was almost like the Argentines went nuts that summer of 2021,” Shank relates.
The same was true during 2022.
The Argentine ants don’t seem bothered by fluctuating temperatures and can sustain year-round, Shank notices. So, what’s the strategy to control a population?
Shank institutes liquid baiting and regularly checks in with the local extension entomologist to troubleshoot. Sometimes it’s hit or miss.
For instance, he has used a granular bait with an attractive bait matrix to lure Argentine and crazy ants, in conjunction with another insecticide.
“It wiped them out at a relative’s house,” he says. “I tried to duplicate that at other locations and never got the same results.”
As with managing other ant species, a multi-faceted approach and constant monitoring are key. So is explaining the ant species to customers and why a particular ant might be much more difficult to evict.
Most customers understand the goal is to keep the ants outdoors and in reasonable numbers. That way, they will not move in to forage for food. Regular service is key. And here, too, Shank recommends monthly visits to customers. “It just tends to work so much better than when clients say they only want quarterly.”
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