Carrollton Pest Control Company talks about “Treating Ants with Bait or Insecticides, Which is Best”
Carrollton Pest Control Service owner Blake Williams of Service 1st Pest and Lawn offers advice on “When to use baits to treat ants and when to use pesticides”.
Ants are one of the most common and difficult to treat pests in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. There are several different species of ants and ants can nest in different areas ranging from in the ground to in attics and everthing in between.
Several people have asked if they should use bait to treat ants or simply spray insecticides in the areas where ants are seen. The main thing to remember is that effective ant control requires colony elimination. Simply killing dozens of worker ants will not eliminate the problem. When thinking about ant control you have to think about the colony as one whole living organism. The colony as a whole nests, eats and reproduces in certain ways depending on the species of ant to be controlled. This is where insecticides usually fail. If you cannot treat the nest directly, insecticides are rarely effective for long term control. For mound building ants, like fire ants, the nests are easier to find and treat but for structure infesting ants there may be no practical way of finding the nest. In such cases bait should be used.
Bait is applied to areas where ants are foraging for food and the worker ants take the bait back to the nest and share it with other ants in the colony including the reproductive females or Queens. When the Queens die, the colony dies. The trick to using bait is choosing the correct bait. Some ants prefer sweet baits others prefer protiens or carbohydrates. Identifying the ant species is the key to choosing the correct bait. Once the correct bait is chosen, the bait needs to be placed in areas where ants are foraging but not in areas where the bait is accessible to children or pets. Make sure the bait is not contaminated by using insecticides around the bait and try to remove other food sources that may compete with the bait in the baited area. In some cases control using bait may not be acheived for up to 30 days.
Because of the complexity of ant treatment this is best left up to a professional.
Carrollton Pest Control Service owner Blake Williams says “Treating Ants is Best left to a Professional” For help controlling Ants Call Service 1st Pest and Lawn for help with your Fire Ant control, Termite control, lawn care or other pest control needs, 940-594-8154.
September 21, 2009 7:46 pm 
Subscribe