Domestic ants how to get rid of ants in an apartment
Spring heat has come, which provokes the awakening of various insects. Unfortunately, their mass appearance is observed not only on the street - in the house, especially in the kitchen, many housewives begin to notice the appearance of ants. These tiny creatures penetrate into the room through the smallest gaps, spread throughout the territory, penetrate into packages of products, making them unusable. It is very difficult to deal with such uninvited guests alone, the nests of these creatures are usually located far from the apartments they visit, often hidden in the floors. In order for domestic ants in the apartment to be exterminated, their biological characteristics and biography should be well studied. Do not be surprised, the story of the conquest by ants of all countries and continents dates back more than one century.
Content:
- Who are the Pharaoh Ants?
- Physical and biological characteristics of pharaoh ants video
- How to get rid of house ants in an apartment - learn to determine the location of nests
- How to deal with ants in an apartment video
- How to get rid of ants in an apartment in folk ways video
- Prevention
Who are the Pharaoh Ants?
Small red creatures, who, against our will, cohabit with us in city apartments and private houses, hailing from the tropics. Representatives of this species, fortunately the only ones from the ant family, expanded their habitat due to the fact that they managed to colonize people's homes. Although India is considered the historical homeland of the pharaoh ant, it can be found on any continent, it very successfully lives in urban high-rise buildings, creating a lot of inconvenience and problems for apartment owners.
The small size and biological characteristics of the insect allowed him to become an inhabitant of marine vessels, penetrate first into port cities, then triumphantly march deep into each continent.
Pharaoh ants owe their name to individuals who were caught in the pyramids in Egypt. It happened in the XVIII century. The description of this species was made by the famous biologist Karl Linney, due to a lack of information Egypt was identified as the birthplace of red ants, the name they received was corresponding to the place of their finding.
Modern scientists are of the opinion that the homeland of ants is still India, and Egypt was one of the first occupied countries.
Physical and biological characteristics of pharaoh ants
For the fight against uninvited guests to be more successful, a study of their biological characteristics will be required. The size of the working ants, namely those that enter our apartments, reaches a maximum of 1.5-2 mm, the ant uterus has larger body sizes - up to 4 mm, males - up to 3.
The body color of the ants of this breed is very light, yellowish brown, the uterus is darker in color and similar to its garden relatives. On the abdomen of the working individuals there are yellow stripes, but it is difficult to notice them with the naked eye. It is also difficult to see the larvae or egg laying of ants of this species - they organize colonies in places inaccessible to humans. The eggs and larvae of the pharaoh ant can reach up to 1.5 m in length, they have a translucent texture and a whitish color.
The ant differs from its relatives-ants of pharaohs by its small size and red color, it can live only in the conditions of a human dwelling, therefore in most cases it does not meet competition from garden ants.
Biologists argue that red-headed goosebumps are very dependent on the temperature of the environment, it should be at least + 20 C, however, a short-term decrease to + 10 + 12 C does not cause the death of ant families. The pharaoh ant in European countries lives only in the conditions of a heated human dwelling; it is doomed to death even in the conditions of fairly warm winters of the southern regions of Russia.
If you observe garden goosebumps, which sometimes do no less harm than home ones, then they also can’t survive the winter on the ground surface - for wintering they gather in anthills located underground, are there, during the cold season, somnolently moving and eating . Some species are stocked for winter aphids, which supplies them with their favorite sweet treat. Pharaoh ants in their biological cycle do not have a rest period, in order to survive they must be warm throughout the year, it is also important to have constant food.
Although the favorite foods for goosebumps are meat products and sweets, they are omnivorous, if necessary, everything goes to food:
- plant and animal products,
- bread,
- rotting organic matter
- other insects.
To understand why the extermination of ants is often an unsuccessful event, one should know that with the growth of the family, branches in which new females lay their eggs bud off from the main nest, working individuals grow a new generation of insects from them. Goosebumps from neighboring branches maintain friendly relations among themselves, even if many working individuals die from one nest, the neighboring ones will not allow younger offspring to die. Interestingly, the uterus from different nests is also tolerant of each other.
An insect colony can contain hundreds of breeding females. Even the complete destruction of several nests in such a super ant hill will not be noticeable.
Watch a video about the ant family:
How to get rid of house ants in an apartment - learn to determine the location of nests
Often, the pharaoh ant feels himself the owner of the apartment - he chooses a place for his nest, despite all the measures of struggle, paves new paths, exploring the entire area of \u200b\u200bthe apartment, finds new sources of food. However, the habitat of these red-headed pests is usually limited to places located closer to food sources. A family of ants located under the floor of the apartment can use the nearby garbage chute as a dining room. Insects can also have nests outside the apartment, in order to get into your home there will be a barely noticeable gap between the floor and the baseboard.
The easiest way to track the location of the nests is by observing the movement of the working ants - capturing the next portion of food, they run to their queen's habitat along the same marked trails.
How to deal with ants in an apartment
It should be noted right away that this process is quite problematic, especially in the case when the anthill is located in several neighboring apartments. In this case, the power sources will be located in different apartments, in addition, in the summer there is the opportunity to receive acceptable food from the street.
A drug from ants, which is used in one of the apartments, can cause the death of several queen bees, but insects will successfully develop in neighboring dwellings and come to you for food whenever they like.
Pharaohs ant with amazing speed is able to restore the size of his family.
A struggle may turn out to be successful if you can only find the anthill that has begun to develop, you will not need to use any chemistry, you can simply remove the nest using a vacuum cleaner - it will be done away with goose bumps.
If the ants do not appear in the house for several years, then most likely you will have to seek help from disinfestation specialists. Processing from ants will need to be carried out immediately in all apartments, otherwise they will not be completely destroyed.
If you decide to cope with the task yourself, then you can use the following types of drugs:
- Aerosols. Spray with a toxic solution will have all the places where insects are observed. It is good if a nest gets into the spraying zone - this will cause the death of the entire family, otherwise only working individuals will suffer.
- Gels. They can be quite effective. When systematically applied, they attract the ants with a sweet smell, taking them for food, the ants carry them to the nests and feed the larvae and uterus, and in the end they receive a lethal dose of insecticides. Although the gels act slowly, the result of their action is excellent.
- Dust and crayons. Their action is that the dust from the lines drawn in a circle falls on the paws of insects, and then into their digestive organs, causing poisoning. Theoretically, when moving workers, poisons can fall into the nests.
More on gel against ants in the video:
How to get rid of ants in an apartment in folk ways
There are many methods, more or less successful, in the control of small domestic pests. The funds used in them are affordable and are available in almost every home. As a toxic substance, boric acid can be used. If it is harmless to humans, then for ants its ingestion turns out to be fatal - boric acid can corrode chitin, it is from it that the body of the insect consists.
In more detail about the use of boric acid against ants in the video:
Boric acid can be mixed with honey, add a little water and drip it on the trails along which ants usually move. Insects will actively collect sweet lure and carry it to nests, poisoning the uterus and larvae. The duration of such a war against ants is 1 week.
The second option is to roll balls from boiled potatoes, egg yolk and boric acid. Balls are also laid out close to the ant's alleged habitat.
Some people advise making traps for ants from low jars filled with sugar syrup - the ants smell a sweet smell, climb into a jar and drown in syrup.
You can also make bait from minced meat mixed with boric acid. They lay out the bait in the places of following and feeding of ants.
Folk recipes claim that a good remedy for ants in apartments can be obtained from strongly smelling foods and plants, such as:
- elderberry leaves
- sunflower oil,
- cold mint
- sagebrush,
- garlic.
In order to combat insects, you will need to apply juice from plants or oil a couple of times a week along the routes.
Another inexpensive remedy for ants in the house with the use of yeast: they are bred in high concentration with sugar and water, the ants get drunk with a mixture that soon begins to ferment in the stomachs, causing the death of insects.
Do not forget that the applied insecticides or folding baits or solutions can have a negative effect on domestic animals. In order to prevent cases of contact with poisons, the access of animals to toxic substances should be completely closed.
You should not rely on magnetic resonance or ultrasonic repellers - they do not have the proper effect on ants.
Prevention
In order not to use poisonous funds from ants in an apartment, you can resort to elementary means of prevention, it will consist of:
- in thorough cleaning of the entire room,
- storing any edibles in closed containers or jars,
- insecticide treatment of all possible ways for insects to enter the house,
- if there is an animal in the house, then cleaning the bowl after each meal is mandatory - not even crumbs should remain in the bowl or on the floor.
They say that in this way it was sometimes possible to protect the apartment from the invasion of uninvited guests, even when they completely captured the entire structure.
