Pest Response
Ant Control
Surface sprays will easily kill ants that you find gathering on your kitchen benches or lurking around your pavers. However, these ants are merely foragers collecting food and killing these guys will have no impact on the colony which is often hidden deep underground and can contain over a million individuals! So to completely eliminate an ant problem, it is necessary to bring in the big guns and hire a professional insect pest controller.
It is impossible to erradicate ants from your outside environment altogether but a professional is able to assist in solving your problem through the use of powerful and specifically targeted ant gels & powders and by discussing pest management options that suit your situation. Pest Controllers can also identify what types of ants are invading your home and in the case of fire ants only specifically licenced Pest Controllers can eliminate these nests.
1300 Pest Control treatments are environmentally friendly, child and animal safe and can be specifically tailored to suit your needs. Fast acting chemicals will target ant colonies and their queen, destroying the entire nest and reducing the chance of future infestations.
We provide Warrantees on our Pest Services*
Pest Prevention
Ant Prevention for your Home and Garden
It is difficult to keep ants from entering your house – their small size means they can squeeze in though the tiniest of cracks. The trick is to eliminate things that will attract them into your home in the first place.
- Eliminate water sources for thirsty ants – wipe down your sinks, fix leaking taps and keep the toilet lid closed.
- Eliminate food sources by cleaning up crumbs and food spills, washing dirty dishes straight away, vacuuming regularly and keeping rubbish in a tightly sealed bin.
- Store your food in air tight containers and wipe any spills or dribbles from condiment jars and bottles, especially sauce bottles and sweet things such as honey and syrups.
- Make sure Fido isn’t adding to the problem – wash your pet’s food bowl after meals and sweep up any crumbs or spills.
- In your garden, control sap-sucking insects such as aphids. They produce honeydew which will lure in ants.
- Try pouring boiling water onto ant nests in your lawn or pavers, killing ants without the use of pesticides. However, it may not reach down to the queen, so chemical control measures are recommended if you want to destroy the nest.
Pest Information - Order Hymenoptera
How Do Ants Look?
Ants are generally small, ranging from 1-20 millimeters in length. But despite their tiny size, they are one of the most abundant and successful organisms on our planet. In fact, if you took all of the ants in the world and placed them on a scale, then took all of the humans in the world and placed them on a scale, the weights would be about the same!
Ants (and their close relatives, bees and wasps) have a narrow join between their thorax and abdomen, giving them a distinct “waist”. Ants have large heads, with elbowed antennae. These antennae are used for communication, picking up tiny chemical smells or pheromones from other members of their nest. Ants have compound eyes which are usually large and highly developed.
Ants have strong chewing mandibles that are used for a variety of functions – gently carrying eggs and larvae to the brood chamber, lugging massive pebbles from the tunnels of their nest, tearing their prey into more manageable-sized pieces, for delicately moulding mud and dirt to build their nests and for lopping the heads and legs off rival ants.
Breeding Habits of an Ant
Ant colonies are generally made up of sterile female worker ants, the reproductive queen ant and at certain times of the year, winged males and females. These winged ants emerge from the parent colony in the warmer months, take to the air and mate. Unlike termite colonies that generally have a long-lived “king”, male ants usually die shortly after mating. The young queen will find a suitable nesting site, dig a small chamber and lay her first batch of eggs.
Ants have a complete lifecycle, emerging from their eggs as tiny white grubs or larvae. They will rapidly increase in size and form a tiny pupa, before emerging as an adult. The first batch of worker ants is reared by the queen. Once they mature, they will start to forage for food, tend to the queen and build the nest.
The queen will remain in her royal chamber and continue to produce thousands of eggs. She can live for many years and some species of ants have multiple queens in each colony.
The Ant Colony. An Ants Habitat
Ants are found in all habitats throughout the world. There are at least 9500 species described so far, and probably many thousands that have not yet been named.
Ants build elaborate nests in soil, under logs, in clumps of grass and in decaying wood. The nest is composed of several chambers, all linked by tunnels. There are rooms for storing food, discarding rubbish, rearing young and storing eggs.
What Do Ants Eat?
In general, ants are opportunistic feeders and will basically eat whatever food is available. Many ants prey on small insects, spiders and other arthropods. These critters are often hundreds of times larger than the ants themselves, but by working as a team large prey is overpowered, killed and then cut into smaller pieces to carry back to the nest.
Many species of ants have a strong sweet-tooth and will drink nectar from flowers and gather honeydew – a sugary substance produced by sap-sucking insects such as aphids. Other ants will harvest the seeds from plants and grasses.
Adult ants only drink liquids, saving solid food such as seeds and crumbs for the developing larvae.
Are Ants Dangerous?
Ants are a common yet unwelcome visitor to our homes and gardens. Ants become pests by:
- Entering our kitchen to feed on crumbs, rubbish and sweet substances such as honey and sugar.
- As they forage, ants pick up bacteria and fungi on their feet and transfer it onto our food, speeding up the process of food spoilage.
- Ants hang around our bathrooms, toilets and kitchen sinks in search of water.
- Some species construct nests within wall cavities, ceilings and brickwork in our homes. However, ants will only tunnel through dead or damaged wood and will not attack sound timber like termites.
- Some species infest our lawns. Funnel ants build towers of loose soil around the entrance to their nest, spoiling the appearance of carefully tended lawns. Green-headed ants also love to tunnel through our grass and will deliver a painful sting if disturbed (especially if you’re unfortunate enough to run over a nest with the lawn mower)!
- Some ants will burrow around pavers, paths and garden edging, scattering dirt all over the place and making our pavers wobbly and unstable.
- Ants such as the Black House Ant produce an unpleasant odour when crushed. Other species can inflict a very painful sting. However, unless you suffer an allergic reaction, the effects of these stings are generally minor and short-lived.
- Introduced species such as Fire Ants threaten our native plants and wildlife and can inflict a dangerous sting.
Having said this, not all ants are bad and many are very important in our environment. Ants play a major role in dispersing seeds and their predatory behaviour helps to control populations of many pest insects. Ants also provide a valuable cleaning service – carting away the bodies of any dead insects and small animals back to their nests.
Interesting Fact on Ants
Did you know?
- Ants have a variety of ways to defend themselves and their nest. Some bite using large mandibles, some sting using a pointed needle at the end of their bodies and some do both! Ants can also spray formic acid into the faces of oncoming enemies. Green tree ants will bites their victim, tip their abdomen and spray burning acid in the wound. Ouch!
Written by Michelle Gleeson from Bugs.Ed www.bugsed.com/
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Termite Control – White Ants Control Services include:
- Building and Pest Inspections
- Pre Purchase Inspections
- Termite Barrier
- Termite Inspection – Pest Inspection
- Termite Prevention
- Termite Treatment
General Pest Control Services include treatments for the following:
- Ant Control
- Bed Bug Control
- Bee Control
- Beetles Control
- Cockroach Control
- Flea Control
- Flying Insect Control
- Mice Control – Mouse Control
- Mosquito Control
- Moth Control
- Pantry Moths Control
- Rat Control
- Rental Property Pest Control
- Rodent Control
- Silverfish Control
- Spider Control
- Wasp Control
Animal Removal Service:
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- Possum Removal
- Snake Removal
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