HOUSE ANTS

A. Life stages (greatly enlarged): a, eggs; b, larva; c, pupa; d. adult work e, winged queen; f, queen after shedding wings. B, Section of wall cut away show nest inside. g, Point where ants are entering the room through a crack in the plaster.

HOUSE ANTS

House ants are common pests in homes, restaurants, hotels, stores, bakeries, and many other places. They are not known to carry disease, but they are a nuisance and often get into food.

Colonies containing queens, young, and workers live within walls or partitions, behind baseboards, or beneath flooring. There may be several scattered colonies and they readily move from one place to another. A nest may suddenly turn up in a dresser drawer or on clean sheets in a linen closet.

Sometimes these ants are not attracted to food but seek sources of water in the kitchen or bathroom. They may wander around aimlessly and individually or in small numbers or there may be a solid stream of them from food or water to a place where they are coming out of the walls. This may be around a window or door frame, from behind the baseboard or ,a kitchen cabinet, or around pipes or electrical outlets.

Ants may also invade the house from outside. They will come in through cracks in foundations or basement and ground-level floors, around porches and chimneys, or through windows and doors.

At intervals ant colonies produce swarms of winged forms which leave to establish new colonies. Flying ants from colonies around the foundation may accidentally find their way inside the house. This flight may be over in a day or a few days at the most. The queens and wingless workers remain at the original site of the colony.

Control: A 2 percent chlordane spray is effective against house ants. It should be sprayed into cracks or openings from which ants enter the room. A small surrounding area may also be sprayed so the ants will have to crawl over the insecticide deposit when they come out. The deposit remains effective for several weeks.

House ants are not always easy to control, especially when they are numerous or several colonies are present. One or more small colonies may be killed and others may remain or move in. This often happens in apartments or row houses. In such instances better results will be obtained if several neighbors work together on the problem.

Do not apply the insecticide to tables, kitchen cabinets, or other places where it will contaminate food. If ants are troublesome in such places, apply the insecticide to openings in walls or floors of the room where they will come in contact with it.

Poison ant baits, either sirup or jelly, are available commercially and are sometimes effective. They should be kept where children or pets cannot reach them. Ants will sometimes go for long periods without paying any attention to a bait or they may not be attracted at all to the particular bait offered them.