It is a Crazy Ant Infestation!
They are reckless and shrewd! They move radically on their own, especially when they sense danger. It becomes difficult to catch them one by one.
Comparatively, it is a harder job to get rid of crazy ants compared to other ant species infesting in indoors and outdoors. Cautious planning and keeping your calm are the two strong qualities which are required during crazy ant treatment. Here is some basic information for you:
Their name describes their behavior itself. They move unpredictably unlike other species of ants, in a disorganized way while looking for food. The ant trails are also weirdly spread. Crazy ants move in and out of their colony aimlessly when observed by humans. But they may have their own design of the movement.
This phenomenon will definitely confuse you to fix targets for execution. They have longer legs and antennae than other ants. An adult crazy ant is about 3.178 mm in length and their body is covered with rough hair. They are reddish-brown or black in color.
An exterminator named Tom Raspberry discovered them in 2002 at Texas, USA. So they are also known as Raspberry Crazy Ants. Belonging to the same family some crazy ants are black in colour and are called Longhorn Crazy Ants. Both red and black crazy ants can bite but cannot sting. The bite causes a minute of pain but it diminishes in no time.
Crazy ants are majorly outdoor ants but they infest indoors mainly to look for food or during the winter or rainy seasons. Common garden ants mainly build nests in moulds of earth. But crazy ants prefer their colonies to be built under large stones, dead composed leaves or in garbage piles.
Crazy ants are invasive insects, which mean they can harm the ecological balance of vegetation, spread diseases and can damage lands and homes to establish or re-establish their colonies. A single colony is small in size. But you will be surprised to discover numerous small colonies near each other. Together they form a supercolony.
A supercolony has approximately 15 to 20 queen ants, each of them are capable of establishing a new colony by them, nearby. The process is called budding where the queen travels to a new place, forms a colony by laying eggs and stays there or the worker ants carry the eggs and larvae from the former nest to a new place, nurture them there to form a new colony.
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Take quick action the moment you see the first sign of crazy ant infiltration. They are omnivorous ants i.e. they live on various foods, both animal or plant origins near them and so they attack any nature of food products at your home. Even dead insects unattended at your home are attractive food sources for crazy ants.
Their inquisitive habit of travelling to various places in your house, cause serious damages to your electrical equipment too. If you see these ants aimlessly roaming around your house, quickly identify their nests and terminate them as soon as possible. It is quite complex to find out their nests as their trails are complicated.
But still, you can attract them with baits containing ingredients like honey, maple syrup and peanut butter. Crazy ants are expert in picking up smells and they will definitely form a trail from their nests to the source of the smell. You need to follow these trails to or at your home so that that you can seal the entry points easily.
Once the nest is located, you can terminate the trails and the colonies simultaneously. Grab a non-repellent ant spray for the trails and apply. Some will die instantly and others will carry the chemical insecticide applied on their bodies to the nests and gradually poison the other ants at the colony.
For more effective results a dust treatment can be handy. Insecticides are placed in dust bags which are kept in suspected infestation points like crevices, cracks holes, gaps and corners of your house.
These are waterproof powders and kill ants on contact. They stay active for more than 8 months. All you have to do is to shake the bag, remove the cap, and sprinkle on the sources of trails and infestations.
You must be convinced by now that a crazy ant infestation is not an easy job to handle and you better take accurate preventive steps. Otherwise, these little crawling insects will march towards your home again and again. Here are some tips:
For serious situations, it is advisable to call a professional from a reputed pest control company:
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