Let’s talk about queens.
No, not the New York borough or female monarchs, but queens in the bug world. Most, if not all, social bugs have a queen or even queens within their society. Their job is simple — reproduce so the entire colony stays strong. When I think of queens, I often think of a queen bee or queen ant. But, colonies of termites, yellow jackets, hornets, and even wasps have a queen or queens (depending on the colony’s size). As a pest control company, we are obsessed with those colonies that threaten human residences, which is different for each type of bug.
The monarchy emerges!
In the springtime, insects spend significant time migrating and reproducing. Honey bees, when searching for a new place to establish a hive, will swarm in and around homes. These swarms of several hundred bees protect the queen as they search for a new home but are remarkably harmless. In those situations, a beekeeper can extract the queen and place it in a domestic hive. Ants and termites only expose their queen(s) once a year during the spring when winged reproductive ants emerge and mate. However, unlike Honey Bees, whose colony is in danger when the queen emerges, these winged ants and termites are merely signs of a larger problem, not a path to eliminating them per se.
Treatment for those, while still targeted at the queen, starts at the worker level and then rises through the society as the “food” they gather is a toxin that will eventually reach the queen(s). Each Paper Wasp, Yellow Jacket, and Hornet colony is tied to a single nest. The queen(s) typically remain on or near the nest constantly. Thorough treatment of the nest directly will result in the death of drones and the queens.
Video: Getting rid of ants, by getting rid of the colony.
In all cases, Barrier Pest Control has a product available to help solve your problem and take care of the queens!
