“The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah!”, I remember singing this as a child in school. It seemed like such a fun song, so innocent and playful. Now that 35 plus years have gone by, ants don’t seem so cute anymore!
Those determined, hard working little pests are forever relentless at destroying plans to eat outdoors, and can make even Mr. Clean’s house feel less than tidy. It’s no big surprise that they are by far one of the top calls we get from customers all over the Treasure Valley. Whether you live in downtown, bustling Boise, or the outskirts of Melba surrounded by farmland, they are everywhere!! Ant colonies are incredibly organized and run like a well-oiled-machine. Each colony has at least one queen whose one and only job is to lay eggs and continue the ant race! The colony also has male ants that, well, do what male ants do (wink-wink) also in conjunction with the queen to continue the population. And then there are the worker ants…the foragers and those we know and see so often. These are the brave ants that emerge above ground in their tiny lines of formation marching silently one by one. Have you seen, and I mean really watched, these little individuals work? They can carry an object 20 times their body weight!! That’s like my 8 year old lifting a Ford Mustang over her head! They don’t mess around!
So how do we treat for ants? It’s simple, use their own colony against them by baiting them. Let those worker ants do what they do best and efficiently; gather food and take it back to the queen and colony. Once food is brought back, they share it amongst the others and the death toll begins to rise! When the queen dies, a colony can typically only last a month or two because the baby ant factory is shut down. On occasion though, a colony will replace a queen and it may take a few applications ( not to mention a heaping helping of patience)! But rest assured…it is possible to get ants under control. And with Barrier Pest Control, it just got a little easier!
Blog courtesy of Marie of Barrier Pest Control
