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Identification
Pavement ants which usually make their homes in pavements are small(1/8-1/16-inch long). They are black-brown ants, with paler legs and antennae. The abdomen is all black.
They are distinguished by two spines on the back, two nodes on the petiole, and grooves on the head and thorax.The colonies can be moderately large. Swarmers usually appear in June or July; however, they have been reported at other times of the year.
Diet
Honeydew, insects, sweets, fruit, and greasy foods. They will eat pet foods.
Behavior
The pavement ant is found throughout the Atlantic coastal region and midwestern United States and the West Coast. Sometimes they can be found in the southern United States. As their name indicates, nests are found outside under cracks of pavement, under stones and next to buildings. Occasionally they may be found in walls, under floors,and in insulation. If your home is a slab on grade construction, pavement ant foragers enter through cracks in slabs or other openings. They often enter buildings through expansion joints in slabs.
- They move in small motions
- Their trails are most readily spotted at night.
- Look at plumbing pipes and electrical wires for there trails
- Are highly aggressive ants against other ants during the spring
Pavement Ant Inspections: Locating trails or colonies
In order to properly bait with the recommended ant baits, it is necessary to put the bait out near their colonies or trails. If you use the liquid insecticide method it is also necessary to know where to spray and or drench.
Although you may observe these ants trailing during the day, most observation will occur at night.
Pavement ants will displace soil around concrete objects such as sidewalks, patios, driveways, curbs, etc. This displaced loose soil may be seen along the cracks or joints in the sidewalks or driveways.
Look for colonies around the foundations of your home. Also inspect around logs or large rocks.
Inside, look around baseboards, plumbing, sinks, toilets and along the edges of carpets.
How to Get Rid of Pavement Ants
Baiting would be the preferred treatment over
typical residual spraying,
so you can eliminate the entire colony, unless you use a non repellent spray.
When choosing ant baits, it is best to choose from both the sugar based baits and protein based baits .
Why bait for ant control?
The use of residual sprays or dusts will cause stress on the colonies, causing them to split into sub-colonies that scatter to other areas in the structure. This is also called budding.
After spraying, your problem can be worse than at the beginning. When you bait, you will want a slow acting bait. Quick kill insecticides and baits will only kill the foraging ants, not allowing the foraging ants to take the bait back home to feed the queen, nest workers and brood.
If the current ant bait that you are using is not acceptable to the ants, if they are not visiting the bait, it is recommended that you change the baits. They find a variety of these sources in nature. Examples are: other insects(proteins and greases), nectar, aphid honeydew , plant products(sugar and carbohydrates)
Choosing a bait would require knowing what they are currently feeding off of, according to the nutritional needs of the colony. To be sure that you have all the baiting needs met, you may want to be ready with a sugar-carbohydrate bait, a grease-fat bait, and a protein based bait.
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO REMOVE ANY OTHER FOOD COMPETITION WHEN BAITING AND LEAVE THE BAIT ALONE ONCE THE ANTS START FEEDING ON IT.
Non Repellents For Outside and Inside Ant Control:
Spraying for Pavement Ants: Non-Repellents
The best insecticides for ant control are non repellent insecticides such as Taurus SC, Termidor SC, Optigard Flex, Alpine Aerosol, and Phantom Aerosol. Termidor SC and Taurus SC are labeled for inside usage.
Unless you can treat the nest directly, spraying
is not an effective solution for Argentine Ants, unless you use
a non repellent insecticides or "undetectable" liquid treatments
Phantom Aerosol or Alpine Aerosols labeled for the inside. Optigard Flex is another very good non repellent labeled for inside for Argentine Ants(ants popular in California)
Unlike older insecticides,
non repellent insecticides can't be smelled, tasted, or even
felt by pests. So they crawl through the treated area, not
knowing that by ingesting treated materials or merely contacting
the insecticide, they'll die.
Again, workers must eat the bait, take it back to the nest, and feed to the queen and larval ants. This type of control is incompatible with treatments(such as repellent sprays)that prevent workers from returning to the nest with the bait.
