But ants don't have wings, do they?
If not what are these dead bugs all over my windowsill?
I have white-footed house ants living in the wall of my home. They very rarely come inside and they're not going to damage the structure of the house, so I leave them alone and use them as a good opportunity to observe their habits. This help's me to understand their seasonal behaviour and changing diet.
This week I noticed the following;
This is a group of winged white-footed house ant. They're gathered in a cluster just above the hole they use to get into the wall of the house.
They were there for about 90 mins and then they disappeared.
So what are they doing?
This is typical ant behaviour for this time of the year. The the original colony is in the process of forming a new nest. The majority of these ants are winged males but there will be a winged queen that they are attending to.
The queen will fly away to start a new colony. Once she's found a good location the males will swarm around the entrance to the nest and fertilise the Queen. Once fertilised she'll build the nest and start to lay her eggs and the poor old males will die.
This can lead to a significant build-up of dead ants lying around the windowsill/car/deck/roof.
Sound familiar? These are the dead males and yes they do have wings.
If you have a well established ant colony in your home this is something you'll notice on an annual basis. If you need to eradicate the nests in your home to get rid off these annoying pests please get the Bug King team in to do a professional treatment.
We hope this helps and as always, please feel free to give the team a call for advice or to help diagnose the problem and recommend appropriate treatments.
The team at Bug King 0800 KING KING (54 64 54) www.bugking.co.nz
