White-Footed House
Ants
What are
white footed ants?
White-Footed house ants have become quite well in
established in the Auckland region. They are one of the most common invaders of
ants in homes and businesses in NZ. They got their name from the yellowish
lower legs. Despite their small size of 3.0mm to 3.5mm long, they are a huge
nuisance, especially when they are found throughout the kitchen pantry in large
numbers!
Nesting
White-Footed house ants are
found both indoors and outdoors. They enjoy nesting within walls, ceiling cavities and sub-floors. Here they are safe from
the environmental factors like the rain and wind. One ant nest can have many
queen ants and up to 2 million individuals!
A lot of our customers
notice piles of dead ants, bits of wood and dust right under light fittings or
window sills. Ants like to have a clean nest, so they will clear out any scraps
and dead ants from their nest.
They don’t cause damage,
however if they were to be nesting along power boxes it may cause short
circuiting.
Diet/Do it yourself baiting
White-Footed house ants
have a sweet-tooth. They enjoy a good meal of honey dew and nectar. They also
love a good feast on ant bait you buy from the supermarket, or your local
hardware store, as it is full of sugary goodness for them.
Do it yourself baiting
can make the problem you have a whole lot worse! The ants that you see out and
about are worker ants. This type of bait will usually only kill the ants that
have taken the bait, not the colony. The ants unaffected by the bait realize
something is going on and they may decide to relocate to avoid extermination.
Or they may start laying more eggs to repopulate!
Treatment:
The best way to attack a nest is to do it slowly. Applying a
treatment that is invisible to ants is the most effective way to wipe those
little suckers out once and for all. The ants will walk through the treatment
and tread it back to the nest to pass it on to the other workers and the queen.
Slowly but surely this will exterminate the nest.
