Manchester Pharaoh Ants
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Getting rid of pharaoh ants
To look at, a pharaoh ant might seem fairly harmless – in fact, they’re so small, you might struggle to see them at! However, in large numbers, they’re much easier to spot, particularly if they have managed to infiltrate your home or workplace. Workers are just two millimetres in length, while a queen may be twice as long. They vary in colour, from pale, almost translucent, through to darker shades of brown. Although, as the name suggests, they did not originate in the Manchester area, they can cope with the UK climate, but prefer to head indoors where the central heating provides temperatures more to their liking. Once in your property, pharaoh ants can be very difficult to eliminate.
Pharaoh ants: reasons for concern Manchester Pest Control
Although pharaoh ants do not bite people or pets, there is a risk that they may pass on diseases such as clostridium, staphylococcus or salmonella as a result of cross-contaminating different foods that they have walked all over. This can be a particular cause for concern in Manchester’s restaurants and cafes, grocery stores, bakeries, and factories where food is processed. Hotels, B&Bs, rest homes, and hospitals may also be at risk from a pharaoh ant infestation unless strict hygiene measures are enforced so that food is not left unattended, and unfinished meals are removed and disposed of promptly.
Due to their small size, pharaoh ants can easily find their way into buildings through the tiniest gaps, and can then spread quickly throughout the whole building. They may walk along pipes and electric wires, spreading out and forming new colonies as they go. Unlike some species of insect, pharaoh ant colonies do not fight amongst themselves, which means that their numbers will only to continue to grow as long as there are food sources available. More information on pharaoh ant colonies can be found below.
Pharaoh ant colonies: how infestations happen
Whereas other ant colonies tend to have one queen at a time, with new-born queens hatching and leaving the nest to start colonies of their own, a pharaoh ant colony may contain a number of queens, which lay in the region of 400 eggs each during their lifetime of anything up to a year. When the population of the colony gets to several thousand, queens may at this stage break away from the colony (taking some worker ants with them, in a process known as ‘budding’) to form a new colony further away, or even close by if conditions are suitable. This may give the impression of there being a very large colony, when in fact there are several within the vicinity of one another.
When a pharaoh ant queen searches for a location to establish a new nest, she will generally choose somewhere out of sight (and reach) of people, such as inside a wall or floor space; however, if she encounters furniture or stored belongings which are gathering dust and have not been moved for some time, she may make this her nesting site. It is therefore possible that a nest may be discovered, and dealt with, in one location, but other nests will remain hidden elsewhere in the property as a result of the budding process. Home owners may think they have eliminated the problem when in fact it is only the ‘tip of the iceberg’, and there is a full infestation spreading further by the day.
Pharaoh ant infestations: recognising the signs
No Manchester homeowner wants to be told that they have a dirty home, but it doesn’t take much to encourage pharaoh ants to take up residence. If you have a pharaoh ant infestation, you are likely to see them in your kitchen or rooms where food is prepared and consumed, particularly if crumbs are left behind on floors, surfaces and furniture. Children or pets can sometimes be responsible for dropping food and then walking it around the house. In addition, food that is not stored in air-tight containers may prove tempting for pharaoh ants, though they will also forage in bins.
When searching for food, pharaoh ants leave a scent trail which other ants can follow, which is why you may see a number of them walking backwards and forwards in a line. One direction will lead to where the ants are exploring for food, while following the other may lead you back to the nest. However, as noted above, finding the location of the nest does not mean all your problems are solved, as it could be just one of many. Also, it might be that instead of finding the nest, you discover a queen in the process of budding, leaving her nest of origin unknown.
Treating a pharaoh ant infestation
Many DIY shops or garden centres around Manchester stock ‘solutions’ in the form of various sprays or baits. The effectiveness of these solutions is not guaranteed, as sometimes the ants may have developed an immunity to the particular poison. Also, the poison might wipe out one nest, but if there are many other nests that you have been unable to locate, it won’t necessarily wipe them all out, and the pharaoh ant numbers will increase again over time. If a colony starts to die out as a result of being poisoned, this may result in more budding activity, as the queens will quickly try to escape and build new nests a safe distance from the site of the old nest.
This can mean that instead of getting rid of the infestation, it may end up spreading further, and become more difficult to treat in the process. It is therefore advisable that you get in touch with a professional pest control firm, such as Manchester Pest Control, as you’ll benefit from the help of a qualified technician who can assess the situation and decide on the best course of action. We have access to the most effective types of pharaoh ant bait, and our technicians know where to place the bait for the best results. Even if you’ve just seen a few pharaoh ants I your property, there are likely to be many more, so why take the risk of an infestation? Call Manchester Pest Control for assistance today!
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