Ants
House Ants
House ants do not pose a public health risk, but they can contaminate food. They find their way into the house through cracks or small openings around the foundation of a house. Ant colonies can be massive.
Pavement Ants
Pavements ants, as their name suggests, make their home under sidewalks and driveways, as well as building slabs. In summer, pavement ants dig out the sand in the grooves or cracks of pavement to make their nest.
Carpenter Ants
Carpenter ants are only a problem if they take up residency in your house. Entering through cracks around doors, windows, holes for wires or through wet or moldy wood, they can be responsible for damage ranging from a fence post to the reduction of the structural integrity of your home, a repair that could cost thousands of dollars. Just because you don’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t traversing through the structural framework of your home. They are rarely seen inside your living quarters. They prefer to build their nests in the dead wood or lumber of houses, eating away (they don’t actually eat the wood) at the beams and studs to do so. They can go undetected for years.
Our Solution:
- Locate food source outside the home
- Locate the nests
- Eliminate
- Create an ongoing barrier to prevent re-infestation
Pharaoh Ants
These very small, honey-coloured ants can multiply rapidly if ignored. A colony of Pharaoh ants may contain up to 300,000 ants with several queens. As one of the most difficult pests to eliminate, professional experience is required for the job. Colonies nest inside walls, cabinet voids, behind baseboards, behind refrigerator insulation, and in the folds of paper or sheets, anywhere that is warm. They follow plumbing pipes and electrical wiring when foraging for food. Pharaoh ants do not cause damage to building structures, but they can spread disease as they can transmit over a dozen pathogenic pathogens. Important note: insecticide sprays only make infestations worse.
Red Fire Ants
First recorded in BC in 2010 and confirmed in the Lower Mainland, red fire ants are omnivores, eating vegetables and meat, as well as anything greasy and sweet. Native to Europe and Asia, these ants prefer warm, moist conditions. They colonize in the ground, so a mound and swarming ants are a good indication of a problem. A colony contains between 100,000 and 500,000 ants with up to four nests per square meter. Fire ants are aggressive and have been known to attack – by stinging – potential threats in large numbers. Go Green Pest Control can manage lawn infestations and secure your home against an invasion.
Cornfield Ants
Cornfield ants are more likely to nest in flower boxes, under cement slab foundations, sidewalks and rotting wood than in a cornfield. Smaller than carpenter ants, the tan-coloured cornfield ants measure 1/10th of an inch to ¼ inch in length. Although they are secondary pests of already decayed wood, they can speed the deterioration of wood.
They feed primarily on aphids, nectar, seeds and insects – dead or alive. Control of cornfield ants requires a comprehensive and integrated approach.
Thatching Ants
Red and black, or all black, thatching ants nest in woody debris such as decaying logs and the surrounding soil. Also known as “mound ants”, they construct mounds from fir and pine needles, twigs, grass stems and leaves. Occasionally, nests are built in wall voids, attics and other parts of buildings. Under most circumstances, thatching ants are beneficial as they are predators of other insects. However, they can become a severe nuisance when they encroach on human habitats such as lawns and rockeries. They are known to injure seedling trees and plants, as well as the buds of fruit trees, near their nests. They give a hard bite and spray the area of the bite with formic acid which causes pain and blistering. One nest can contain thousands of ants. When large colonies are found in or around your home, control is definitely required.
Odorous House Ants
These small black ants are often found in the kitchen in early spring. When crushed, they emit the smell of rotten coconuts. They are often found nesting inside walls or beneath the floor, in firewood piles and under building foundations and travel in trails, day and night, in search of food. Indoors, they search for meat, sugary foods, dairy products, pastries and fruit juices. They do not bite or sting, but they can contaminate food stuff and can become nuisance as the colony can reach 100,000.
