Most ants in Vancouver are either pavement, pharoah or carpenter ants. They size from a few millimeters (pavement ants) to about 3/8″ to 1″ (carpenter ants).
They do many good things in the environment but once many colonies stabilize in one area they can create a huge mess and wood boring carpenter ants can cause serious damage in wood structures when an infestation occur. All ants are social insects that work in unison, hence while you see many of them in one colony.
They also share most of their food so Local Pest Control can eradicate your ant problem quickly with the use of environmentally neutral baits.
Pharaoh ant
The pharaoh ant also known as Monomorium pharaonic is a 2 mm yellow or light brown, nearly transparent ant notorious for being an indoor nuisance, especially in hospitals. The pharaoh ant is known to virtually every area of the world.
This species is polygynous, which means each colony has many queens. This also allows the colony to fragment into bud colonies quickly and those colonies do not display aggression toward each other.
The pharaoh ant is also notable for its complex foraging system, involving trail routes maintained with multiple pheromones. It was the first ant species discovered to use a repellant pheromone.
Pharaoh ants are a tropical species, but they thrive in buildings almost anywhere, even in temperate regions provided central heating is present.
Pharaoh ants grow from egg to adult in about 38 days. Females live as long as 4 to 12 months and workers only live up to 10 weeks.
Pharaoh ants are a major pest in hospitals and other medical facilities because these ants infect people. They have a tendency to swarm all over patients’ wounds. Babies and burn patients are the ones most at risk.
To rid them from your area, call Local Pest Control and we’ll go to work.
Carpenter ant
Carpenter ants feature a dull black body and reddish legs with golden hairs covering their abdomen.
Pavement ant
The pavement ant (Tetramorium caespitum) is an ant native to Europe, which also makes an appearance in North America. Its common name comes from the fact that colonies in North America usually make their homes in pavement. It is distinguished by one pair of spines on the back, two nodes on the petiole, and grooves on the head.
Early in the spring, colonies attempt to conquer new areas and often attack nearby colonies leaving thousands of ants dead. In summer, the ants dig out the sand in between the pavements to vent the nests.
The pavement ant is dark brown to blackish, and 2.5–4 mm long. Like other ants there are the workers, alates, and a queen. Alates, or new queen ants and drones, have wings, and are at least twice as large as the workers.
To prevent an infestation please read the following.
Seal openings around doors, windows and the foundation. Overhanging trees should be trimmed so that they are not in contact with the structure. Food preparation areas and floors should be clear of crumbs and trash cans should have tight-fitting lids
To rid them from your area, call Local Pest Control and we’ll go to work.