Ants Are People Too

HONEYPOT ANTS  Credit: Greg Hume https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/deed.en


It’s almost spring and still cold out.  Why am I seeing ants in my bathroom?  What should I do?

First, I will give you a little understanding of ant biology.  Second, I will describe how you should approach your ant incursion.  


According to Gary A. Dunn, author of “Insects of the Great Lakes Region”: Ants are the most abundant form of life in the Great Lakes Region.  In 1975, eighty seven species of ants were recorded from the Edwin S. George Reserve in southeastern Michigan.  


Ants are social insects living in small to large colonies, generally located in soil or wood.  The colonies are composed of individuals with specialized functions (castes). The wingless workers (sterile females) and winged reproductives (males and females) are essentially alike, except for the reproductive organs, wings and differing sizes.  The wings, four in number, are membranous with reduced venation.  The hind wings are distinctly smaller than the front wings. 


Members of the worker caste construct and maintain the nest, care for the young (eggs, larvae, and pupae), and defend the colony against intruders.  The males of the reproductive caste are short lived, surviving only long enough to mate with a queen.  The queen is only mated once and from that point on is able to produce eggs continually throughout the remainder of her lifetime (generally up to two to three years).  When an ant colony becomes overcrowded, large numbers of reproductive males and females are produced.  These winged reproductives leave the nest in a large swarm and individual males and females pair up and leave the area to look for a suitable site to establish a nest of their own.  


Ants are related to wasps and bees, all belonging to the Order Hymenoptera.  Ants evolved from ancestors of vespoid wasps in the Cretaceous period.  The oldest ant fossil was found in 99 million year old amber.  A 2006 study suggested that ants arose tens of millions of years before this, possibly as early as 168 million years ago.  The rise of flowering plants was about 100 million years ago.  Flowering plants helped ant species  diversify.  Eventually, ants assumed ecological dominance around 60 million years ago.   

 

ANTS IN AMBER  Credit: Brocken Inaglory https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

Ants have colonized almost every land mass on Earth.  The only places without ants are Antarctica and a few remote islands.  The success of ants has been attributed to their social organization, their ability to utilize resources and their ability to defend themselves.  It is estimated that there are 22,000 species of ants on Earth.  Only 13,800 species of ants have been classified.  Ants are incredibly fascinating: ants that care for aphids and “milk” them like dairy cows, leaf cutter ants that cultivate fungus on bits of leaves, honeypot ants who have dedicated workers to store nectar in their abdomens (living storage jars).  The stories of how ant species survive are many and worth investigating.


Ants communicate with each other using pheromones (chemicals), sound and touch.  Ants perceive smells with long, thin and mobile antennae.  The antennae provide information about the direction and intensity of scents.  Ants leave pheromone trails that may be followed by other ants.  A forager that finds food, marks the trail on the way back to the colony.  This trail is followed by other ants and they reinforce the trail as they head back to the colony.  When the food is exhausted, they stop reinforcing the trail and the scent slowly dissipates.  


When you see ants in your house, they are creeping around looking for water and food.  After a long, cold winter of hibernation, the ants are thirsty so it makes sense that they will find and collect water from your bathroom.  They won’t slake their thirst from your bathroom for long so don’t freak out.  When spring rains arrive there is plenty of water outside for them to drink. 

 

If you see ants in your kitchen, there is a food source they are utilizing.  It is time to clean better and make sure there are no open food containers.  Any food left out, they will find.  If a little cookie crumb drops on the floor, the ants will clean it up for you.  


The other circumstance when you might see ants in your house is when you have rotten wood.  Carpenter ants make their home in rotting wood.  If you have a leak in your roof or wall, and the wood starts to rot, the carpenter ants will make their home in the rotting part of the house.  Carpenter ants are a sign of a bigger problem - your house is rotting.  If you have firewood stored right next to your house, this can be another source of Carpenter ants.


       CARPENTER ANTS IN TREE  Credit: NaCl58 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
 

When you have ants in your kitchen:  First, eliminate the food source for the ants.  Second, you should wipe down all the counter tops and floors (especially where the ant trails were located) with an equal mixture of white vinegar and water.  Ants hate the smell of vinegar and the vinegar removes the ant scent trails.  White vinegar is a good cleaner so you can give kitchen surfaces a good cleaning at the same time you manage your ants.  


If you have gotten rid of the food source, cleaned with white vinegar and still have an ant invasion, it is time to feed the colony some ant bait.  You can purchase a bottle of Terro Liquid Ant Bait for around $5 to $6 dollars.  The active ingredient is Borax.  Borax is a naturally occurring hydrate salt of boric acid, hauled out of the California and Nevada deserts.  It was commonly used in household laundry and cleaning products.  Borax has a low toxicity, but it can cause respiratory irritation when overexposed to the dust.  Terro ant bait is a liquid so this in not a problem.


Boric acid ant bait is a slow acting ant killer.  Boric acid combined with a food source or attractant is very palatable to ants.  Worker ants will eat some boric acid bait, then take it back to the colony and feed to other ants.  You want the entire colony - the queen and the brood - to be fed the boric acid.  The slow acting bait allows the entire colony to share in the deadly feast.  


I’m mostly concerned with ants in the house.  If you have troubles with ants outside, most of the time you want to just leave them alone.  You will most likely fight a losing battle.  Ants are important recyclers in the environment.  They can also be helpful predators when you have pests in your garden.  Outside, ants are normally helpful allies.


One exception is the red imported fire ant - a nasty pest when their colonies are located close to peoples’ homes.  Fire ants are subtropical species and have not spread to the northern states like Michigan.  If you live in a warm region where fire ants do occur, you might want to eliminate colonies of fire ants in your yard and prevent people from being stung.  Fire ant mounds are easy to identify. 

FIRE ANT MOUND 
Credit: Alex Wild, produced by the University of Texas "Insects Unlocked" program., CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

 

A safe and biodegradable way to treat fire ant colonies is to pour a mixture of orange oil and water into the mound.  Orange oil (D-limonene) kills the ants by destroying the wax coating of the ant’s respiratory system.  A 16 oz. bottle of Natures Wisdom cold pressed orange oil costs around $24.  They recommend you mix 4 ounces per gallon of water.  Be aware that fire ant colonies usually grow a few feet deep into the ground so you might need several gallons of solution for one application.  You need to kill the queen so you must be vigilant and observe if the colony is rebounding from the treatment.  


Ants are important members of our ecosystem.  They are recyclers, pollinators and predators.  Most of the time, they are not doing any harm to people.  There are only a few circumstances when you will need to take action to remove ants.  Ants have been on earth at least 440 times longer than humans.  They have survived a long time because they are a well organized society, use resources efficiently and know how to defend themselves.  We could probably learn some lessons from ants.  


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