Ants
There are over 30 species of ants in New Zealand many invade homes and other buildings in search of food, warmth and shelter. These include Darwin ant, Argentine ant and White footed house ant.
Ants can nest in a large variety of places like:
- Gaps in between timber framing or fences
- Amongst raised garden beds
- Wall cavities and roof spaces
- Around citrus or fruit trees
Ants will often form trails from the food source to the entrance of their nest. Ants food can change due to the needs of the nest i.e. you spill some soft drink on your bench and don’t clean it up and ants appear to clean it up, but if you left bacon grease in a pan at the same location no ants will appear.
Argentine Ants
Argentine Ants are an invasive species in New Zealand and are classed as one of the top 10 invasive species in the world. Unlike other ant species, Argentine ants will connect and communicate between nests creating a super-colony effect which can cause negative effects or flat out destruction for other species of ant colonies.
Treatment:
Identification is vitally important to control ants, as the methods must be tailored to the ant species involved. There are different ways to approach ant management, most of them involve some form of chemical spraying or gaseous chemical usage. Sometimes a direct chemical approach is not the way to do things and we can implement less involved approaches like bait programs or the use of ant sand in garden and lawn areas.