Ant Control—Baiting Products And Techniques
Ants are social insects and tend to share food with one another. A colony of ants will stick together and may use a line formation when traveling across a kitchen floor or another interior surface. Baiting gels and stations can effectively eliminate an infestation of ants, due to the consumption patterns and social behaviors of these pests.
Bait Products
Ants use pheromones to communicate with one another. Ants have multiple odor receptors. The pheromones and odor receptors work interchangeably, alerting a series of ants to the presence of food. Ant bait products consist of gels and stations. A gel product is designed to be applied along nonporous surfaces. A station will contain granules that have been treated with toxic material.
Some stations contain a sticky surface that will trap ants. Bait products (gels and stations) that contain toxins are designed to attract ants. Ants will use their odor receptors to seek out the location of a gel or station product. Once they have made contact with a gel substance or granules, ants will begin to eat either item. They may carry the gel or granules back to their nest and share it with other ants. A poisonous gel or toxic granules will gradually kill the ants that have consumed the poison.
Installations And Observations
An ant gel product can be applied along the area where flooring and a wall adjoins or along the bottom of a backsplash or a countertop. A gel product will be somewhat thick and will be designed to be squeezed out of a tube. Before the gel is applied, flooring within a home should be swept. It may take ants a day or two to take notice of the gel. It may take additional days for an ant population to be noticeably smaller.
Bait stations that contain granules can be placed on tables, countertops, and floors. Stations should only be added to areas where food is not going to be prepared or consumed. Granule products may take multiple days to begin killing ants.
Sticky bait stations will provide a flat surface for ants to walk upon. As ants traverse a sticky trap they will become stuck and eventually die. A sticky bait trap can be used to measure the severity of an infestation. If a lot of ants become trapped on one, an infestation may be severe. As time passes, new sticky traps may capture fewer ants, indicating that an infestation isn't as severe.
For more information about ant extermination, contact a local pest control company.