Argentine Ants and Control Options
of this you may have more nuisance issues, including in and around structures. I will be sharing information from a UGA publication by Dr. Dan Suiter and Brian Forschler, UGA Department of Entomology.
For starters, Argentine ants are very opportunistic insects. The colony size can get very large with over a million worker ants and hundreds of queens and many nesting sites. They can travel hundreds of feet from nests in order to find food and water. Worker Argentine ants are light brown in color and are approximately three- sixteenths of an inch in size. They are fairly imaginative on nesting sites, too.
According to Suiter and Forschler, they can nest in mulch, leaf litter, compost piles, under rocks, potted plants and rotting logs just to name a few. The key to these potential nesting sites is that these areas will hold moisture when the other areas around that nesting spot can get real dry. Think about it, we use mulch to conserve soil moisture for our plants so it also makes a great spot for an Argentine ant colony.
During summer, Argentine ants normally will feed at the top of trees and shrubs on honeydew. Honeydew is the result of aphid or scale insects feeding on plant sap. Honeydew is sugary, so ants are attracted to this by- product.
Argentine ants will need a place to call home for winter and may nest in voids and other constructed pots that will give a constant warm environment. When spring arrives again, they will move back to outdoor nesting sites. The colony population will peak in late summer.
If Argentine ants have become a problem on your property, it is suggested to try management practices that will cut down on the ant population late summer which will mean less ants that could invade indoors for winter. Management such as outdoor baiting is suggested to start in spring and then continued through summer.
In addition to chemical control, there are some chores you can add to your routine that can cut down on indoor Argentine ant infestations. You need to do some pruning to keep shrub or tree vegetation from touching the home. Remember that Argentine ants like to forage on honeydew on trees and shrubs in summer. If the foliage is touching the outside structure, this is an access area. These ants can nest in leaf litter so cleaning up fallen leaves in the yard and even cleaning out gutters is important. You may even need to balance out the use of mulch in some situations if the nuisance ant issues are too much for you to live with on the property.
If you have infestations, you need to investigate inside and outside the structure to see the amount of Argentine ant issues you have and even try to locate the nest. It should be noted that indoor infestation problems can be traced back to nesting spots outside of the structure. If you do have an Argentine ant infestation, one thing you need to keep in mind that there are several options out there to control the problem, but there is no one chemical option that is completely effective in stopping the ants. You have to try both chemical and non- chemical methods to manage this ant pest.
Suiter and Forschler reminds people to please read the product label of any chemical product for correct use. I will add that there are outdoor and indoor products on the market, so don’t use the right product in the wrong spot. There are baits, granular and sprays on the market. Again, you need to read the labels for safety and proper use including amount of product to be used in an area. I will add that in some situations if the infestation issues continue, you may have to hire a pest management professional to get Argentine ants under control.
For more information, contact UGA Extension- Gordon County at 706- 629- 8685 or email gbowman@ uga. edu.