Use multipronged strategy to deal with ants
Published 9:37 pm Monday, July 16, 2018
How do I get rid of them little black ants or crazy ants or whatever they’re called? I’ve tried everything.
Little black ants and crazy ants — those are really their names — are two different species, but both live in colonies in soil, stumps, mulch and similar areas and often venture indoors in search of food and water.
The little black ant is known scientifically as Monomorium minimum; the crazy ant, or more properly the tawny crazy ant, is known as Nylanderia fulva.
To control little black ants, remove potential hideaways from near the house, seal exterior cracks, place liquid baits where the ants forage and, if possible, use contact insecticide on nests.
To control crazy ants, follow the above steps, but also be sure to spray ornamental landscape plants to eliminate insects that produce honeydew, a staple of the crazy ant diet.
“The crazy ants and honeydew insects are mutually supportive of one another,” Mississippi State University entomologist Blake Layton writes in a fact sheet on the ants.
“You get more ants because they have honeydew to feed on and then you get more honeydew-producing insects because the ants are protecting them. These systemic plant treatments are important because they break this cycle.”
Additionally, Layton suggests homeowners use Advance Carpenter Ant Bait and Advance 375A or Max Force Complete — granular baits that tend to attract crazy ants.
To improve their chances of success, the LSU AgCenter’s website says, homeowners should grind the bait into smaller bits to make it more manageable for the tiny crazy ants.
A little history
Tawny crazy ants used to be called Rasberry crazy ants — a reference to a Houston pest control man who found some in 2002 and to the insects’ erratic movements.
The ants, originally from South America, arrived in the United States via Florida in the 1950s and were initially misidentified as Caribbean crazy ants — insects that in fact never left the Caribbean.
The first tawny crazy ant specimens recorded in this state came from a Sulphur homeowner who sent them to the Louisiana State Arthropod Museum in Baton Rouge, where curator Victoria Bayless identified them in June 2011.
The ants — small, reddish-brown and with a penchant for moving at a frenzied pace — build colonies comprising several nests and queens, and have been known to displace fire ant colonies.
Online: www.lsuagcenter.com.
The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by Andrew Perzo, an American Press staff writer. To ask a question, call 494-4098 and leave voice mail, or email informer@americanpress.com.
The Tawny Crazy Ant is scientifically known as Nylanderia fulva.
The little black ant is scientifically known as Monomorium minimum.
