Ants Still Alive After Pest Control?
“Why are ants still alive after a pest control service?”
This is something we get asked a lot at the time of a pest treatment for ants. There’s a very simple reason for this and it’s because we don’t want them to die – or at least not straightaway.
Most customers want to see all the ants dead straight after a treatment, but this just isn’t an effective way to deal with them.
We want the ants to do the job for us, and by this I mean we need them to take the product back to the colony.
A Bit About Ants
Ants still alive – what product’s best?
The product used to eliminate an ant colony is Termidor and the active is fipronil. This has been around for around 15 years now and has been very successful in the treatment of ants and termites.
We always use Termidor as we believe it works better than the generic brands.
Any ants still alive after a pest treatment will have no idea that they have this product on them. It’s this that makes it so good! If the ants knew they had poison on them the rest of the colony would reject them.
Because of the way fipronil works the ants have no idea, allowing them free entry to the main colony.
Treatment
When we start a pest control treatment, we omplete the internal treatment first and then move onto the outside.
In the old days of pest control we would need to find the ant nest to have any chance of bringing an ant problem under control. But now with new developments in insecticides, this isn’t necessary anymore.
All we need to do is treat the trailing ants found outside on paths, gardens or structures. This makes treating them much easier than before and gives a much higher success rate.
Ants around the house
Ants still alive after treatment
So, you’ve had a treatment carried out and you still see trailing ants. This is because fipronil will not kill the ants on contact. To kill an entire ant colony takes around 2-3 weeks.
The reason we need prolonged mortality of 2-3 weeks is to allow enough time for the product to pass around the entire colony.
After the initial treatment, you should start to see fewer ants within a few days as the colony starts to die off. The only thing that will interrupt this process is the customer.
If the customer decides to try and kill off the remaining trailing ants, the system won’t work. So ants still alive is a good thing as we use them to our advantage.
We’ve done jobs before where the customer has sprayed the remaining ants with products such as Mortein. This is the worst thing that can be done, as the ants that are sprayed won’t make it back to the main colony to pass the Termidor/Fipronil around.
The best thing to do after a pest control service is to listen to us! We will always say spray nothing, just leave the treatment to do it’s job and call after 3 weeks if problems persist.
Conclusion
Always listen very carefully to the professionals at Sunnystate, as we are the ones you’re paying to sort your problem out.
If you interfere with a professional treatment your pretty much wasting your money. Before doing anything ask us first.
If a treatment is done correctly and by a reputable company like Sunnystate, a full 12-month warranty should apply.
Here is a link to some home remedies to try and eliminate ants on your own.
