How to Kill Argentine Ants in the House
Use Ant Bait to Control Odorous House Ant Populations
Nov 2, 2009
Argentine ants, also known as Odorous House Ants, can rapidly reproduce and overrun a home. Control methods are vital to kill these ants as soon as they are noticed by the homeowner lest their population quickly grow too large to effectively handle.
Argentine Ant Populations
Argentine ants are notoriously difficult to manage in a home simply because of the sheer number of ants that make up their colonies. Once an Argentine ant colony becomes large enough, it will split off into a sub-colony. Rather than showing antagonistic behavior toward foreign colonies, like most varieties of ants, Argentine ants will work together and live peacefully.
Some Argentine ant colonies grow so large that hundreds of queens are currently living at one time. An Argentine ant queen can live for ten years and produce hundreds of thousands of larvae during her lifetime.
These ants often live in moist soil, around rotting wood, or even within the walls of houses.
Why Ant Bait is Effective
Different varieties of ants respond better to varying types of poisons. The poison of choice for Odorous House ants is ant bait.
Ant bait works by slowly poisoning the ant. This gives the worker ants ample time to introduce the deadly food to the queens and other ants before succumbing to the poison. Rapidly acting ant poisons will kill off the worker ants before the poison can ever make it to the queen.
It is vital to invest in especially slow acting ant baits with Argentine ants since the colonies are so large. If the ants begin dying off before the majority of the colony has been exposed to the poison, the surviving members of the colony will stop using the ant bait as a food source.
Investigation Methods Prior to Setting Ant Bait Traps
It is important to be familiar with the areas within the home that are frequented by ants before attempting to use an ant bait. The University of Nebraska has released a guide to proper ant bait placement that is invaluable to homeowners hoping to use ant baits to kill Argentine ants in their homes.
Investigation essentially requires finding out which areas in the home the largest volume of ants possible are likely to come into contact with the bait. Dr. Barbara Ogg of suggests placing foods such as peanut butter on index cards throughout the house and conducting an inspection after several hours to see which areas have attracted the largest numbers of ants. Since Argentine ants prefer sweet substances, an individual may also opt for jelly or sugar water.
How to Use Ant Bait on Argentine Ants
Worker ants prefer a sweet ant bait while the colony’s queens and larvae will only eat a protein or grease based bait. Because of this, it will be necessary to purchase more than one type of bait and put them both out in the areas most frequented by the ants.
The worker ants will eat the sweet bait and carry more back to the remainder of the colony. Additional workers will take the grease or protein based bait back to the queen and larvae. If done properly, this will serve to kill off the majority of the colony.
Complete extermination of Argentine ants may require numerous applications of ant baits to achieve. If an individual ceases pest control efforts before all Argentine ants are exterminated, the ants will rapidly repopulate.
Use Ant Spray to Prevent Additional Argentine Ants from Entering the Home
After eradicating house ants, individuals should take immediate measures to prevent the problem from recurring. Some ways to prevent ant infestations are:
- Use an ant spray or dust around the entire perimeter of the home
- Periodically place ant baits and ant poisons outside
- Get rid of any piled debris, wood, cinderblocks, or anything else around the home that ants could nest in.
- Clean up spills and dropped food promptly. If there is nothing for foraging ants to find they are less likely to build colonies within the house.
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