Ant Problem

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From Rodent Control to Ant Control

Recently, as part of a routine service visit at one of our commercial accounts our technician was checking their rodent bait stations as part of their duties. One of the bait boxes had a large number of ants in and around the box.

Although the target pest were mice, of course, quite often ants and other insects are attracted to the rodent baits. When servicing these bait stations, we often find the bait either partially or completely depleted.

Since these bait stations are a necessary part of a monitoring and for treatment, to control rodent populations, it often becomes necessary to control other insects including ants, who are attracted to and are feeding on the bait.

Prior to servicing this site, we attended another commercial property that also had an ant infestation around the building’s exterior perimeter.

When attempting to resolve the first ant infestation, we initially tried an ant gel bait, along the route they were trailing. The ants had no interest whatsoever in the bait. There was no problem with the bait itself. It just so happened that this gel bait, which has a sugary base, which ants often need for energy, was not needed at this period in their lifecycle

So we went to Plan B and switched over to a granular bait, which has a protein base. The ants were all over it — literally — within minutes.

Since we were successful with the granular bait on the first job, we thought we would use it again on this job to deal with these ants. This time, they were not interested.

We then switched to the gel bait in this instance, and immediately these ants began feeding on. These particular ants were obviously at a different stage where they wanted sugar and not protein.

Our Solution

The lesson learnt with these two jobs in two different locations, but at the same time is, as with most pest infestations in general, we need to have a variety of products and applications at our disposal.

Dealing with pest infestations is not a one size fits all approach. Often, we must try different strategies until we find the one that works for that particular species, in that particular situation and at that particular time.