You know that the holidays or Christmas season is almost upon us as the grease ants start coming out. These tiny ants can stay in the walls for months but when the furnaces in homes begin to run a lot more, these food scavenging ants that both bite and sting, start coming out in full platoons. Now when I say that they bite and sting, it is usually as a defensive reaction and they are unable to bite unless they have something to push against, like a shirt collar or under your pant legs. Large numbers of these pests around kitchens, bathrooms and utility rooms can be a nuisance, especially during mating swarms. Grease ants will feed on a wide variety of foods, and like to eat many foods consumed by humans including meats, crumbs, sugar, flour, grease, as well as live and dead insects, seeds and honeydew. They forage for food for their colonies and set up trails to food sources from their nests. Reproduction occurs when winged males and females swarm, often in June, July and occasionally in mid-winter. After mating, the females search out a new nesting site and become the queen for a new colony. Attempts at killing off these ants using retail products usually ends up in spreading the problem into multiple locations as the queens will ”bud” or move away from the danger and re-establish multiple new nests.
Go Green Pest Control owner Randy Bilesky is a long-time South Delta resident. Trained and certified, Bilesky has first-hand knowledge of the pest problems that local homeowners and business owners encounter.
