About Ants

Ants are the cleaners of the natural world. When animals die in the wild – an extremely common occurrence – ants are the ones that work painstakingly day and night to clear their carcasses, thereby preventing the spread of germs and diseases that might have otherwise resulted from leaving a carcass to decompose in the open. Have you ever dropped cookie crumbs on the floor only to see a steady stream of ants trickling in almost immediately to clear up the mess? Ants feed on our junk; biodegradable junk that helps to sustain colonies of them.

Ants also play another important role in the ecosystem by helping to aerate soil. The complex systems of tunnels that comprise an ant nest does double duty by helping to loosen and aerate soil that may otherwise be too packed for plants to grow. Ant tunnels also have the effect of circulating nutrients evenly throughout the soil by pushing nutrients from the bottom to the top and vice versa.

We often perceive ants to be annoying pests, but the reality is that these tiny organisms also do their part to keep the population of pests low. Ants consume the eggs of certain organisms that we consider to be pests, which goes a long way to stop these pets from proliferating.

You can do your part to help these hardworking ants with their jobs by using a natural, child-safe and pet-safe repellant on them instead of resorting to squishing them. EcoRaider® has an excellent line of products that are free of harmful chemicals, yet extremely effective in keeping ants away.

There are over 16,000 species of ants in the world, and this number is growing by the day as more and more species are being discovered. They are common pests in many homes, and many people have difficulties in trying to get rid of them. However, the one question that many people are not sure of is whether they are harmful or not.

The vast majority of ants are intrinsically not harmful to humans. For instance, you could pick one up and all it will do is scamper around on your hand without biting or stinging. However, this does not apply to all species. Red ants are some of the most feared in terms of being harmful. These ants may be small, but they have a very painful bite.

Having a large number of them bite you at the same time could easily leave you incapacitated. In addition to that, the red fire ant also has a reputation all over the world. This ant species bites and injects venom that could cause anaphylaxis in a human being or other animal. In fact, there are cases where a large number of fire ants bite a single human being, causing massive anaphylaxis and eventually death.

The ants that invade your home are unlikely to be this harmful unless you identify them as fire ants or red ants. However, they can be indirectly harmful, such as by spreading germs from other locations to your food. As a result, you may end up feeling unwell if you consume those foods.

Most ants are not known to fly, but there are some cases when they do. This usually depends on the type of ant, and the role it has in the colony. For instance, the queen usually has wings which can sometimes fall off by molting. The queen needs the wings in order to move from one colony to the next for mating, if this is necessary. An example of this is if the previous colony gets another queen.

The other category of ants that can fly are the male ants. These are usually young ants that are likely to mate in the near future. During mating, the male ants need the wings to do a nuptial dance which is necessary for the mating process.

Typically, the ants swarm from the nest at a particular time of the year in order to mate with a queen. Once this is done, the male ants soon die after mating, and the queen simply loses the wings and starts laying eggs. The ants can also fly to other colonies in order to expand them by mating with the other ants in the nearby colonies.

In summary, it is true that ants can fly, but not all of them do. The ants that fly have this ability for a very specific reason, normally surrounding mating rituals. The next time you see insects that look like ants but which have wings, don’t mistake them for termites. The latter can be identified by their bent antennae and their narrow waists.

Whether or not ants can harm you depends on a host of variables, such as the state of your immunity as well as the species of ants you are dealing with. Fortunately, the ant species that can cause serious harm to any human being are the minority.

For instance, a fire ant has a sting that delivers a toxin which can cause your blood vessels to dilate, leading to low blood pressure and eventually death. The fact that they often attack in packs means that this effects is accelerated. Fortunately, they are easy to spot and such cases are rare.

Generally speaking, ants that invade home may not do much harm to you directly, but they can sometimes indirectly compromise your health and safety. For instance, since the ants crawl around in many spaces, they could pick up various types of germs including E. coli and deposit them on your food. Consumption of this food will definitely lead to health problems including gastroenteritis.

Some ants such as wood eating ants may also damage the structure of your house particularly if it’s made predominantly of wood. Over time, they tend to eat up the wood supporting the house, which may eventually lead to collapse of part of the home. This will likely harm you if you are in the house.

In summary, the vast majority of ants may not be able to harm you directly, but could do so indirectly. This is why it’s important to eradicate them from your home once you notice them.

Yes, some ants do indeed bite. However, not all subspecies in the ant family have stingers, nor do all of them “bite” or “sting” in the conventional sense. Some ants have jaw-like mouthparts that they use to bite. Others they have stingers in addition to mandibles, that they use to sting attackers. When ants feel threatened, or are attacked, they squirt out a jet of formic acid. It is this acid that may cause the burning sensation that many people report feeling when “bitten” by ants.

Certain species of ants are less aggressive than others, and may not even squirt out formic acid when attacked. In such cases, people may only report feeling a sensation of being “bitten” as these ants use their mouthparts to defend themselves against attackers.

More aggressive species of ants may attack with both stingers and mandibles, causing more pain and irritation in humans. Individuals who are allergic to formic acid may suffer greater reactions to otherwise harmless ant bites. In such cases, it is important to seek prompt medical attention.

The best way to avoid ant bites and any associated discomfort is to keep ants away with a natural, pet-friendly and child-friendly insect repellant such as EcoRaider®. This insecticide is also useful in the event of an ant infestation in your home. Chemicals in insect repellants or insecticides may be your friend when keeping ants away, but it is equally important to ensure that the same chemicals do not harm your family.

Ants are in many cases so small that they seem like they would just be a nuisance, but in fact ants can compromise the structural stability of your home. When carpenter ants attack your home they can create conditions that will force you to make very costly repairs. Carpenter ants can cause significant property damage by tunneling through wood in homes to build nests. They mostly tunnel through wood that is or has been wet and damaged by mold, but will also nest inside dry, undamaged wood. The extent and cost of the damage caused by carpenter ants usually depends on the number of nests inside the structure and how long they’ve been active; but tunneling through support beams can be especially detrimental even if there isn’t a significant number of nests.

Although ants do not pose a public health risk, they can contaminate food. Ants will walk over anything and everything to get to a good food source. That means that even if ants themselves do not transmit a serious disease (like mosquitos transmit malaria) they can deposit dirt, and even feces, from the dirty places they were in before entering your home. They can taint any food, making it unsuitable to eat.

Ant infestations are commonly noted in homes that are dirty and disorganized. This is because in this state, it becomes easier for them to find food and water, and they will therefore thrive. However, this does not mean that simply cleaning up will give you foolproof protection against an ant infestation. Even in very clean homes, it is not uncommon to see ants infesting the house from time to time.

This can be attributed to many things including the presence of food and water. For instance, if you have a very clean home but store food such as cookies in containers that are not airtight, ants could easily invade the home and obtain their food from such sources. The same can also happen for trashcans that don’t have lids, or whose lids do not fully close.

Therefore, the answer to whether ants prefer clean or dirty homes is not as clear cut as many would expect. What can be said is that ants can invade both clean and dirty households, but they are much more likely to invade a dirty household. Keeping your house clean means that you are less likely to suffer from this problem, but will not be completely immune from it.

If you want to get rid of ants once and for all, you therefore can’t only rely on keeping the house clean. You may need to put in place other measures including proper storage of food, better waste management and controlling the entry points for the ants.

The answer is yes. In the great circle of life, almost everything is part of the food chain. The abundance of ants means that they are an excellent source of food for many other creatures, including birds and other insects. Sparrows, wrens, antbirds and flickers are just a few birds that chow down on ants. Some of these birds also engage in the practice of anting, which involves rubbing crushed ants under their wings to serve as an insecticide or fungicide.

Spiders, though not technically insects, eat ants as well. Many a clueless ant has fallen into a spider’s web, becoming a tasty treat for the spider. For us humans, spiders serve an important role in the ecosystem, as they feed on organisms that we would usually consider pests.

Ants are in fact one of the greatest predators of their own kind. Fire ants are known to devour other fire ants, while certain types of ants like army ants prefer to consume the young of other ants. The larvae of the antlion also prey on ants, as is evident from its name. These young larvae seize their prey and paralyze it with venom before tucking in. Antlions are particularly welcome in situations where ants are seen as pests.

This is why we should always opt to use safe insecticides or repellants that are free of harmful chemicals. The insecticides and repellants from EcoRaider® are child-safe and pet-safe, and certainly does not do any harm to the birds and beneficial insects that enjoy a good meal of ants.

Carpenter ants are some of the most common types of ants in the United States. There are 14 species of carpenter ants in the country, and they are also the largest ant species known. The fact that they are called carpenter ants might confuse many people to think that they eat wood. However, carpenter ants actually feed on sources of sugar and proteins.

Some of these include other living and dead insects, pet food, syrup, jelly, sweets, honey and honeydew. They are known for foraging at night, mostly between sunset and midnight. When foraging, the carpenter ants can travel up to 90 yards.

The reason why carpenter ants got that name is due to the fact that they prefer to bore into wood to form their nests. Once they bore into the wood, the wood chips are then discarded rather than being eaten by the ants. As time goes by, the carpenter ant tunnels become bigger and longer. The wooden structure they bore into will then become weaker, and they are responsible for collapse of large wooden structures.

This means that if you spot one, it would be in your interest to find the nest and try to use a tried and tested method to get rid of them. EcoRaider® is an ideal ant carpenter ant deterrent. This is because it is all-natural, and has been formulated to directly get rid of carpenter ants and other species of ants. Doing this early will reduce the risk of structural collapse of wooden structures.

Yes, diatomaceous earth is indeed effective in killing ants. When viewed under a microscope, diatomaceous earth is actually made out of millions of microscopic particles, not unlike shards of glass, that are sharp enough to penetrate and puncture the relatively soft inner parts of invertebrates.

Comprised mostly of silica, diatomaceous earth is in fact the fossilized remains of plankton from many, many years ago. Like other insects, ants have exoskeletons, which means that their hard external coverings also double up as skeletons as they have no internal skeleton. Diatomaceous earth works to kill any organism with an exoskeleton by penetrating the hard external shell, puncturing the insect, and then causing death by dehydration.

Though this may sound like a particularly grisly end, have no fear – diatomaceous earth is harmless to mammals even if consumed. In fact, some of our food contains diatomaceous earth to keep it free of bugs. Diatomaceous earth is commonly found in grains and other dried foodstuffs that may attract pests. Its efficacy in killing pests, combined with its relative safety to humans, makes it a great choice as a pest killer in many instances.

However, diatomaceous earth can get messy. Sprinkling and then cleaning it up can be a bothersome task. Excellent alternatives exist in the form of natural insecticides and repellants that are free of all harmful chemicals, yet are effective and way easier to use. The line of insecticides and repellents from EcoVenger® are pet-safe, child-safe, and more convenient than clumps of diatomaceous earth.

We generally associate ants with being small, no larger than a tiny black dot, but some ants can grow surprisingly large. The largest living ant currently is the Queen Driver Ant, which can grow up to over 2 inches. Fortunately, the other driver ants tend to be of less gargantuan proportions, with soldier ants coming up to slightly less than an inch.

The massive queen is generally harmless, as she does little else apart from reproducing. Bullet ants can grow up to more than an inch, which is a terrifying thought considering their painful bite that is said to resemble a bullet shot. These ants are said to deliver the worst possible kind of pain known to mankind with their bites, which makes the thought of their size all the more terrifying.

The largest known ant is 2.4 inches long with a wingspan of 5.9 inches. Luckily (or unluckily) for us, these giants no longer exist today. The average ant today ranges from 0.03 to 2 inches, with most ants tending to be on the smaller end of the scale.

Though if big ants scare you, no fear – there are a wide variety of means today to control and prevent ant infestations in your home. Simple home remedies include the highly effective but troublesome diatomaceous earth, while commercial products such as EcoRaider®’s natural, child-safe and pet-safe insecticides and repellants are extremely effective, even on monster-sized ants.

Ants are social insects that live in colonies that are usually consisted of three groups: the worker ants, the queen, and the males. Most of the ants you see are the workers, which are sterile females. The workers are responsible for gathering food, feeding the brood and queen, and defending the nest. Members of the brood (immature ants) are usually whitish in color and resemble fly maggots. Most ant species produce winged males and females only during certain times of the year. These winged ants, that are also known as swarmers, leave the nest to mate and start new colonies. After mating, the males die and the females become queens and search for suitable locations to start new colonies. Once a new location is found, the queen sheds her wings and starts laying eggs. The queen will take care of the larvae until they become pupae. Within a few weeks, the pupae will become adult worker ants and they will take over the job of taking care of the brood.

Having an ant infestation in your kitchen can be frustrating, particularly if you notice their numbers growing over time. In some cases, you may also notice them doing more and more damage to your food, and in some cases making it inedible. In this position, you could come up with a plan to get rid of the ants effectively and in such a manner that you will not have to deal with the same problem again.

Most people simply use an insecticide to kill the ants and then leave it at that, but this rarely protects the kitchen from a repeat invasion. For a more thorough extermination, several steps may be involved. For one, you can use an organic product such as EcoVenger® to get rid of the ants. This is only toxic to the ants, so other household members such as pets and children will not be adversely affected by it.

Once this is done, you may need to rethink the manner in which you store your food to make it more inaccessible to the ants. For instance, rather than keeping bread in a simple bread basket, you could get one that is lockable and does not have any point where an ant can go through.

To prevent future invasions, you can also consider sealing the ants’ entry points using caulk, as well as damaging the ants’ nest using boiling water. To do this, you only need to boil water in a kettle and pour it directly over the ant nest. If you can’t identify the nest, you could seek the services of a pest control expert to help you find it.

People have come up with many ingenious ways to get rid of ants, and to be honest, many of these ways do work. For example, salt and cayenne pepper can be sprinkled in an area where you want to keep ants at bay. Both of these methods can work separately on their own.

Some people also sprinkle flour around the area as flour can repel ants. For those of you who have chalk in your household, you can also break up the chalk and use it to eliminate ants because the calcium carbonate in chalk is a natural ant repellant. Another creative way to get rid of ants is to use double sided tape to cordon off the area you want to keep ants out. The upward-facing sticky tape will then trap invading ants.

However, did you notice that the methods mentioned earlier are messy and you will be tempted to clean up the mess after some time? It is then possible that the ants will come back! The best way to get rid of the annoying ants is to use an ant repellent spray or insecticide.

You need to be aware that many insecticides on the market contain toxic chemicals in them and some of them can even harm humans and pets when ingested in a large amount. Therefore, make sure you use a child-friendly and pet-friendly natural ant repellant such as EcoRaider® so that it is only lethal for the ants and does not pose as a risk for non-target humans and pets.

Argentine ants are some of the peskiest, hardest-to-get-rid-of species of ants. Normally, while ant colonies tend to be isolated, argentine ants have the ability to form massive colonies by combining colonies, creating a force to be reckoned with.

It is not an exaggeration to say that getting rid of an argentine ant infestation is not an endeavor that can be accomplished by just one person. While the average ant colony has only one queen, super-colonies of Argentine ants may have thousands and thousands of queens, not to mention worker and soldier ants. Thus, the only way to get rid of them is to prevent an infestation in the first place.

Sprinkling talcum powder or diatomaceous earth works well to keep argentine ants out of your home. It is also important to seal up any crevices or cracks in the walls to prevent argentine ants from creeping in. To keep Argentine ants out of your garden, a mixture of boric acid and sugar water may work wonders by luring the ants and then destroying their nests with the boric acid. However, completely eradicating a super-colony of Argentine ants is likely impossible, and you may have to settle for just keeping them at bay.

A safe, natural repellant/insecticide such as EcoVenger® is an indispensable tool in the event of an Argentine ant infestation. More convenient than talcum powder or diatomaceous earth, the child-safe, pet-safe formulas that EcoVenger® uses are free of harmful chemicals, yet as effective as any other brand of chemical-based insect repellant.

Carpenter ants are a legitimate nightmare for homeowners. Unlike other species of ants that build their nests with soil, carpenter ants prefer to build their homes in pieces of wood. If your home is made of wood, a carpenter ant infestation can prove lethal as these ants create countless tunnels as they burrow in and out of wood. However, unlike termites, carpenter ants merely burrow through the wood instead of eating it. A telltale sign of carpenter ant infestation is the presence of wood shavings.

The first step in treating a carpenter ant infestation is to first identify the species of ants you have in your home. Carpenter ants are a nondescript black in color and have few features that are able to distinguish them from other species of ants. It may be wise to hire an expert to determine that you are indeed experiencing a carpenter ant infestation, so as to quickly choose the best course of action possible that is specific to the problem.

Minor infestations of carpenter ants can be handled with a small amount of sugar water and boric acid, while more major infestations that have already caused significant damage may require professional pest control to step in. Meanwhile, choose a safe and natural insecticide such as EcoVenger® to nip infestations of carpenter ants in the bud and save your precious home from a lot of potential damage.

Fire ants are a nightmare for all, even the most dedicated ant-lover. These ants are more aggressive than average and will viciously attack any humans or animals that they deem to be a threat.

The first step in dealing with a fire ant infestation is to prevent anyone from getting near the fire ant infestation. If it is possible to locate mounds on your property, cordon off these areas, getting attacked by fire ants near their nest can be fatal. The next step would then be to treat the infestation with a natural, child-safe, and pet-safe insecticide such as EcoVenger®.

Treat mounds by either drenching them in enough liquid insecticide to kill the entire colony or use baits to lure the fire ants out if the infestation has not yet reached urgent levels. You may also want to pour a mixture of vinegar and baking soda into the mound, then follow up with hot water to ensure that the colony is thoroughly eradicated.

More importantly, continue to monitor the ant population even after you have treated the mounds as there may be a couple of ants that still remain and may pose a threat to you and your family. Keep pets and children far away from any identifiable fire ant mounds to prevent accidents. If the infestation is too serious to deal with, do not hesitate to call in a professional. Fire ants are among some of the most aggressive ant species ever, and an infestation may cause serious harm to you and your family if allowed to fester.

Pharaoh ants are easily identifiable by their yellow and black coloring and marked preference for sweet and greasy foods, unlike other ants who seem happy to eat almost anything. These ants are most commonly found in warmer areas, where the climate is sufficiently humid. Pharaoh ant colonies, unlike fire ant mounds, are hard to detect and treat; hence different methods are required to treat infestations of pharaoh ants.

The best method to deal with a pharaoh ant infestation is to use a slow-acting bait. Slow-acting bait allows worker ants to transport the bait back to feed the queen and other ants in the colony, effectively spreading the insecticide to the entire colony. Fast-acting bait, on the other hand, only manages to kill the worker ants that come into contact with it. Be sure to layout bait that caters to all the feeding needs of the colony.

Pharaoh ants require protein, carbohydrates, and sugars, thus it is important to ensure that you have laid out baits that correspond to all these nutritional needs. When baits have been laid out, ensure that other sources of food are removed so that the ants will have no choice but to consume the bait.

Also, remember to use a non-repellant insecticide that is safe for both pets and children. EcoRaider® has a line of insecticides that is free of harmful chemicals, yet is no less effective than other products in the market. Repellants tend to cause colonies to split up and scatter, rendering any efforts to destroy the queen invalid.

It is easy to spot an ant invasion in your home; they will mostly manifest as a group of small insects marching in a single file looking for sources of sustenance such as food crumbs or water. What’s harder for most people to do is figure out which ant species they are dealing with.

There are more than 16,000 ant species in the world, and more are discovered each year so one can expect this number to go up. Fortunately, any single region is the United States is likely to have only a few hundred species, making identification easier.

To figure out which ant species you have, a possible first step is to find out the prevalent ant species in your locality. This is information that is easy to find both online and from pest control specialists. Some ants have characteristic traits which makes them easy to identify.

An example is the odorous house ants, which are extremely common and produce a strange smell when crushed. Some people link the smell to blue cheese or rotten coconut. Other easy to identify yet hard to spot ants are the ghost ants, which have pale legs and abdomens, which is what makes them difficult to see. Fire ants are also easy to identify, with small red bodies and extremely painful bites.

For the thousands of other ant species out there, you can always rely on online ant databases which have pictures and descriptions of most ant species. You can compare these with the ants in your house to know which types of ants you are dealing with.

Preventing ant infestations in your garden is important. Remember, this is where you may hold events such as picnics and parties. In fact, do note that most ant infestations in your home will begin in your garden. Preventing garden ant infestations is also an indirect way of preventing ant infestations in your home.

One of the most natural methods of doing this is growing plants that will repel the ants. There are many species that have this quality, including chrysanthemums. You can use them to enhance the beauty of your garden as well as preventing ant infestations. It is advisable to grow them in areas where the ant infestations are most probably going to arise from. You can also create a natural barrier around the garden using these plants.

Crumbs of food should not be left in the garden after events such as parties and picnics. These crumbs will attract ants, as they act as the source of food for the ants. Part of this involves cleaning the garden soon after these events. If you happen to have any bins around the garden, make sure they are properly lined and that their lids fit perfectly. Any food thrown in the bins could attract ants if these measures are not put in place.

Preventing an ant infestation in your garden is important, and the above are the most effective ways of doing it. In case of an infestation, use an effective and ecofriendly deterrent such as EcoRaider® to get rid of them quickly and easily.

Sometimes, getting rid of an ant infestation can be difficult. Once you have successfully gotten rid of an ant infestation, chances are that you will not want to deal with the problem again. There are several methods you can use to prevent the infestation from recurring. This will not only be cheaper but also offer better peace of mind.

The surroundings of your home can have an influence on the risk of ant infestation. When doing landscaping, using plants that repel ants such as chrysanthemums and citrosa will not only make your home more beautiful, but will also ensure that ants never get within a few feet of your home. Repellant plants also ensure that the ants will not form nests around the compound of your home.

Keeping your house clean is important in preventing infestations in your home. Ants infest homes in order to get food that will keep the colony going. Keeping your home, particularly your kitchen, clean will ensure that they are denied of this food, and will prevent an infestation. Keeping your trash cans properly covered and clean should be a daily habit.

Making sure that cans of sugar and bottled syrups are tightly closed is also important, since these are the items that most ants target as food. As part of cleaning up your kitchen, making sure that any spills of sweet liquids such as juice are cleared as soon as possible will also ensure that the ant infestation will not occur. Destroying the ant colony and making sure the queen is gotten rid of is also important in preventing re-infestations.

The mantra “prevention is better than cure” is commonly used in medical circles, but it can also be used in many other areas of life such as pest control. In the case of ants, making sure that they do not invade your home at all will many times be easier than having to go through the process of eradicating them. You could do this whether you have never had an ant infestation, or if you have just eradicated one and want to make sure that you never have to do it again.

If you have just eradicated ants from your home, being thorough is the key to making sure that they do not invade it again. Using trustworthy products such as EcoVenger® as well as clearing all traces of the ants including their nest will make sure that not a single ant is spared. If not, they could replicate within your house, and cause the same problem all over again.

Being hygienic can also be an effective way of preventing invasion. Remember that ants come into homes primarily to look for food sources. Keeping your food in airtight containers, making sure that your trash can has a tight lid, and clearing food crumbs from surfaces as soon as possible will cut off this food supply. You may also use caulk to seal all possible entry points for the ants.

There are other numerous prevention methods with varying degrees of effectiveness out there. These include sprinkling black pepper on your countertops and floor, leaving coffee grounds where the ants are most likely to enter the house from.

Ants can be a problem anywhere in the home but we often find them in our kitchens. There are a few steps that can be taken to keep ants out of the kitchen. First, keep your kitchen tidy. Crumbs, juice spills, and food kept in non-air tight containers encourage ants to enter your home. Keeping your kitchen tidy will help to discourage ants from coming indoors. It is best to wipe down counters and sweep floors regularly. Ripe fruit should be kept in the refrigerator. It is also important to remove trash from your house often and make sure that the trashcan in your kitchen has a lid.

Once you have rid your kitchen of the food and water that attracts ants it is important to block the ways in which they enter your home. Ants usually enter homes through cracks around windows and doors, but will also come through holes for wires. Check these areas and make sure to use silicone caulk to seal the cracks and holes.

When you have an ant infestation problem, one of the problems you will need to deal with is how long the elimination will take. This will influence a number of factors including how you need to prepare for the infestation.

The length of time it takes to eliminate an infestation depends on a number of variables. The first of these is the method of elimination you are using. Using quality products such as EcoRaider® sprays, which also tend to be ecofriendly, results in a much faster rate of elimination. The degree of infestation will also influence the time it will take to eliminate it. If the ants are only in a single nest, it will take less time to eliminate them compared to when they have many nests in multiple locations.

You may also need to use the right technique for elimination to get faster results. For instance, ignoring the ant nest and only focusing on the ants that you can see will result in a much longer time to complete elimination. The nest will act as source of more ants, so if you don’t get rid of it your elimination efforts might take a while.

These are the most important variables affecting the length of time it will take to eliminate an ant infestation. The quality of products used and the right skill are extremely critical, and will result in a much faster rate of elimination. For the latter, consider using a pest control contractor to get rid of the infestation.

As of the time of writing, there are nearly 1000 species of ants in the United States. While this may seem like a huge number, there are other countries such as Australia and Indonesia that host significantly more species of ants. Generally, the colder the climate, the fewer species of ants to be found.

Countries near both the North and South poles with polar climates may have as few as 1 species of ant, while tropical countries like Indonesia may have up to a whopping 1500 species of ants within their boundaries. Our northern neighbor, Canada, has significantly fewer species of ants – around 200, which may be due in most part to its colder climate.

Even in the US, the number of species of ants that can be found varies from state to state. Again, climate plays a big part in determining this. Chilly Maine, for example, has way fewer species of ants than humid Louisiana. The number of species of ants that is actually visible is an entirely different matter. Most ants come in two colors, black or red, and most species do not have defining physical characteristics that may make it easier to differentiate them from other species.

If ants scare you, no worries – there is a wide variety of safe, natural products on the market that help to deal with ant infestations. EcoRaider® makes several insect repellants and insecticides that are safe for both children and pets and contain no harmful chemicals.

Ants are small, six legged insects that usually live in a complex social colony. They can be found all over the world. There are more than 700 ant species found in the United States alone. Of those seven hundred species approximately twenty-five infest homes.

The ant’s body is made of three distinct sections: the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. Ants, like other insects, have an exoskeleton which means that their skeleton is on the outside and is not covered by skin, muscles, and tissue like humans.

The ant’s head has several important parts. Ant eyes are similar to flies’ eyes. They have many small eyes connected together which enables them to see movement very well. An ant’s head also contains two feelers. The feelers help ants communicate. Ants communicate by releasing pheromones (chemicals that have different smells). Other ants use feelers to pick up these smells as signals. Lastly, the head has two strong pinchers which are used to dig, carry food, and help the ant defend itself.
An ant’s thorax is the part of the body where all six legs are attached. At the end of each leg is a sharp claw that helps the ant climb and hang onto objects. Lastly, the abdomen is the part of the ant’s body that contains the poison sack. Ants are related to wasps; some types of ants have stingers that can inflict a very painful sting.

Most homeowners will have an easy time knowing that they have an ant infestation in their home, by simply seeing the ants moving in a single file from one place to another. However, there are times when this may be easier said than done, and you may need other methods to determine this. In addition to seeing the ants moving in single file, there are several other signs that indicate that your house has been infiltrated, and that you need to start planning on how to eradicate them.

One of these is the presence of an ant nest. Ant nests can be thought of as the headquarters of the ants, and are usually located on your lawn just outside the house. This is where the ants take the food from your home. The typical ant nest appears as a mound of earth that may or may not have a few ants around it. You may also notice numerous ants going into and out of the mound. Ant nests can also be small piles of dirt, normally located in dark quiet places of the house. These are usually more difficult to see unless you check thoroughly.

Some ants leave a trail of pheromones and other chemicals on the surface on which they walk. This usually acts as a guide for other ants, so that they can follow the same route to a source of food. For some ant species, these trails are visible to the human eye. Finally, you may notice a lone ant walking on the floor or other surfaces. This is usually a sentinel ant that surveys the area for food and water. If you see one, chances are high that there are many other ants in hiding somewhere around your home.

Although there are twenty five species of ants in the United States that are known to infest homes, carpenter ants, odorous house ants, and pavement ants are three of the most cited as structural and nuisance pest ants according to Dr. Laurel D. Hansen of Spokane Falls Community College and Washington State University.

Carpenter ants are relatively large ants that range in size from one-quarter of an inch for a worker ant to up to three-quarters of an inch for a queen. They are usually red, black, or a combination of the two colors. Although they are found throughout the United States, they are most prevalent in the North. The carpenter ant gets its name from the way it hollows out wood in order to build a nest. Their excavation results in smooth tunnels inside the wood. Carpenter ants usually attack wood that is or has been wet and damaged by mold but they commonly begin building paths through dry, undamaged wood after they have tunneled through the damaged wood.

Odorous house ants range in size from one-sixteenth of an inch to one-eighth of an inch long. They are brown or black in color and are found throughout the United States. The odorous house ant gets its name from the strong odor it gives off when it is crushed; the smell is similar to a rotten coconut. Odorous house ants nest near moisture sources in homes, such as in heaters, beneath leaky fixtures in wall voids near hot water pipes, and inside wood damaged by termites. They are constantly in search of food and are particularly attracted to sweet smelling foods.

Pavement ants are another species of ants that are a great nuisance in the United States. These dark brown to black ants are approximately one eighth of an inch long and are found throughout the country. Pavement ants get their name because they make nests in or under cracks in pavement. Pavement ants are omnivores that have been known to eat almost anything. They devour seeds, nuts, fruits, meat, bread, and cheese. They will explore areas up to thirty feet from their nests and are known to climb walls to enter homes.

Ants enter homes in search of food and moisture. Carpenter ants in particular are drawn to wood in your home that has sustained water damage. To help reduce the chance of carpenter ants invading your home, eliminate moisture or standing water in and near your home. In order to do that, it is necessary to repair or replace damaged downspouts, leaking hose bibs and other supply lines, broken drain lines, as well as air conditioner condensation lines.

Ants are always in search of food, and are particularly attracted to sweet smells. In the wild ants will sometimes guard and even care for aphids in return for their honeydew (a sweet excretory product) they produce. Inside our homes, ants are constantly on the lookout for other sweet smelling items as well.

In most ant colonies, the ants have a queen who is noticeably larger compared to the rest of the ants. This is the most common differentiating factor between queen ants and the regular ants. In many species of ants, the queens are also born with wings, a feature that the rest don’t have. This is because during the queen’s life, she may need to fly to find a new colony.

The other classical feature of the queen ant is the thorax. For most, this is the most distinct physical feature differentiating a queen from the rest of the ants. A queen ant has a thorax that is much more muscular compared to workers’ bodies. In fact, the thorax of a queen ant may make up more than half of the size of its body. In fact, the thoraces of most queen ants tend to be much larger than some ants.

The location of the ant is also likely to determine whether it is a queen or not. While most ants are all over the place, queen ants can only be found within the ant nest. If you need to see one, you may need to first find the nest and then find the center of the nest to see the queen.

The role of the queen is to mate and produce many worker ants, so there is minimal need for her to move unless she needs to find another colony. Finding the nest can be an arduous and time consuming process. You would be better off consulting a pest control specialist to find the nest.

Ants are industrious members of the ecosystem. Their constant activity helps to reduce pest populations, improve soil quality and clean the environment, among other benefits. In this way, ants are indispensable allies to us humans.

Farmers will appreciate that ants help to keep pest populations low by preying on the eggs of these organisms.  Ants also help to improve crop yield and quality indirectly by contributing to better soil. Ant tunnels aerate waterlogged soil and help to distribute nutrients by giving the soil a good stir.

Park rangers may recognize that ants help them a great deal in keeping parks clean and free of animal carcasses. In huge national parks, it is impossible for park rangers and other workers to keep a constant lookout for biodegradable waste such as animal carcasses and leftover food. This is where ants come in. With their uncanny senses they are able to locate food, and work in huge teams to swiftly break down huge amounts of food/waste matter which they then transport back to their nests to consume.

It is thus evident that the rest of us benefit indirectly from the work that ants do silently. The crops we consume, the parks we enjoy – all of these can be attributed in some way to ants and their hardworking nature.

So sometimes, while ants may be annoying, it is not necessary to completely annihilate your local populations of ants. Opt for a safe, natural insect repellant such as EcoRaider®, to keep these ants out of your home rather than kill them.

If you are having a problem with an ant infestation in your home, chances are that you will try out different methods to get rid of them. One of the commonest methods people use is to use a spray to kill them. However, there are increasing reports that most of the sprays are not working. If you spray the ants and they keep moving, it could mean a couple of things. One could be that the spray is not meant for ants, and the other could be that the ants are resistant to the type of spray you are using.

However, you should not lose hope if the spray you use is not effective. There are a number of other ways to kill the ants you can try out. One of these is to use products from EcoRaider® to get rid of them. The EcoRaider® ant spray is made up of chemicals that are specifically directed against ants, so you could switch from the current spray to the EcoRaider® spray.

The main benefit of using this spray is that it is ecofriendly, so you don’t need to worry about it affecting pets, children or other organisms apart from ants. When using this affordable spray, you may also need to find the ant nest, so that you can spray this region too. The ant nest could be considered the ‘base’ for the ants, since all their activities surround the nest. Once you use the spray here, chances are that you will have gotten rid of them for good.

While ants have a reputation for being fierce biters, especially red ants, it is important to know that not all species of ants are as aggressive as they are perceived to be. Although some ants may choose to put up a good fight when attacked, biting and stinging with all their might, others prefer to avoid danger and run away.

Certain species of ants, such as fire ants and bullet ants, have extremely painful bites that might require immediate medical attention. These ants bite/sting at the first signs of aggression, so it is wise to avoid these ants if possible. Sugar ants, on the other hand, are mild-mannered and only bite when directly attacked. They also do not release formic acid, which makes their bites more painless than that of their more aggressive counterparts.

Also, not all ants that belong to a particular subspecies bite. Queen ants, for example, rarely venture out of their nests, spending almost all of their time reproducing. Worker ants tend to be the more aggressive ones of the bunch, always ready to defend their territory against attackers.

Not all ants bite. But in the event that you encounter ants that do, their bites may be uncomfortable at best, or trigger an allergic reaction at worst. It is probably best to play safe and use an all-natural insect repellant that is safe for both children and pets to keep yourself and your loved ones free of ants. EcoRaider® is an excellent choice for an effective, yet gentle ant repellant that contains no harmful chemicals.

It is a known fact that ants are most likely to invade a home if it’s not clean, since this means that the sources of food are abundant there. However, there are many incidences where you could keep your house spotless, but still notice an ant invasion from time to time. This can be very frustrating, since you may have spent a lot of effort in keeping the house clean.

There are several reasons why this occurs. First, you have to understand that in addition to looking for food, ants also invade homes when seeking water and escaping weather changes. If their natural outdoors habitat has a lack of water, they may then invade homes to find more of it. In addition to that, ants could invade homes as a mechanism for fleeing adverse weather conditions such as very dry and hot weather or even floods. With global warming becoming more of a problem every day, this may become a bigger problem in future.

If you live in a house which is attached to another such as in an apartment, the ant invasion could simply be a spillover from one of your neighbor’s homes. For instance, if they have a less than hygienic home where ants thrive, their numbers could quickly rise, and some of them may then spread out to avoid overpopulation.

If your house is spotless but still has an ant invasion, the two important things you can do are to use a reliable and natural pesticide such as EcoRaider® to get rid of the present ants, as well as sealing the entry points you have noted.

Ants comprise a large percentage of the earth’s total biomass, and have more than 16,000 species. If your house is invaded by them, it may seem daunting to identify the species due to these facts. However, it’s usually critical to have a basic understanding of which species you are dealing with.

By knowing the species of ants invading your home, you will be in a better position to devise a method to get rid of them permanently. This is because different species of ants have different characteristics and behavior. Once you have used a product such as EcoRaider® to get rid of them, you will also need to put in place measures to ensure that they don’t invade your home again.

This is where knowing your ant species will be most critical. By having a rudimentary knowledge of the ant species and their unique behavior, you can then come up with preventative methods that act specifically against that particular species. In addition to that, knowing the ant species will influence your approach to them. For instance, if you identify fire ants in your home, you would immediately know that they are dangerous. You and your children would therefore be advised to have no contact with them.

Finally, since different ant species have different nest establishment methods, knowing the ant species will make it easier for you to know where to look for the nests when eradicating them. This will make the process more thorough. Neglecting this could raise the risk of a recurrence.