As the weather gets warmer, there will be an increase of pests in and out of your home. Some of the pests you may see are ants. Ants seemingly come in packs – when you see one, there’s usually more to follow, and they aren’t something you want in your home.
If you take a better look at these tiny little insects, you will see that they are very handy and resourceful in setting up and maintaining their ant colonies.
In an animated video by Deborah M. Gordon, you see how the ants work to set up their new ant cities. The winged males and winged virgin females meet together in a common breeding ground using pheromones, where they mate and then males die off and the females try to establish a new colony.
If successful, they settle here and begin laying eggs. Setting up these new colonies is done by smelling things around them. The ‘recruiting’ ants will go find food and bring it back to the nest, leaving a pheromone trail, letting them know where they can find their food again. When the food there is depleted, the ants stop marking the path, the scent dissipates and they are no longer drawn to that path.
Knowing how ants make and live in their colonies can help us better control them. If you have an ant problem, contact us, your New Jersey Pest Control today!