Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Hello, this is Ben. And it’s time for another one of our Ben’s pest control podcasts. And today, I want to talk to you about something that’s kind of irregular. But we’re starting to see it actually a little bit more. And so I thought I would, would would bring this one up and do an episode on it today. So what we have is we’re gonna do an episode on insect called the Dark rover ant. And the reason I’m mentioning the dark rover ant is we have a customer here in Palm City, Florida. Then, in February, I started seeing some swarming bugs, which are in this case, wing dance, that when they swarm, they go through their reproductive cycle, and they’re actually looking to spread out from the main colony to new areas. Well, this is a very strange time for any ant to be swarming. We are in our cooler months, and they don’t normally swarm this time of the year. And when I talk about their swarming, one of the things I can tell you is that after having done some research on these ants, that what we find is that the ants normally swarm between the months of May through August, sometimes here in Florida, they can go as as late as September or October, depending on how warm it is. But the it’s their their range in the United States is actually found throughout the southeast, which includes Florida, southern Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, northern Louisiana, there are some spots in Texas, there are some spots in Arizona, and also in Nevada. Now, when I was researching these ants, one of the things that I read was that they will traditionally swarm in Arizona, sometimes year round, they will swarm. And so if it’s warm enough, you can get this ant species to do out of normal season swarms, as proven in Arizona. So what I believe is that we we had a situation that I believe the colony is inside of a structure of one of my clients, and that the colony, when the customer turned on their heat for the winter, it created an atmosphere that was closer to that of the temperatures that they enjoy and like and, and actually prompted them to go through a reproductive cycle that we would not normally see in months where I believe at one point in February, we had temperatures down into the 30s. And so we wouldn’t normally see that with any ant species this time of the year. So one of the things that I tell people is the that I’ve researched, the rover ant is really only about two millimeters long. And they are a pest that loves to live in areas like mulch beds, planting beds, they thrive in an environment of kind of like the K they can be found in soil bases of trees, leaf litter, woodpiles rubbish heaps. They, they again, they’re in the southeastern states, but they do definitely like nectar. And they are drawn to sweet so so plants that may have aphids or scale that’s producing honey do would be a big draw to them, and make it very enticing. So the other thing that I was reading is they definitely like moisture. So one of the things I would say is the the area we’re finding Minh is a nicer neighborhood. And they probably water their grass a lot and their plants are well maintained. So in this time of the year, when we’re in a little more of a drought situation, they probably found it to be more suitable to that environment, because it’s probably getting a lot a lot of water. Now, even in the research I did these ants are pretty new to most pest management professionals such as myself, I mean in 27 years, I don’t want to say I never came across them. But this was the first case that came across where we definitely had a swarming issue. They were definitely one of my customers houses. So when you talk about moisture,
one of the things that that definitely comes into play as the irrigation. Now if you have a house with a crack in it, and that crack is see on the north or west side as we get our cold fronts in winter that seem to have the rain that moves through kind of northwest to southeast. If there’s a crack in that structure and water is able to get that could create a moist environment that is in a dark area that could support a colony of rover ants. Mulch beds, again, as I stated, especially if they’re irrigated on a regular basis. That would be a definite positive when we talk about mulch, mulch is just wood sitting on the ground that ultimately is just going to be in a state of decay, which would would make a fine environment. And then one of the things I mentioned was the base of trees, well, it’s very common for the base of trees where the roots come out, they will have, let’s say, like a root ball where there’s a group of roots and it gets elevated sometimes, and sometimes those roots even grow on top of the ground a little bit. And so it creates these areas where moisture can get down into the the root system and create a, a wet wood area that would definitely entice these ants to be there. So if, if you believe that you have ants, and you need somebody to come out and identify him, or if you’re interested in our free 58 Point Inspection, please give us a call at 772-878-1972 Thank you and have a great day.
