Ants are one of the most common pests found in homes. They contaminate food, equipment, cooking ingredients which then need to be thrown away. Moreover, certain species of ants may cause skin irritation and allergy. Frequently found ants in Thailand include:
Monomorium Ants can be found in any area of the building, house, factory, office, etc. These ants are nuisance and cause contamination to food and even damages to home appliances.
Monomorium Ants are very small ranging from 1.8-3.5 mm. Its coloration ranges from yellowish-gold to yellowish-brown. Its torso is black. They reside where there is human activity, preferring hot and humid terrain. Monomorium Ants are social pest and live in group. They love sweet liquid and walk in a slow long line.
Monomorium Ants’ colony can be found in cracks, crevices, and holes. They often choose warm and humid place that are close to food and water source. When disturbed, they are quick to relocate. Food crumbs or small pebbles can be found at the opening of their nest.
Another type of Monomorium Ant that can be found in all type of surface. They love areas with high human activities. Pharaoh ants can be found in home, office building, factory, garden, and etc. They may cause contamination when they walk on food or cause damages when they nest in home appliances.
Pharaoh Ants are small in size ranging from 1.5-2.5 mm. Most are yellow in color, but some also have black torso. Pharaoh Ants are frequently found in homes, pile of dead leaves, and in damp soil. Pharaoh Ants are widespread in tropical zone.
Pharaoh ants love sugar. They slowly walk in line, but will move swiftly when disturbed. They forage food both day and night, and often establish colony in warm places that is close to food source. In house and building, they choose to reside in crack and crevices close to electric appliances.
Pharaoh Ants’ colony is usually big. Food crumbs or small pebbles can be found cluttering at the opening of their nest, which is a sign of active colony.
Red Ant is commonly found in Thailand. Thai people are familiar with them because Red Ants’ eggs are a delicacy.
Red Ant nests on trees. They have red-orange coloration with body length around 1-1.5 cm. When walking, they would hold up their torso. They work as a team to forage a wide area. Red Ant is known to be aggressive and ferocious. Red Ant’s bite can produce a sharp pain and may cause irritation, yet they do not sting. Red Ants can be found in open area, often in the wild.
They often build their nest on trees, by stepping on each other to create a pyramid or stair- like structure so as to pull leaves together. They will, then, connect leaves together by using web fiber secreted from worms. Typically, Red Ants do not relocate their nest.
Black ants are another species of ants that are commonly found. They feed on sweet things like sugar, fruits, and other sweets lying around the house. For this reason, they can cause nuisance to human endlessly.
Black ants are small, only 2.5-3 mm. in length. They have black or brown body, and no sting. They live on ground area, trees, pile dead leaves, and other common area.
Black ants are quick but not aggressive. Black ants don’t bite or hurt people, but can be very alert when disturbed. Black Ants are highly adaptive, and can form their nest both indoor and outdoor. Places like wooden log, leaves pile, cracks and crevices are perfect spots for Black Ants to nest. Black Ants are always ready to relocate, some nest can be temporary nest.
Bigheaded Ants are found in garden, parks, trees, or on ground. Bigheaded Ants are aggressive and their bites will cause irritation. They have caste system, dividing into worker ants and soldier ants. Worker ants are smaller about 2-3 mm., while soldier ants are bigger ranging from 2.5-10 mm.
Bigheaded Ants live in an open area with heavy traffic activity. Bigheaded Ants live in parks, trees or in the ground. Bigheaded Ants walk in line and hunt in large group. Because they are hunters, Bigheaded Ants are aggressive and ferocious. They can walk long distance, and can be spotted hunting on the ground after the rain.
Bigheaded Ants’ colony is established underground, under rocks, wooden logs, etc. The colony is large with multiple entrances. Bigheaded Ants have spare colony to relocate when facing drought.
Fire ants are found both in homes and open areas. Fire ant is a small-medium size ant sizing between 2.4-5.5 mm. with red-yellow body coloration.
Fire Ants have a large colony and are carnivorous. They are hunters, having aggressive and ferocious behavior.
Their colony are established in-ground, open terrain, under rocks, cracks and crevices, walk way, park, etc. Fire Ants’ colony is large and sophisticated. The entrance of the colony will have small opening and pebbles.
When attack, Fire Ants will work as a team. Their saliva consists of alkaloid which can cause an infection.
Fire Ants can cause damage to newly planted crops.
Bi-colored Arboreal Ants are found along the ground and trees, park, and any other natural plains. Bi-colored Arboreal Ant are one of the most venomous ants, their bite will cause extreme pain thus should be avoid at all cost.
With their body length around 9-10 mm., Bi-colored Arboreal Ant is considered to be a large ant. Bi-colored Arboreal Ants are slender, the head and torso is black, they are equipped with sting. Bi-colored Arboreal Ant hunts alone, walk at moderate speed, and often walk along trees instead of ground. When disturbed, Bi-colored Arboreal Ant would shift its path to the side quickly. Bi-colored Arboreal Ants’ nest are built in cracks of trees or inside wood pile. The nest is considered to be small with low population.
Bi-colored Arboreal Ants are extremely ferocious, they attack right away when disturbed.
Some species of ants are poisonous, containing a sting, but most sting are not life threatening. However, for people with weak immune system, coming into contact with highly poisonous ants, like fire ant, may experience firing pain. In some rare cases, it can be life-threatening.
There are several ways you can protect your home from ants’ infestation including
It is evident that during rainy season ants forage more in homes. Ants that normally live in your garden, trees, and outdoor area may start migrating into houses or inside buildings. This behavior happens due to the rain shower that wash away flower pollens causing them to find new source. This is why we see more ants in our house during rainy season.
Our team finished a service session for a client. Later we were informed that the ant problem still persists. Our staffs went in to investigate and they found that the problematic ants were Pharaoh ants, which couldn’t be treat normally. For this species, if use the product from supermarket which contain repellent active ingredient, the ants will spread wide into other area. Our team looked further, try to find their nest. The nest was situated on the cement pillar on the first floor. Our team then spray our special product onto it. After a couple of days, we were reported by our client that he found around 100 dead ants every day. This went on for about 1 week. After a week, our client happily gave us feedback that ants are no longer found in the premise.
A kindergarten school was one of our clients. They have ants invading the children playground, which was very troublesome because the kids were unable to use the facility. They knew about Virocare through a friend’s recommendation. They contacted us, and our team went in. Seven days after the treatment, they kindly gave us feedback that no ant was found.
"I used to have small cockroaches in the apartment. They lived in drawers and cupboard. The juristic offers pest control service, too, and they come into solve our cockroach problems. The problem still exists. My girlfriend called Virocare. The team arrived and inspected our place. They told us the problems we were experiencing. They found eggs; cockroaches’ egg and the younger generation cockroaches that probably just hatched. After the first service treatment, the number of cockroaches reduced significantly. The service team puts several cockroaches traps in our apartment to check the pest population. These traps, we also used before they carried out service. They were always full with roaches. After the treatment, we saw the difference this time. We found the number was far less than what we had encounter. The big ones still existed, but in a much less number, less than 5 (from more than 20). The team came in once more for a follow up session. After that our apartment was roaches-free. Since we chose one-time service, after the follow up session, we still use the roaches trap to keep our eyes on them. Surprisingly, they didn’t come back. We were very happy with the outcome."
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