Crazy ants are dark brown to black and are difficult to kill when compared to typical household ants. If you have an infestation in your house, you must have a lot of patience to end this problem. They have a length of 2.2 to 3 mm, and their legs are very long, and therefore, they have a different appearance.
These ants can be found under many objects; each colony of crazy ants can contain millions of ants. This is possible because each queen is capable of laying hundreds of eggs. Generally, these ants can nest in cracks, holes, and crevices.
They like humid areas, when they are inside their house or building they roam to look for food. If it is outside your home, it may be under leaves, rocks, compost, trash, wood, and potted plants. They are capable of traveling very long distances to find something to eat, which is why they are challenging to eliminate.
Below, you can learn more about these annoying pests and how to efficiently and safely get rid of them.
What Are Crazy Ants?
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These ants differ from the others because they show their rebellious and erratic behavior when they poke around. The trail of these ants is very scattered, and the ants in the colony move without a fixed direction, hence their name as crazy ants.
Thus, they are difficult to exterminate, and it can be very frustrating trying to get rid of them. Crazy ants have longer legs and antennae than ants of other species. As already mentioned, the adults are reddish-brown to black.
On average, its length is 1/8 inch or 3mm, and its body is covered with thick hair. This type of ants is also known as raspberry crazy ants after Tom Raspberry discovered them in 2002. This was an exterminator from Texas.
Where Do Crazy Ants Live?
Crazy ants do not nest in mounds of dirt like other common garden ants. They have their colonies under dead leaves, rocks, compost, garbage piles, or trees.
This type of ants is classified as invasive insects because when the cold arrives, they invade nearby places such as buildings and houses. In this way, they will be able to restore their colonies in a much more comfortable habitat.
Even if you see a colony of crazy ants of small size, you should not be deceived because they may have other groups of colonies in nearby places called supercolonies. Each of these supercolonies can have about 15 to 20 queen ants capable of reestablishing themselves elsewhere.
Signs Of A Crazy Ant Infestation
You need to act fast before a sign of a mad ant infestation. Crazy ants are omnivorous and can always target products or food that you have in storage. If you have dead insects inside your home, it will be like an invitation for these insects to enter your home.
Crazy ants will be able to chew on any bug carcass without waiting long happily. It is known that this species of ants can cause severe damage to some electrical equipment.
When you see that you have an invasion of these crazy ants wandering in your house, you should inspect and locate the nests as quickly as possible. This is one of the signs to pay attention to because you will see crazy ants inside your house looking for water and food.
It is often very difficult to track these ants’ nesting places because they do not have a bearing. You can manipulate them by adding maple syrup, peanut butter, or honey because the scavengers will form a path from the nest to the site.
At that point, you can follow the path so that you can determine the points to be sealed.
How To Get Rid Of Crazy Ants?
When you have found the nests, it will be time to treat the trail and colonies simultaneously. You can use a spray that is for ants; do not use repellants because it will make the ants move away when they come in contact with the product.
Chemicals like insecticides are useful because they stick to the body of these ants and transmit them to the other ants in the colony. You can combine the sprays with a good dust cleaning where you suspect crazy ants. Clean dust from cracks, crevices, corners, gaps, etc.
If you want to get rid of the crazy ants, you can follow these steps:
- You must inspect and locate the entry points and where the colonies of these crazy ants are. If you want help, you can use the peanut butter, honey, and bait method to form the trails.
- You must treat all existing known colonies. Mounds that are outdoors should be soaked with Demon WP Insecticide or Cyniff WP.
- You should know that these mounds are not easily visible, the possible nesting places are under logs, wood, rubble, dead leaves, rocks, among others. These types of ants can also nest inside trees and rotten wood.
- Use a spray treatment. You can search both inside and outside for trails, hiding places, and entry points. Every site that you see that has crazy ants should treat it with insecticides or similar products. This way, you will be able to prevent new colonies from appearing.
- If you want to spray outdoors, you only need to spray a good coat around your house; having a fan sprayer will give you good results. Use powder treatments under baseboards, cracks, gaps, crevices, etc. You suspect there are crazy ants.
- Use bait. This treatment has limited results, so experts always recommend that you should treat entry points, trails, and colonies with spray or powder. For best results, you should use a contact insecticide or bait, but never both.
Powders and sprays always contaminate baits and thus become inefficient.
Read More: How to Get Rid of Sugar Ants Naturally
How To Prevent Crazy Ants?
As it has already been mentioned that it is difficult to eliminate this species of ants, it is better to find a way to prevent them. You can try these crazy ant prevention tips:
- Can practice good sanitation
- You can limit food consumption and preparation to one area of the house to keep it clean daily. Avoid leaving crumbs and food spills on the floor, tables, etc.
- Try to cover cracks and holes in windows, baseboards, window frames, and doors. Use sealant and other materials to eliminate ant entry.
- Avoid having stacked materials near your home.
- Prune tree branches and other vegetation
- Repair pipes and taps
- Keep your home clean.
- Clean the kitchen sink
- You want traces of dead insects around your house.
- Dispose of your trash daily
- Keep your garden in good condition.
- Remove the stacked stone.
- If you have very severe cases of infestation, you should call a pest specialist.
With these tips, you can get rid of crazy ants and keep your home safe and away from these insects that can be a big problem.
