General Ant Information

• Ants belong to the insect order Hymenoptera. They are close relatives of bees and wasps.
• Each colony can hold up to half a million ants. They tend to disappear quickly if the colony is threatened.
• Worker ants can live for up to seven years, while a queen ant can live for up to 15 years.
• Ants swarm once every year during the start of the warmer season. The young queens fly away and set up their own, new colonies. If you hear people talking about flying ants, this may be the swarm they are referring to, or they could be termites.

Do You have an ant problem?

Live ants - If you’re seeing large numbers of live ants in your home or workplace then you may well have an ant problem. If you find them in your kitchen or in areas where you prepare food, then you need to do something about it.

Ant pathways – Pathways in and out of your house or business premises are another sign. Some types of ant will lay down a pheromone trail to a food source. This chemical attracts other ants to find the food.

Ant nest - A nest site can look like a small pile of soil or dirt. Some species of ant like to make their home in walls or other quiet, dark places, which are more difficult to spot.

How do I get rid of ants?

While a wide range of DIY products are available for ants, effective ant control requires a professional pest control service to gain control and prevent a recurrence of the problem.

Once the ants have been dealt with, you can take precautions to stop them from coming back.

One particularly important precaution is covering any food in storage areas; you don’t know where ants have been walking before they march across your food (and in most cases, they have come into contact with unsanitary areas before they decide to feast on your meal!).

Which ants do we find in Cape Town?

Some ant species live in colonies that are supported by a single queen while others are supported by multiple queens.

Although there are a number of species of ants in the Western Cape, there are relatively few types of ants that we commonly see as pests. These include:

Argentine Ant

(probably 90% of ants seen in Cape Town)

Appearance

• Workers about 1.5mm to 3mm long.
• Dark to light brown in colour.
• Do not swarm. No flying ants.
• Bite.
• Form super colonies

Lifecycle

• Worker ants produced in spring and increase in numbers up until autumn.
• Winged ants (reproductive queens) are produced in early spring, before the workers, and mature within three months mating soon afterwards.
• Argentine ants mate in their nest so no swarming (flying ants) are seen.

Habits

• Worker ants will follow food trails for long distances so nests are not easy to track.
• Active 24 hours but more so at night
• Are omnivorous. They prefer sweet foods but will also eat live and dead insects, meats, cereals and damaged fruit.
• Argentine ants are aggressive and drive out other ant species from an area.

Black House Ant

Appearance

• Shiny and black.
• 2.5mm - 3mm long.

Lifecycle

• Larva hatches out of the egg as a white grub which is narrower towards the head. They are fed by the adults.
• The larva pupates and appears creamy-white, looking similar to an adult. Sometimes they have a protective silk cocoon around them.
• The adult emerges with the three defined body sections: head, thorax and abdomen.
• The length of time between the egg stage and ants emerging as adults can take 6 weeks or more; it depends on a variety of factors such as the species of ant, the temperature and the availability of food.
• Fertilised eggs become female, unfertilised become males.

Habits

• These ants are regarded as a nuisance and scavenge in kitchens, garbage and also dog excrement, therefore potentially spreading diseases.
• They are generally attracted to sweet foods.
• The light yellowish brown 'Coastal Brown Ant' prefers to feed on meat products and grease.
• The most effective control measure is to find the colony and treat it.

Sugar Ant

Appearance

• This species vary greatly in shape, size and colour.
• Range from 2.5 to 15 mm, and are some of the most often seen ants due to their size and often bright colouring.

Lifecycle

• The ant’s life cycle passes through egg, larva, pupa and adult phases.

Habits

• Often nests in a variety of sites ranging from holes in wood to the roots of plants, twigs of trees and shrubs, between rocks or in the soil.
• They can also be seen during the day, however, they are most active at night.
• They are unable to sting, but they do possess strong mandibles which allow them to bite. In self-defense these ants are also able to spray acid from their abdomens to deter predators.
• They feed on dead and lives insects, household waste and are attracted by sweet foods.
• They rarely enter houses.