It’s not because I really enjoy it, but I find them useful as a tool to direct customers to for more information. For example, when we see an ant walking across the kitchen worktops, all we see is an ant and then we don’t think about it anymore. 

 

Most of us will reach for something like ant powder, that’ll get sprinkled down and then we’ll expect to see an end to the problem, case solved let’s have a cup of tea and everything’s good again.  

Except when the ant that you saw isn’t like other ants! But you say, an ant is an ant, surely? 

 

There’s a Thai expression that goes “same same but different” which sums up ants very well; they are amazing little insects and no, they aren’t all the same, a good example of this is the Pharaoh ant which is the subject of this blog. 

 

The Pharaoh ant is so called, because its jokingly mistaken as one of the biblical plagues from ancient Egypt, and to be honest with you, that’s good enough for me. This ant originates from somewhere in North Africa, so possibly Egypt after all? These are notoriously hard to get rid of, and they infest hospitals, workplaces and homes worldwide. 

 

They are tiny, tiny ants and almost translucent when looking at them, they look like normal ants with the exception of their size; sometimes customers think that they’re baby ants and they’re certainly not that. Between 1.5 and 2mm in length, they are able to slip around the threads of sealed jam jars, getting inside without breaking the vacuum seal. 

 

These ants, being from a hot climate prefer warmer buildings like flats, hospitals and offices and as they have a high water requirement, they do prefer more humid locations, like kitchens and bathrooms, you won’t find them outside like common garden ants. 

 

Kitchens are great places for these ants and because of the increase in food recycling schemes; an example, is that Reading Borough Council now refuse to accept food waste in the general waste bins, this means that there are small caddy’s of kitchen waste in nearly every household and this is a great source of food for the ants. 

 

They like fatty foods, grease and like any ant, they love sweet food stuffs, but one horrifying aspect of these ants is that they like open wounds and sores, so once found inside a hospital they quickly become a nightmare for the patients, staff and the pest controllers. 

 

This is the difficult bit, with these ants you CANNOT use ordinary pesticides, if you do then that’s where the problems really start. That sounds a bit extremist but this is the reason for writing this blog –  

 

The ants have an unusual defence mechanism, where ordinary ants lay pheromone trails for other ants to follow to take them directly to food supplies, Pharaoh ants lay negative trails which take them away from any danger, and to make matters worse, another defence trick they have, is that they can form new colonies very quickly. 

 

When you attack a colony of Pharaoh ants you quickly make things worse, the ants that you see out foraging for food represent only about 5% of the colony, if attacked with normal insecticide this immediately stresses the remaining 95% of the colony. When attacked, most animals will defend themselves and this is what these ants do, the colony will start to break up, the ‘buds’ or groups of ants that breakaway and leave the colony will take some eggs with them, which they manipulate to form new Queens and start a new, fresh colony. 

 

 

Instantly the colony has now almost doubled in size and as you keep on throwing chemicals at them, they will keep on budding, this makes the whole treatment harder and in buildings like blocks of flats, they’ll quickly infest all floors and all rooms which is going to be difficult to control. 

 

These ants can be fussy, what pest control treatment works for one colony may not work for another colony, so a treatment plan has to adapt. The one word that sums up a Pharaoh ant treatment is patience, and repeat this word to yourself again and again. 

 

You can only treat these ants with specific slow acting chemicals, whereas normal ant powder kills common garden ants on contact and it works because most of the ants are out foraging, if the powder sits around the outside of the nest area, you’ll get them all quickly because they’re all following that positive pheromone trail.  

 

Pharaoh ants aren't like common ants, they take time to kill with a slow acting insecticide and because you’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg in numbers as most of the ants are hidden from view, you have to be patient, its going to take time.