Ants in Australia

 

COMMON ANTS OF AUSTRALIA

The list of Ants in Australia:

 

Argentine Ant: 

-          - Sugar eater

-          - It has 5-8 large teeth on the mandibles and 5-13 smaller denticles

-          - Resembles the white footed house ant, but is brown in colour

     
 - Lacks a strong smell when quashed 

Black house ant:

      - Sugar eater

     - A small intensely-black ant

     - This ant has a distinguishing node

     - Slightly smaller and stockier than the white footed house ant

     - This is Australia’s most common house ant

 

 

Bulldog Ant:

-         -  Protein eater

-         -  One of the largest ants in Australia

-         - Red/black in colour and very aggressive

-         - Very long and straight mandibles with large eyes

-         - Painful sting

Coastal brown Ant:

      - Fats and oils eater

      - Golden brown to brown in colour

     - Two raised nodes on pedicel (rear node more rounded)

      - Polymorphic (major workers with large heads)

      - Sting present

      - Spines visible on thorax

Carpenter Ant:

-         -  Sugar eater

-         - Variable in colour – from black to dark brown to orange

-         -  Has a smooth, evenly rounder thorax

-         - Quite large in size

-         -  Polymorphic (hard workers)

-         - Mandibles has 5-8 teeth

 

Pest Control - Ants

   Pest Control

Ants are now considered the most difficult pest to control. This is thought to be mostly due to the increasing use of more targeted insecticides with application in and around the home to cracks and crevices where surface crawling insects tend to inhabit, lit turn, this has led to reduced use of broadcast residual sprays around the home and less residual ant control.

Integrated Pest Management for controlling ants includes:

1, Attention to hygiene

2, Exclusion through physical means

3. Modifying ant habitats

4. Insecticides 

Researchers agree that when managing ants you should consider their specific biology, with attention to both behavioral and feeding habits of the target pest ant. 

Firstly, Identify the ant you are dealing with so that a strategy can be tailored to its control. 

For instance, with feeding habits some ants have a specific preference for sugars, fats, oils or protein and if the priority is to feed the brood then there is a preference for protein. 

Secondly, Attempt to find the colony nest or at least access the trail. 

However, the foraging trails that are seen in and around domestic and commercial properties are only a fraction of the number of individuals in a colony. At any one time less than ten percent might be foraging, so it is important to realise that broadcast spraying for a knockdown will have very little colony impact. 

The use of insecticides in ant management includes either repellents such as synthetic pyrethroids as barriers, or colony controlling agents such as non-repellent bails and non-repellent chemical spray treatments. 

Insecticide use strategies that target the whole colony. or workers (that feed the colony so then the colony starves) or queens (that reproduce the colony) should be implemented. The best approach would be the use of a non-repellent bait and/or in combination with a non-repellent chemical spray treatment. 

This will provide delayed toxicity so that the toxicant can be transferred back through the colony to the nest. 

The use of non-repellent baits such as Optigard Ant Bait Gel and Advion Ant Gel are highly effective in ant management colony control, as these treatments capitalize on the fundamental behaviour of ants, which is the exchanging and sharing of food.

  
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