What is Pharaoh's Ant?

What is Pharaoh’s Ant?

The Pharaoh ant (Monomorium pharaonis) is a small ant, measuring between 1. 3 and 2mm long and is usually yellow or light brown, very often almost transparent. These ants are common and notorious for infesting structures and specifically hospitals are among the many structures that are more severely affected by these ants. In the first place their origin is not clearly known but today they are spread almost all over the world including Europe, the Americas, Australasia, and Southeast Asia. Especially prominent in the United States, Australia, and Europe. The name ‘Pharaoh ant’ could be attributed to the old idea that these ants were a plague that showed up in Egypt.

Pharaoh ants have the peculiar feature that even a single colony will consist of many queens, not one. Such a setting helps create a unique scenario and interaction within the colony and it also helps the colony split into sub-groups and create new colonies at a faster rate.

Originally from tropical regions Pharaoh ants are capable of inhabiting almost any region indoors given that the region has central heating. These characteristics make it possible for them to hatch and thrive in different parts of the world including temperate areas.

Identification of Pharaoh Ants

• Shades Yellow light brown, queens are much redder in color.
• Dimensions Requirements are 2 mm for workers, and 4 mm for queens.
• Pharaoh ants are the smallest ants that possess 2 nodes between the thorax and the abdomen. This group of ants is often confounded with thief ants; however, their antennae have 12 segments in total of which 3 are in three segments, which is in the end.

How do pharaoh ants look?

Small-sized and mild-colored pharaoh ants are quite common indoor pests and might be ignored due to their unrecognizable size and color. Staffers are 2 millimeters in length. Although they are restricted to tropical environments, pharaoh ants are not at all apprehensive of the design. With ease, pharaoh ants thrive in contemporary, temperature-controlled buildings that can be found in Canada and every other region in the temperate climate belt. In the list of pests to be kept under control, this one can be pinpointed as the indisputable leader of such a task.

Queen pharaoh ants could be of red or purple colors and also have visibly enlarged abdomen (that are slightly darker) extending across the rest of their body. Queens, which come in two forms — those of are approximately twice as large, are just a few thousandths of an inch or so. Un-winged queens are only able to stay while flying queens have wings and can fly. A queen, once mated, sheds her wings. Listen to the given audio and compress it as much as possible without changing the meaning.

Habitat and behaviour

The pharaoh ants are likely to mate inside their colonies, and they infest households while “budding” from parent colonies that split. They do not need to find an individual to recognize because there are no hostile relations between colonies. One colony may have up to 2,500 workers, but with more colonies within a small area, the winged bees develop the impression of a single large super colony.
Like most invasive species pharaoh ants originated in the Afrotropic ecozone, which was partly because of the intensive human exchange and transportation. They are associated with warm areas and so they are found in buildings that are heated like in Canada. Nests tend to house many queens and these can form a new colony by leaving the existing colony to set up vicinity colonies. This is one of the main reasons why termites are a big challenge in that once the ant begins to spread its colonies, the process can be accomplished quickly in a home.

Diet

The Pharaoh ants queen eat all kinds of food, but they prefer sweets which are prepared mainly of custards and glazed doughnuts. This will also add to their reputation as predators of other insects.

Reproduction & Life Cycle

Egyptian ants reach this maintaining development stage in 40 days. Females have a lifespan of about 4-12 months, and workers choose to die after 2-3 weeks.

Gerontomorph ants are polygyne, which means there is more than one queen in the colony and the entire hive moves when threatened. Workers can go from egg to adult size in as little as 38 days and hold the ability to live from 9 to 10 weeks. Female Pharaoh ants have a longer life expectancy, up to 12 months, unlike male pharaoh ants which die three to five weeks after mating. Pharaoh ants use a process called budding, which involves splitting the colony into a few smaller colonies that may establish new colonies. Here, a specific number of individuals comprising a single queen and a small group of workers take off their current nest and go on to start a new nest.

Oh, do I need to be extra worried for the pharaoh ants?

The Pharaoh ants are a major headache to home dwellers as they make it as if there was an all-you-can-eat reservation in your pantry. They lodge on the foods and dishes meanwhile the house setup is not attended to, and they also cause some damage during the building of nests.

Nevertheless, they have a reputation for coming in such places as hospitals, rest homes, condominiums, apartment dwellings, office buildings, motels and hotels, grocery stores, bakeries, factories, supermarkets, and other buildings.

An isolated colony that has a workforce of a couple thousand may seem like a large family, but whether it is one big social colony or a group of small ones will surprise you. Multiple queens can easily build from a roof edge to corners and other nests within the home or business structures in a short period.

Due to budding, the tracking of outbreaks can become complicated owing to the hidden localization of secondary sources. Destroying one nest, even if it does lead to the collapse of the whole area infestation, can be solved also by another nearby nest.

Artificial control methods can likely make the matter more severe by looking enticing for queens to break a colony into inclusive even more nests, spreading the infestation. The moment the sight of pharaoh ants on your property settles you must get in touch with an expert pest control service provider.

How to exterminate pharaoh ants?

Contact your region’s most immediate Source Pets Control Canada division if you come across pharaoh ant species within. It is easy to overlook a small colony of ants and say, ‘Oh well, they are busy cleaning up the mess’, but the reality is that the ant colony is growing fast under suitable conditions. Do not spray the ants; the problem typically gets worse if you do so because a pharaoh ant will get rid of all the danger by “budding” itself (creating satellite nests). The most effective way of controlling the pharaoh’s problems is by using a baiting system along the path of the infestation. However, the wrong species of starter increases the chances of budding up. Skilled workers choose trails and place baits successfully to cover more area and numb those rats. Typically, the termination of a pharaoh ant infestation inside your house or business can take between four to twelve months, considering that the insect population often multiplies in many ant hills in the surrounding.

In the end, If you think that you have ants that are pharaohs, then surely your perfect match would be calling a professional pest control company like Source Pest Control Canada. Our team will impart precise therapies leading to treatment at the source of the problem, thus offering the most comprehensive ant control. Our work will be extended with little inspection to make sure that the problem has been solved, followed by recommendations of the prevention measures that we believe must work best for your property.