Pharaoh Ants

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Pharoah Ants are a serious nuisance in hospitals, rest homes, apartment dwellings, hotels, grocery stores, food establishments, and houses. The Pharoah Ant is arguably the most difficult hosehold ant to control. The Pharoah Ant has the ability to survive most household pest control treatments, and to rapidly create colonies throughout a building. These ants feed on sugar, honey, peanut butter, corn syrup, fruit juices, soft drinks, greases, dead insects, and most anything you have in your cupboard. This ant infests almost all areas of a building where food is available and infests many areas where food is not commonly found.

Pharoah Ants are well known to pose health risks. In ant-infested hospitals, burn victims and newborns are subjected to increased risk because the Pharaoh Ant can transmit over a dozen pathogenic pathogens such as Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus spp., and Streptococcus spp.. Pharaoh Ants have been observed seeking moisture from the mouths of sleeping infants and from in-use IV bottles. They have been found in surgical wounds, I.V. glucose solutions, and sealed packs of sterile dressing in hospitals. Anyone who suspects a presence of Pharoah Ants should promptly engage the services of a pest control company that specilaizes in ant control.

Workers are very small about 1/16" long, light yellow to reddish-brown colored with the hind portion of the abdomen somewhat darker. The petiole has two nodes and the thorax is spineless. The eye is comparatively small, with approximately six to eight ommatidia across the greatest diameter. The antennae has 12 segments with the antennal club composed of three segments. The clypeus, gaster, and mandibles are shiny.

The following links will take you to pages with information on other common types of ants in Georgia.

Control of Pharaoh Ants is difficult due to their habit of nesting in inaccessible areas. Any ant treatment must be thorough and complete at all nesting sites, as well as the foraging area. A Pharaoh Ant infestation of a multifamily building requires treatment of the entire building to control the infestation. Getting rid of Pharoah Ants requires using special baits, namely insect growth regulators, which prevents the production of worker ants and sterilizes the queen. It may take many weeks or months to totally control a Pharoah Ant population. Our ant control specialists can eliminate your Pharoah Ant problem, and give you ideas on how to ant-proof your property.