Black ant: description and features
What does a black ant look like? The structure of the insect's body has three components: the head and the interconnected abdomen and waist. The body is covered with a chitinous shell. The eyes of a black ant consist of many lenses that do not provide a clear image, but allow one to distinguish movements. Black ants move with the help of six thin legs with small claws, which enable them to climb up.
The size of a black ant depends on its status in the colony and varies from 0.5 to 1 cm.
Why are ants dangerous in the house?
What do black ants look like?
Despite the fact that huge black ants bite, their danger to humans is minimal. Insects live in colonies and work for the benefit of their society, but the waste they leave behind is really not safe for people.
Firstly, the ants crawled around unknown where before arriving in the apartment or house. They can carry a bunch of bacteria on their paws, which remains and then spreads on the food.
Secondly, their waste products—saliva and feces—have an adverse effect on human health. Among other things, crawling on the skin, they bite it, releasing a substance that causes redness and itching.
Thirdly, small creatures have a hard-working character trait. They are often seen at work while carrying objects. Garden workers try to steal a large piece of food, but they cannot do it at once. Along the way, they leave crumbs, which not only become moldy and covered with a bunch of microbes, but also become a bait for other pests and parasites.
Appearance, lifestyle and types
The insects got their name because of their color. Each nest contains three main types of black ants:
- Working individuals;
- Males;
- Uterus.
The most numerous representatives in an ant settlement are working individuals, whose size is about 5 mm. They are engaged in raising aphids, collecting food, and also laying eggs, from which new offspring of black ants subsequently emerge.
The largest in the nest is the uterus - its size can reach 1 cm.
The body length of male black ants is 5-5.5 mm, and females are up to 4.5 mm. Young females have wings.
REFERENCE: Black ants make their nests in rotten wood, under stones and in the ground.
Insects feed on sweet honeydew secreted by aphids.
The queen lives in the nest the longest. Her life expectancy is 26-28 years. Male black ants live for several months - after mating, they are destroyed by worker insects.
The fertilized female ant immediately flies away to create her own nest and become the queen in it.
Benefits and harms
Black ants are not predators by nature - they feed on the substance secreted by garden aphids. That is why they contribute to the spread of aphids throughout the garden, trees and plants. Aphids are a pest - they suck juice and nutrients from tree leaves and plant stems, as a result of which they die. A large number of black ants in the garden invariably leads to the appearance of many aphids.
IMPORTANT: Spraying plants against aphids will not lead to complete elimination of this insect - after all, the ants will move their “nursery” to another place in the garden.
We can also note some advantages of the presence of black ants on a personal plot:
- When building anthills, insects loosen the top layer of soil, due to which a large amount of oxygen enters the root system of plants;
- The result of the life activity of black ants is the enrichment of the earth with potassium, nitrogen and humus.
However, if a large number of black ants appear, it is necessary to immediately begin to fight them.
Damage caused
Every second person considers ants to be extremely harmless and beneficial, because they eat weak insects and destroy the bodies of dead living beings. But black ants bring not only benefits to the site:
- they grow aphids, which draw juices from plants;
- spoil the lawn;
- harm the roots and leaves of plants, gnaw edible root vegetables and sweet berries, spreading their acid to them;
- They spread bacteria that stick to their paws throughout the area, infecting plants and soil.
Domestic black ants are also dangerous:
- bring pathogenic bacteria from places where garbage accumulates, toilets and technical premises into the apartment;
- spoil food;
- they store food throughout the house, which spoils over time, which creates conditions for the appearance of mold fungi;
- They collect unnecessary garbage, excrement and food scraps outside their home, but on the territory of the apartment.
If you suddenly see even one insect, immediately begin getting rid of unnecessary neighbors.
Folk remedies
Is it possible to get rid of black ants without using chemicals? Proven folk methods come to our aid.
The black ant does not tolerate the smells of such plants at all:
- Lemon;
- Garlic;
- Anise.
The use of the above components helps to quickly and effectively repel insects from food products.
IMPORTANT: Remember, plant odors do not help remove black ants, but only scare them away from a certain place.
The following recipe will help you get rid of insects completely. It is necessary to mix fresh yeast with a small amount of honey until it becomes viscous and thick. Add some boric acid to the mixture. From the resulting paste, form baits and place them near the nests of black ants, as well as in places where they mainly gather and frequent.
This product helps remove entire colonies of insects. The worker ants will partially transfer the bait to the anthill. The toxic substance will begin to act after a few hours. You will be able to observe a chain reaction, as a result of which all the inhabitants of the ant settlement will be completely destroyed.
You can also use an ultrasonic repeller. The device must be connected for at least 14 days.
Coffee grounds are a reliable and effective means of fighting insects. It needs to be placed in the corners of the room so that the ants leave it forever.
How to get rid of house ants in an apartment:
Features of pests
Black ants are harmful because they build their anthills anywhere, even in the most inappropriate places, destroying everything in their path. Moreover, they breed aphids, whose secretions they feed on. Therefore, anyone who has experienced their invasion tries to get rid of black ants in the house once and for all and prevent their next appearance.
Methods and means for controlling bedbugs at home
Because black ants reproduce quickly , this makes them difficult to control. To get the effect from it, it is necessary to destroy the queen that produces ants, which is quite difficult to do, since it is located in the depths of the anthill and does not appear on the surface. If you see several ants, then it’s time to start removing them.
In order to remove black ants in an apartment , private house or on a personal plot, use the following methods:
- use ready-made products;
- use traditional methods;
- invite specialists.
To ensure that the black ant leaves your territory forever, it is better to use a set of measures.
Professional services
If traditional methods do not lead to a positive result, you should turn to professionals.
Experts will ensure quick and effective removal of black ants, as they have great capabilities to eliminate them.
This method is good if you have the opportunity to leave the apartment for several days in order not to be exposed to toxic substances and chemicals.
Professionals completely treat every area in the room with special solutions, from which black ants die instantly.
IMPORTANT: Insects can return to the apartment again if they live with your neighbors. Therefore, it is necessary to fight against black ants through the joint efforts of all owners of adjacent apartments.
Use of chemicals
In a private house or apartment, you can use ready-made products ; they are most often produced in the form of syringes.
This method of control is based on infecting several scout ants, which become carriers of the disease. The substance begins to act in 2 hours, this time is enough for them to get into the anthill and infect their fellows, causing an epidemic of the entire colony. Thanks to such means, there is no need to look for their main settlement in the house; you just need to anoint the ant paths.
Gels are applied to the ants' favorite places; they usually gather near water. Pay special attention to the area near the sink and baseboards. Carry out a more thorough treatment in the room.
There are many different drugs for removing black ants. Read the instructions for each product and choose the one that suits you.
In addition to gels, a variety of traps and crayons are sold that help quickly and effectively remove black ants. Just remember that they are poisonous to both humans and pets. Therefore, use carefully, following the instructions for use.
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Useful tips
To get rid of black ants that have appeared in the house, we have prepared a number of valuable recommendations:
- Do not leave leftover food on the table or cover it tightly;
- When preparing a product to combat black ants, be sure to adhere to the recommended proportions - otherwise the benefit of the bait will be small;
- Mechanically treat the soil in your garden plot more often, since insects do not like to be disturbed;
- Your main goal is to destroy the uterus. Fighting worker ants is completely useless;
- Chemicals remain in the soil for a long time or can get into food in the apartment. Therefore, first use folk remedies, and if unsuccessful, turn to professionals.
The problem of black ants appearing on a garden plot or in a house cannot be underestimated. Despite their small size, these insects are very numerous and tenacious.
The main reasons for the appearance
These black individuals can enter the home through pets. They bring them in on their fur from the street, after visiting an infected attic, basement and other places. Garden ants, immediately after fertilization of the female, begin to create new colonies of their own kind in the bark of trees and soil.
Thus, populating garden/vegetable plots. With the onset of cold weather, ants rush to occupy warm places in a person’s home.
Other reasons include:
- As autumn approaches, black ants begin to literally populate basements, attics, and garbage chutes. As soon as their number increases, they spread through ventilation systems to all neighboring apartments. Ants can climb through small cracks, holes, gaps in window and door openings, walls, and baseboards.
- Often, it is the owners themselves who are to blame for the presence of ants in their home. Crumbs, spilled tea, the smell of stale garbage - all this attracts them. It is worth starting to observe sanitation throughout the house, apartment, and even in the local area.
During the heating season, a furnished attic, a heated basement, warm houses and apartments help ants survive by arranging nests in them. Cold has no effect on the reproduction of black ants. Therefore, the problem needs to be resolved immediately.
