If you’re having problems, with ants or any other pests, then it’s time to call a Tulsa pest control company that you can trust. Our yard is an entire ecosystem onto itself. Every nook and cranny carries different kinds of organisms, including insects, rodents, mammals, and even us. But one of those insects that’s found in the ecosystem in our yards are ants. These tiny colony dwellers are an organized army waging wars against other colonies, fighting for survival amongst the blades of grass. In this article is like a good hard look at ants, their life cycle an  what you and your Tulsa pest control company can do to keep them out of your homes and businesses.

IDENTIFYING ANTS AND TULSA PEST CONTROL

Ants have a very unique and identifiable body type. They essentially have three sections to their bodies. Their head contains their eyes, their antenna and their mouth parts. This part of their body takes in information, eats food, and has the majority of the intellectual processes for the insect. The next section of the body is the thorax. This part of the body is the mobility section of the ants body. Six legs spread out from the center mass of the insect. All the muscles movement takes place here. Lastly, we have the abdomen. This large bulbous end to the ant contains all the major organs required to live in survive. All the digestive work is done here, the endocrine system and basic heart and life functions.

While ants have three distinct sections, they also can have a node. This is an extra tiny section, usually between the thorax and the abdomen. Entomologists will use this section to identify different kinds of ants. Some ants have no node, some ants have one node and some ants will have two nodes. But the unique shape and size of these nodes with determine what kind of ant you’re dealing with. In addition, the antenna can be very telling. Some ants have club like antenna, some are jointed, and some have different numbers of segments on the antenna. All these factors clue in the entomologist as to what kind of ant you’re dealing with. Contact your Tulsa pest control company for more information.  

ANT ADAPTATION AND TULSA PEST CONTROL

Ants have adapted in so many different ways in order to fight and survive. Take a leaf cutter ant, for example. This ant forges for food by finding leaves of trees and plants and cutting them off. These huge sections of leaf that are much larger than the ant are carried back to the colony. Once brought into the colony, they are put in a chamber where there’s a fungus. This fungus will feed upon the leaves and break them down. The result will be a sweet, sticky substance that the ants use for food for themselves and their young.

While agriculture can be a part of the leaf cutter ants lifestyle, livestock can actually be part of other ones. The herder ant is special in the fact that it actually will heard aphids. These aphids feed on the sweet nectar of flowers and plants. As they feed, they will overstuff themselves, and a small amounts of the sweet, sticky substance will come out of their anus. This sweet secretion is known as honeydew, and is a great food source for ants and other insects. But when these ant herd these aphids, they protect them from predators in an exchange to get exclusive rights to the honeydew produced by these efforts. Your Tulsa pest control company will have more information.  

ANTS, SLAVERY AND TULSA PEST CONTROL

While farming and agriculture may be positive attributes that ants used to develop their colonies, there are other darker ones. Take the Blood Red Ant, for example. This ant uses slavery and slave labor in order to build and create its colony. In fact, this ant doesn’t even have the capability of doing the normal day-to-day work that other ant colonies do. Blood red ants cannot create colonies, forage for food, feed their young or anything else. What this ant does is it will form a raiding party and enter the colony of another ant. These raider will emit a pheromone that confuses the workers and soldier ants there, and  they will run from the blood red ant. 

As these ants enter the colony, they will find the eggs and steal a large number of them. Once they steal it, they’ll bring them back to the their home colony and put pheromones on these new eggs. Once these eggs hatch, the newly formed ants of the other species will be fooled into believing that they need to work for their new slave masters. They will even fight ants from their original colony in an effort to protect the blood ant colony. They will take up the mantle, doing all the work, and maintain the blood red ant colony. These blood red ants will have to go out to do raiding parties on a regular basis, because the workers will die off as they age. Get control with your Tulsa pest control company. 

INDOOR ODOROUS HOUSE ANT AND TULSA PEST CONTROL

The indoor odorous house ant is another ant that we find here in Oklahoma. This kind of ant actually creates its colony inside your home. They’re active year-round and can be a problem. The way in which these colonies reproduces is by a process known as splintering. The queen of the colony emits a pheromone that tells all the workers to remain sterile. The workers in this ant colony, as in most colonies are all females. But if these females are separated from the original colony, and can’t make it back in time, the pheromone will wear off, and one of the females will become reproductive. When she does, she will start to produce her own pheromone, and becoming a queen herself. Because she is now her own queen, she will create a new colony separate from the original.

If you’re having a problem with ants or any other pests, then it’s time to call in a Tulsa pest control company that you can trust. Here at TermMax Pest Control,  we are the best in the business, when it comes to dealing with ants, or any other pests. We service a greater Tulsa area including Owasso, Bixby, Turley, Jenks, Broken Arrow, Coweta, Claremore, Catoosa, Sand Springs, Prattville, Sapulpa, and much more. Call today for free estimate. We’re here to help!

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