The ant is an insect that brings great benefits within the ecosystem. Ants loosen the soil and carry plant seeds, thereby helping them reproduce. However, this insect is not able to benefit humans when it settles in a residential area.
They often like to live in a person's home, where they very rarely clear the crumbs from the table. This brings a lot of inconvenience to people. Ants usually live in bags containing bread or other flour products.
An important fact: ants acquire a red color only after prolonged life activity, so if you come across almost transparent ants, then their nest is somewhere nearby.
What kind of animal is a termite?
Termites received the name “white ants” mainly for their whitish color and ant-like lifestyle. Externally, a termite can be distinguished from an ant not only by color, but also by the absence of a bridge between the thorax and abdomen.
The size of a termite is no more than 1 cm. The length of the body and the weight of the individual depend on its belonging to a particular insect species and the social position of the individual in the termite family.
Like other social insects, termites in one colony are divided into castes, each of which is engaged in its own work.
Female and male individuals of the reproductive caste, as its name suggests, are called upon to maintain and optimize the size of the termite family. They are distinguished from termites of other castes by the presence of visual organs and the dark color of the body, as well as a pair of triangular-shaped wings, which will disappear after the first and last flight of the individual.
The remaining white ants take on construction, military, security and other social functions.
Scientists have data on almost three thousand species of termites in nature. These insects prefer a hot climate, so only two species of white ants live in the south of Russia, and only seven species live in the countries of the former USSR. Some of them cause significant damage to private property and production.
Termites in nature
All continents of our planet, except Antarctica, can boast that they are home to one or another species of termites. The warmer the climate, the more comfortable life is for termites.
Africa holds the record for the number of varieties of these insects. Multi-meter termite mounds have become a landmark and a calling card of these hot places.
White ants erect unique high-rise buildings for themselves to live in, using soil, their own saliva and their own excrement as building materials.
Such termite mounds owe their enormous size to the tireless work of the workers.
How to win the battle with ants?
You need to immediately prepare yourself for the fact that there is a long struggle ahead. It should be built correctly, i.e. strike at the most sensitive points of the ant’s “defense”. If there are small red ants in your apartment, look for a nest in which the female produces offspring. It can be hidden under the baseboard, in the dark corners of furniture or rooms.
Important! In fact, the final result of the struggle is the complete destruction of the nest and the female. Red ants can have only one “queen” in a nest. If she dies, all the ants in the colony die.
Finding a nest is painstaking work, because... working insects hide it in an inconspicuous-looking cavity on the wall or in the floor. Before getting there, you need to overcome more than one meter of the labyrinth laid by red-haired workers. And this is a broken floor and other troubles. The female feeds on what the working members of the family bring to her. If you force them to deliver a “delayed action” poison to the center of the colony, then over time not only the worker, but the female will die.
The female red ant hides in a secluded place and never leaves it.
Yellow ants (their body) are covered with a chitinous shell. If you buy bait from a low concentration of boric acid (no more than 2%) in a store as a poison, then the workhorse will first deliver poisoned food to the female, and only then the acid will corrode her chitin.
Attention! When dealing with red ants, protect your pets so that they do not have access to food treated with poison.
Don't expect any good from your cockroach relatives
Unfortunately, the impressive termite structures do not completely satisfy their occupants. Since termites prefer cellulose as food, their habitat can be not only the desert, but also human outbuildings and wooden houses. This is the reason for their appearance, because they are forced to constantly look for food.
Residents of Asia, especially China, South America, and Australia suffer most from termite pests. The damage caused by these creatures amounts to billions of US dollars annually. The walls of wooden houses can fold like cards if termites are given free rein, not to mention damaged furniture and outbuildings.
White ants may appear in an apartment if the house has wooden floors. If we are talking about southern latitudes, even a concrete foundation will not protect against the invasion of termites, which will find a way to get into the house, even if this requires at least laying a path through the water pipes.
Where did the invasion come from?
Small red ants are also called “pharaoh”, “Indian”, “raja ants”. If we consider the problem “Where do the red-haired robbers come from?” globally, then we need to take the 16th century as a starting point. It was then that sailors, along with goods from distant India, brought uninvited guests to Europe. Since the end of the 19th century, ants have settled in Russia.
Leftover food on the floor attracts ants
You can understand where red-haired robbers come from specifically in your apartment by considering the possible reasons:
- as a result of active struggle between neighbors in the stairwell or house, they decided to change their place of residence by moving in with you;
- you leave plenty of food for the ants in the form of leftover food not taken out with the trash, open food on the table, stove, etc.;
- the apartment is not cleaned often enough (including wet cleaning);
- Queen ants can be brought into the apartment on clothes and shoes;
- insects can enter through open windows and doors, ventilation holes, cracks;
- migrate from the basement, entrance.
Are there termites in the house?
Little white ants can cause big trouble. To avoid complications and start the fight for your own home in a timely manner, you need to be vigilant. Pests will not build a termite mound in the middle of the living room, but traces of their presence can be found in other ways.
The main sign of the appearance of uninvited guests in an apartment or house, in addition to a personal meeting with insects, is the presence of small holes in wooden elements. You should carefully inspect the doors, window sills, railings and steps of stairs, furniture, and the walls of a wooden house at the level of the first floor, especially on the porch near the front door, for traces of a past feast of white ants.
Here you can also find barely noticeable wood dust and reddish or black waste products of termites.
If voids appear in the wood, a sign of which is a characteristic sound when tapping, this also indirectly indicates the work of termites.
If you were unable to detect termites on your own, but doubts remain, you should call specialists who, using a thermal imager, can identify places where insects accumulate.
Where do transparent ants in the apartment come from?
Having discovered an insect in an apartment, a big question arises about where it can start and where it can appear.
Often small pests appear in the house in the kitchen or bathroom. They get into medicine drawers in the bathroom, food bags in the kitchen, and other places where food can be found. Pests enter the house from the street when they are looking for a warm shelter, and also move from neighboring premises. Pale-colored insects emerge from a nest from which they recently emerged.
Where do ants come from in the kitchen and bathroom?
To prevent ants from appearing in the kitchen and bathroom, the following preventive measures should be taken:
- Carry out regular cleaning, wash floors and clean hard-to-reach areas;
- Throw away garbage in a timely manner;
- Remove leftover food and leave food in closed compartments.
What do transparent ants look like?
Do-it-yourself termite control
It is unknown what will cause more damage to the home, a fire or white ants in the apartment. How to get rid of annoying pests?
The main means of combating termites are special poisons, mainly based on chlorine compounds, with the exception of those that, while safe for humans and destructive to pests, can harm the well-being of other animals and plants, which is why they are even prohibited for use.
Mixtures of naphthalene, gasoline, kerosene, alcohol, turpentine, boron powder, sublimate, creosote and even tar and tree resin from coniferous trees are also used for control.
Practice shows that independent control of termites is not always effective, so this matter should be left to professionals, and subsequently take care of carrying out preventive measures.
Damage from transparent ants
In fact, the harm from small insects will be insignificant, but some may be carriers of pathogens of various diseases. It is also worth noting the fact that their bites in some people cause an allergic reaction, which can develop into a very dangerous situation when a person loses consciousness and cannot speak clearly.
Ants love sugar very much. When fighting them, you need to use this knowledge very wisely in order to achieve maximum effectiveness. Sugar is an excellent bait for transparent ants.
It is also important to know that in order to get rid of ants, you need to get rid of the female, since she is the one who lays more and more eggs.
Professional termite control
Termite control specialists have stronger drugs in their arsenal than those available commercially. By destroying sick and weak individuals, such means can even strengthen the colony of surviving termites.
Professional sanitation workers know exactly how to get rid of white ants in an apartment. To combat termites, aeration is used, introducing smoke into the treated surface with special substances. Of course, to achieve a perfect result, this method is only suitable for processing portable wooden structures such as furniture, since fumigation is carried out in special chambers.
Sanitary services will treat not only the house, apartment and other affected objects, but will also find and neutralize the nest of white ants that may live far from the home. If termites have chosen an apartment or a neighbor’s house, then treating the entire residential sector will be more effective than targeted strikes on the enemy.
An unpleasant neighborhood with termites is a dubious pleasure. Therefore, when buying a home, especially in warm regions, attention should be paid not only to the quality of repairs and the prestige of the area, but also to signs of a possible “free application” in the form of such woodborers.
If you plan to build a house, then you should choose a drier place for this, pour the foundation higher, and prefer a metal fence to a wooden fence. Also, for areas of high “termite risk,” sanitary service specialists can offer preventive treatment of the house and its surroundings. These measures can minimize the risk of unwanted encounters with white ants in your own home and at work.
Methods for getting rid of transparent ants
In the fight against insects, our main goal is to get rid of them, since they are the root of many problems such as unsanitary conditions, diseases, allergies, etc. At the same time, it is important to take a comprehensive approach to solving the problem, as this will be the key to getting rid of pests. Due to the fact that ants move very actively around the room, using one remedy will be ineffective.
The following methods help a lot:
- A solution of sunflower oil and elderberry will help fight garden ants. It is enough to apply it to window sills and entrance openings.
- All ants love sugar and black ones are no exception. This knowledge can be used to create traps. Just place bottles of sugar diluted in water around the house. The insect is attracted by the sweet aroma, but after that it will not be able to get out of the water.
- A solution of boric acid with a spoon of sugar gives amazing results. All thanks to the fact that they take this solution to their nest, where the others feed on it and mass death of insects occurs.
- Chemicals also work well against ants, so be sure to use those as well.
( Video : “How to get rid of ants at home”)
