BUGS-4-LESS
(757)320-5211 or (800)621-4168
SERVING VIRGINIA BEACH
and
THE ENTIRE TIDEWATER AREA
ANTS
Ants are social insects that live in organized communities called a colony. There are near 20,000 species of ants that vary in size, color, and ways of life around the world. Most are a dull, drab color such as brown, rust, or black. However some ants are yellow, green, blue, or purple. Odds are we will not be seeing any of these unusual colored ants in Virginia. The largest ant species can reach over 1 inch in length, while the smallest is about 1/25 of an inch. Size for size ants are among the strongest creatures on earth, some ants can lift items 50 times their own weight.
Ants are most numerous in warm climate regions, but they live almost everywhere on land except in extremely cold climates. Ants have many different ways of life. Some ants live in underground tunnels or build mounds of soil or sand. Other ants live inside trees or in certain types of plant. A species called Leaf Cutter Ants construct nests of tree leaves. Army ants do not live in permanent nests at all. Some types of army ants move across the land in enormous swarms killing and eating insects they encounter. 'Slave maker' ants raid other nests and enslave the captured larva because it is the larva that processes the solid foods for distribution throughout the rest of the colony. Harvester ants collect seeds and store them within their nests. Another species are sometimes called dairying ants, because they keep aphids that produce a sweet liquid from the plant leave they live on.
An ant colony may be small in number or reach into the hundreds, thousands, or even millions of inhabitants. Larger colonies have many queens whose chief responsibility is to lay eggs. Most colony members are workers ants, like the queen(s), all worker ants are female. They build the nest, forage for food, take care of the young, and fight off predators. Male ants, whose only job is to mate with young ant queens, live in the colony nest only at certain times. After mating, males are cast out of the nest to starve to death.
IMPORTANT NOTICE!!!
Red Imported Fire Ants (RIFA) have become a well established pest in the Tidewater. On June 24th 2008 the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) announced a temporary quarantine on the movement of regulated articles in the lower Peninsula and greater Tidewater areas of Southeastern Virginia to areas outside the quarantined localities for the purpose of preventing the artificial spread of the Red Imported Fire Ant to uninfested areas of the state. The temporary quarantine applies to the counties of James City and York and the cities of Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Poquoson, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach and Williamsburg. For full story click HERE. On August 4, 2009, the Virginia Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services voted to make permanent an Imported Fire Ant (IFA) quarantine in the Tidewater area. For that full story click HERE. The most important part of these official press releases is the statement; "Since eradication is no longer feasible in the quarantined area, OPPS (VDACS’ Office of Plant and Pest Services) staff will no longer treat these fire ant colonies, concentrating instead on treatments outside the quarantine. Landowners within the quarantine will be responsible for any treatments that occur on their property." This means that the residents here in Tidewater are on their own to keep these annoying and dangerous ants out of their yards. Don't worry BUGS-4-LESS! has the solution to your Fire Ant problems, prevention! Stop them before they start. For more information click HERE and ask Ronald and Tracy at BUGS-4-LESS!
CARPENTER ANTS
Carpenter Ants are not eating your house down! As a matter of fact Carpenter Ants don't eat wood at all, they cut and dig in wood to hollow it out to create the galleries of their nest, the frass, or saw dust if you will, is removed and deposited outside of the nest. For photos and more about Carpenter Ants click HERE.