# Flying Sugar Ants - How doomed am I?



## Half-fast eddie (Sep 19, 2020)

Ants or termites? Ant wings are as long as the body, termite wings are twice as long.


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## ShadowTiger (Sep 9, 2019)

Definitely not termites. Plus, they do honestly look like regular black ants but with wings.


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

ShadowTiger said:


> Okay, so here's the deal. One (Possibly two; feels longer than it's been when you're under siege.) week or so ago, we found the source of our ant infestation. It's in the middle of the house where a doorway into our boiler room meets the kitchen, right at the very foot of the left doorway post. There was a *legion* of tiny black sugar ants (We're assuming that's the species.) swarming out of it, crawling over absolutely everything they could reach.
> 
> When I discovered it, I put down a few *Terro Ant Bait stations* right next to where they were pouring out, and I had the luxury of watching them stream right into a single bait station while ignoring the other one entirely. (It's an identical bait station.)
> 
> ...


Those ants were sending off winged reproductives into the world, to bedevil someone else (hopefully). They fly off somewhere, make whoopee, the males die (happy, presumably) and the females dig a tunnel and start new colonies.

They're usually multiples times the size of the regular "workers."

I'd keep up with the Terro Bait till that colony is gone, but be aware, the Earth is One Big Ant Hill, and there are others likely about, but deal with as needed. If the colony reappears, more bait.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!


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## ShadowTiger (Sep 9, 2019)

Thanks! Yep yep, the struggle continues. We wake up every morning around 4:30, turn on the kitchen light, and wait a few minutes, and watch as a swarm of a few dozen flying black ants starts whacking the large fluorescent light in the middle of the ceiling. Sometimes they get tired and fall on the kitchen table, where we eat, and we whack 'em with the nearest object or a fly swatter. They like to hang out in the kitchen sink because it's below a window where sunlight streams in. ... though not that early in the morning.

It's been a rollercoaster ride. Sometimes there are barely any, and sometimes there's fifty. There's no pattern to it other than the time of day they come out to frolick in the kitchen. We only ever see them in that one room despite how it's connected to most other rooms.

We got some UV Bug-zappers but they don't seem to do much; at least not from what I'm seeing. I never see ants around them.

All of the little black ants without wings are certainly dead though. I see hundreds of them near the trap, though the two traps remaining are largely devoid of dead ants. Good.


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

ShadowTiger said:


> Thanks! Yep yep, the struggle continues. We wake up every morning around 4:30, turn on the kitchen light, and wait a few minutes, and watch as a swarm of a few dozen flying black ants starts whacking the large fluorescent light in the middle of the ceiling. Sometimes they get tired and fall on the kitchen table, where we eat, and we whack 'em with the nearest object or a fly swatter. They like to hang out in the kitchen sink because it's below a window where sunlight streams in. ... though not that early in the morning.
> 
> It's been a rollercoaster ride. Sometimes there are barely any, and sometimes there's fifty. There's no pattern to it other than the time of day they come out to frolick in the kitchen. We only ever see them in that one room despite how it's connected to most other rooms.
> 
> ...


Hmm. How long has the big Fest of Whoopee with the flying reproductives been going on? It usually lasts a short time, though that definition varies with the observer I suppose.

Eventually they will all fly away, and if you've offed the colony, they shouldn't return. But sometimes they're tougher than you think, and I'd keep an eye out, and be prepared to "re-bait" if needed. 

Let us know whatever you do, and good luck.


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## ShadowTiger (Sep 9, 2019)

It's been about three hectic weeks, thank you. The "kill the flying ants before they find another nest in the kitchen early in the morning" thing has been very tiring, and I'm getting the feeling that if we called an exterminator, it would seem like the early phase of a Tech Support call. "Did you turn it off and on again?" "Did you use a bait station? Did you find the nest?" 

I have neighbors that are carpenters, plumbers, electricians, astrophysicists, virologists, computer scientists, journalists, and a farmer. I don't have anyone nearby that specializes in flying ants. Boy howdy.


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

ShadowTiger said:


> It's been about three hectic weeks, thank you. The "kill the flying ants before they find another nest in the kitchen early in the morning" thing has been very tiring, and I'm getting the feeling that if we called an exterminator, it would seem like the early phase of a Tech Support call. "Did you turn it off and on again?" "Did you use a bait station? Did you find the nest?"
> 
> I have neighbors that are carpenters, plumbers, electricians, astrophysicists, virologists, computer scientists, journalists, and a farmer. I don't have anyone nearby that specializes in flying ants. Boy howdy.


 Maybe put a trap or "ant catcher" over the colony entrance? That might simplify things a bit. At least they won't fly all over.

Sooner or later, the flights will stop, and knowing that will help others, so do keep an eye and report back. Data are always helpful, even if collecting it is no fun.


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## DoomsDave (Dec 6, 2018)

Don't forget to keep an eye out to make sure the colony really is dead and hasn't gone zombie and revived itself.


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