# PLEASE tell me this is normal (pharoah ant bait / treatment)



## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

I feel for you but am not an expert. Apparently, there can be thousands in the house walls. At least they don't seem to be interested in you!( meat and grease like fire ants) The colony will expand by budding and if they sense they are being attacked they will expand. Did he tell you that it takes a long while to get rid of them? Try calling the number and see if anyone answers, If not, call when they are open and ask. They were imported from Africa. I did live in the Congo and can imagine what you are going through. If you look at the top of the thread there is a Search area. If you click on it and put "pharaoh" in, there are two other posts on them. http://www.pestproducts.com/pharaohants.htm Hopefully, an expert will answer, also. Mentioning what state you live in will help.


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## antz66 (Nov 20, 2015)

I live in Toronto (Canada)
Yes, exterminator told me pharoah ants are notoriously hard to control, and that even if treatment is successful, it could take several weeks, and even then he might have to come back. (And yes, I'm aware that I'm posting this a mere 36 hrs after he left, but based on the horrifying scene currently in my cupboard, I want to know ASAP if this horror is normal.)
He told me all about budding too, and hence why it was bad / counterproductive to use insecticide sprays on pharoahs, b/c they'll just split one colony into several.
Basically, the only thing he DIDN'T tell me about (and what I'm trying to figure out whether is normal or not) is that this treatment *might result in a 1,000-strong full-fledged colony appearing in my kitchen cupboard, complete with several big queens*. Yes, he told me that I'd initially see more ants around the bait stations, but he assured me that it was just because they smelled the food/poison, and that they'd take it back to their nests behind the walls and kill them all. "_Oh yeah, an entire humming ant colony might form in your cupboard_" seems like something you should mention to a client.
And because of the 'budding' issue, I'm not even sure if I should just kill every one of these in sight, including the queens...or whether an attempt to do so would just lead to the formation of even more satellite colonies.

Ugh.


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## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

It does sound awful. Try to tell yourself that they are being killed even though it doesn't seem like it. I think, from what I read, that if you spray, it will cause them to bud more. Most of the "experts" seem to live in the East, so are probably asleep. Good luck and sleep well!


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## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

If you are still worried in the bedroom and have legs to your bed, pans of water under the legs keep ants out. Cover wood with plastic. We dealt with army/driver ants and it worked.


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## ocoee (May 31, 2007)

Yes that is normal I suppose, but not how I would do it or how we used to do it.

I would have removed switch plates and placed bait in the outlet boxes.
We would never have put the bait in a location that would have drawn the ants into view.

but yes it is a long drawn out process because the ants have to be killed slowly enough that they don't alert and bud out.

it could be worse though
I was part of the first pharaoh ant job ever done in central Fla.
We made our own bait out of calves liver and boric acid and the process took 6 months to a year in a heavily infested building


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## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

I hope she updates the post. Ocoee, to hijack the message a little since I can't send you a message... I did wonder how one would save a cat from raccoons or skunks that had cornered the cat under the house thru the access. We don't have basements where I lived. I think it was the animals' birthing time, May, and I had no protective clothes and couldn't afford an exterminator. I still have regrets. Even her very protective brothers wouldn't go in.


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## Nik333 (Mar 1, 2015)

Sorry shouldn't have asked here.


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## charles16 (Nov 23, 2015)

*Home Pest Control*

The pest exterminator you called could be less expert in this field. Please do take a review from friends and family or the internet before calling a pest control professional. If he had done his job right, there would not be a single ant left in your house by now.


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