Flying ants - that's how you get rid of the plague
- Characteristics
- garden
- sandpit
- terrace
- Fend off flying ants
- Get rid of pest in the house
- Control of aphids
- Poison-free agent
- Pharaoh and wood ants
Flying ants are annoying - but there is no danger from them. Whole swarms swarm through the garden or penetrate into the house, can easily pass the pests. So you get rid of the plague, without resorting to toxic control methods.
In the middle of spring it starts and stretches until midsummer. Flying ants hover around in the garden and enter the house cheekily. Contrary to popular belief, this is not a special species. In fact, Mother Nature flatters mature adult ants for some time to embark on a wedding flight. Although there is no danger from the swarms, we nevertheless strive to permanently banish the pests. How to get rid of the plague, without the need for chemical preparations, can be found out here.
Characteristics
- Sexually mature ants of all genera develop wings
- Workers do not form wings
- Native species swarm from the beginning of May
- Simultaneous swarming of various peoples prevents inbreeding
- Duration of the wedding flight only a few hours
- Mated females throw off their wings
- Males die a few hours later
The fertilized queens collect the sperm in a special sack to fertilize their eggs for the next 20 years. Once again, they will stop training wings.
garden
In the natural garden, ants are not punished by death when flying around for a few hours on a wedding flight. In fact, the industrious insects make a valuable contribution to maintaining the ecological balance. So they loosen the soil, operate as a disposer of organic waste and participate in the sowing of plant seeds. Since the annoying rapture always starts in a nest, this is where the methods of expulsion begin. If the ants are too uncomfortable, they pack their brood piggyback and look for the distance. From the offspring, flying ants nevertheless develop, but far away from their own garden.
Tip: Commercial ant baits contain toxins that are not only dangerous to insects. Curious children and pets also take damage to their health.
sandpit
The sandpit in the garden is not only a paradise for your children, but also an ants sought after site for their nest. It is not the sand alone that attracts the insects. Careful parents cover the box for protection from the weather and cat droppings. This creates an ideal nesting site for the ants with hidden access over the ground. Although neither the crawling workers nor the flying queens pose a danger, they are explicitly undesirable in this location. The use of ant poison prohibits itself here. Thus, the sandbox is again an ants-free refuge for playing children:
- Completely remove the ants settled sand from the box
- Rinse the sandbox thoroughly with hot water
- Lay out the surface with sturdy weed fleece
- Fill in fresh fresh sand
From now on, use a cover that allows rain and wind to pass through without allowing animals to enter. Narrow mesh rabbit wire is a useful solution. Do not use perforated plastic film instead of weed fleece because it will not keep the ants out.
terrace
If ants make a nest under the decking, the winged specimens find their way into the house very quickly. In addition, tiles can sag, causing dangerous tripping hazards. In the face of this imminent doom in a twin pack, focus is on more intensive control methods that target the sensitive sense of smell of ants. If the attempt of the described resettlement on the terrace does not succeed, drive up the following guns:
Spray the nest and the surrounding area with:
Camphor-alcohol mix- Knoblauchsud
- nettle liquid manure
- wormwood
- cheap perfume
Camphor-alcohol mixAny fragrance with an ethereal can not stand ants. Therefore, put out on the terrace in addition eucalyptus leaves, centaury or lemon peel . Flowing through such odors penetrates the nest, looking for the insects the vastness together with the offspring and the queen.
Tip: Predictive do-it-yourselfers already put a stop to possible ant nests when building a terrace. For this purpose, tiles or natural stones are laid on gravel or grit instead of sand. In these coarse materials, the pests do not create nests.
Fend off flying ants
Given the small window of time between the end of the hibernation in March / April and the first wedding flights in May, an ant nest in the garden or on the terrace sometimes escapes your attention and the flying ants head for the house. To prevent the plague ghosts from getting inside the house, these precautions make a contribution:
- All windows, the balcony or patio door with fly screens
- Seal even the smallest openings on the window frames and doors with silicone
- Keep the windows closed in the dark, if the light is on
Close the windows even if candles and lanterns are burning on the terrace or balcony. From any source of light, the flying ants are lured and find in a jiffy a way into the living spaces.
Get rid of pest in the house
The smart ants have no qualms about nesting in your house. In this case, the best insect nets on the windows and doors use nothing, because the winged females and males perform the wedding flight directly in the room. First, determine if the animals actually came from inside the house. This is perfectly recognizable on which side of the window the air ants gather. If the plague is actually stirring from a nest in the room, proceed as follows:
- Do not use a toxic spray against flying ants in the house, which will die in a few hours anyway
- Instead, open the windows wide
- Ideally with a powerful fan or a hair dryer to drive away the winged insects
Facing swirling ants in the living room, panicking at a chemical bug spray may harm your health. This is especially true when small children or pets are in the rooms. Instead, offer the animals a way out and then set off in search of the nest to counteract a repetition of the plague.
This procedure is recommended:
- Seal the accesses to the nest
- The ant trails spray with vinegar water or essential oils
- Design intensively smelling spices, such as basil, chervil or marjoram
- Do not leave food or food bowls open
- Wipe kitchen worktops several times a day with hot water
The ants laid the nest because there is an easily accessible source of food there. Seek persistently for this attraction to eliminate it as soon as possible. On this occasion, all joints in the floor or cracks in the wall should be sealed with plaster, acrylic or silicone. In addition to the fly screens, windows and doors are glued to sealing tape.
Control of aphids
In the home and garden, an infestation of plants by aphids often goes hand in hand with ants plague. The cause lies in honeydew, which excreted the lice as a waste product. As ants are wild about all the sweetness in general and honeydew in particular, they seek proximity to garden and indoor plants with aphids. The workers not only milk their honeydew suppliers, but even lug them to the nearest plant if there is a better environment for the pests. The primary control of aphids therefore causes secondarily a prevention of flying ants.
Poison-free agent
If all methods of ants' detoxification or resettlement do not work to get rid of the plague, nematodes for poison-free disposal come into focus. These are roundworms, which are used with the watering can to kill ants. The nematode genus Steinernema feltiae is designed to parasitize the ant larvae. Consequently, no flying specimens can develop from this. Incidentally, threadworms have been used for millions of years, as they have recently been detected in ant fossils. As a rule, it does not come to that, because the workers recognize the danger and remove the larvae. How to use the non-toxic preparation:
- Stir the anemone nematodes in clay mineral into water as instructed
- From a floor temperature of 12 degrees Celsius with the watering can
- Both the nests and the runways are watering
- Mow lawns before use and do not lime in the following 2 months
Immediately following the application of the nematodes, spray the surface with clear water and keep it permanently moist for the following 2 weeks. In this way, the thread worms remain active longer. To prevent the migrating ants from returning, the preparation may be used every two weeks from May to August, the season for flying ants.
Pharaoh and wood ants
They rarely occur; However, an infestation in the house by the pharaoh ant can not be excluded in principle. This ant species poses a threat, as it is considered a disease transmitter. In addition, the wood ant proves to be a material pest when it comes to tampering with the furniture and wood paneling in the house. In both cases, the State Office for the Environment recommends consulting a specialist. To identify the two ant species
- Pharaoh ants are amber yellow and 1.5 to 2.5 mm long
- Wood ants species Lasius brunneus : yellow-brown and 2.5 to 4 mm in size
- Wood anemone type Lasius emarginatus : red-yellow chest, dark head and abdomen, 2.5 to 4.5 mm long
- Wood ants species Lasius fuliginosus : completely black-glossy body, 4.0 to 6.0 mm long
In addition, the use of a specialist comes into consideration when developed in the house a high infestation pressure due to flying and crawling ants.
Flying ants are not a new species of insect, but mature queens and males on their wedding flight. Although the swarms pose no danger, we do not want to be bothered by the winged insects. In order to get rid of the plague, the grip in the chemical poison kitchen is not necessary. Instead, there is a whole arsenal of environmentally friendly and health-friendly methods of expelling the pests. Fly the insects around in the house, open the windows and blow them out with the fan. So that the flight squad does not penetrate boldly into the house, fly screens and locked windows keep the winged ants off their plan. Instead of condemning the industrious workers to death, they are thus scared away from the garden, from the terrace or out of the house. Etheric and intense smells also do wonders in this regard. Hardened bandages help defend the ants with nematodes.
Tips for quick readers
- In the garden:
- Relocate with wood wool filled bucket
- Level earth mounds
- Running streets together
- Put nests in the plant container under water
- Always leave an escape route
- Sandbox:
- Empty, clean with hot water
- Place weed fleece under the new sand
- Cover instead with a tarpaulin with rabbit wire
- Terrace and at the house:
- Nest surrounded with strong smelling herbs
- Spraying with nettle or garlic
- Windows and doors protect with fly screens
- Keep windows closed in the dark
- In the house:
- For flying ants open all windows
- Blowing with fan into the outdoors
- Seek the nest and sprinkle it with strong perfumes
- At high infestation pressure, pharaoh and wood ants get the exterminator
- prevention
- Do not leave food open
- Clean food bowls immediately
- Clean work surfaces in the kitchen with vinegar water
