Ask the Expert: Ant Control Best Practices
Ryan Neff, Ph.D., West Coast Technical Field Specialist, MGK
What best practices should professionals follow when incorporating gel bait into an ant-control program?
This won’t come as a surprise to most pest management professionals (PMPs), but proper ant species identification is extremely important before choosing a bait form. Gel baits are best used for ants that have persistent, high-traffic trails, like Argentine, odorous house, ghost, and white-footed ants. Erratic, scatter-search foraging, as seen in Asian needle ants, probably doesn’t lend itself well to gel baiting (unless you have a gel bait made of termite puree!).
It’s also important to account for seasonal shifts in dietary focus. While generalizations are tricky as we’re dealing with a social insect and many species across a wide range of climates, there are some we can make regarding seasonal shifts in foraging:
- In spring and early summer, when brood production is high, ants often prefer proteins and fats. Larval development demands proteins, and fats/oils provide a more concentrated energy source for queens
and larvae. - Mid- and late summer and fall often see a shift to carbs to sustain worker activity and build energy reserves.
- Sugar fuels foraging and allows workers to accumulate fat for overwintering or colony maintenance.
What type of bait formulation should PMPs look for to ensure consumption by ants?
While there are some unique or niche bait formulations, most are either liquids, gels, or granules. Granular baits usually have some type of oil- or protein-dominant food attractant, while liquid and gel baits typically have carb-based attractants. Since dietary preference can vary by species, season, colony size, available resources, etc., it’s not a bad idea to provide multiple baits to determine what ants at a particular location prefer.
That either involves using both granular and liquid/gel baits or using an all-in-one bait like Sumari® Triton. This gel bait incorporates all three macronutrients (protein, fat, and sugar), meaning there is less guesswork for a PMP. Triton is also unique in that it holds up very well in outdoor environments. I’m not saying Triton is designed to replace granular applications for fire ants or sugar-heavy baits for massive Argentine ant supercolonies in the summer, but it is an excellent tool when you aren’t sure what type of food a colony is searching for.
When combining an insecticide with bait placements, what steps can PMPs take for effective treatments?
This also depends on the species and the landscape. Because many ant species forage on honeydew from scales and aphids, eliminating them with products labeled for tree injections, root drenches, or foliar applications cuts off a major resource. No sugar means no fuel for the workers to do their jobs.
If that’s not an option, I’m a big fan of treating around the base of trees and other vegetation where active trails are observed by using a slower-acting product like Sumari® Insecticide. Applying bait adjacent to liquid applications will speed up control by killing foragers that contact the material, but not before they’ve had time to share the bait with ants back in the colony or colonies.
