Pharoah Ants

The Pharoah Ant is becoming more and more of a common ant pest problem throughout the UK. This species of ant originates the Mediterranean area, and is often found indoor over in the UK. 

Similarly to the Black Garden Ants, the Pharoah Ant's colony is built around a single queen which lays a large number of eggs over a couple of years. During the growth of the colony many more queens may be produced as well as males but unlike the Black Ant, the queen Pharoah ant is replaced by the worker ants when her fertility rate drops. Therefore, due to this evolution, the colony will continue to grow in size provided there is the food and physical requirements to let it do so. In theory the nest has the ability to grow indefinitely. 

The Pharaoh's ant follows a complete metamorphosis. Initially the eggs are laid down by the queen and they hatch after 2-3 weeks into small larvae or grubs. The queen can lay up to 350 eggs at a time. The larvae/ grub stage of the Pharoah ant is fed by sterile female workers and it can take up to 2 months to reach the pupal stage. The transition from larvae to pupal can be dramatically increased temperatures. At temperatures of 25 degrees celsius the process only takes 2 weeks. During this stage, if the pupae or young larvae becomes threatened, worker ants will move them to new sites and this can start new colonies. 

Occasionally new queens will migrate to these new sites, but this is not essential as workers can produce new queens and males from the developing young. 

Pharaoh ants require a breeding temperature of at least 18 degrees celsius, with an optimum of around 30. In the UK they are often found in and around central heating systems, ovens etc. It is the worker ants, the sterile females, that people often encounter. They are the forging caste, and will search for food sites. They have the ability to communicate to other workers about suitable feeding locations and it is common to see long narrow trails of worker ants moving to and from the food source. They will also seek water for drinking and they will often come into contact with drains and waste-food bins.

As Pharaoh ants do come into contact with these dirty areas they can transmit diseases by transporting organisms to clean foods. 

Pharaoh ants are difficult to control as the worker ants have the ability to create new colonies if the original nest becomes threatened. Therefore buildings infested with Pharaoh ants rarely tend to be a single location. 

As gaining access directly to the nest is normally impossible the use of conventional insecticides is not highly recommended as this will cause satellite nests to form. A granular or gel bait is required and should be laid where ants are foraging. 

We are currently have a number of granular and gel baits on test and are hoping to stock only the best products in the near future.