Do you know what makes an ant infestation even worse?
Crazy ants! They’re fast, and they’re clever.
These ants move erratically — especially in the face of danger — and catching them one by one is pretty much impossible. Simply put, crazy ants are harder to get rid of compared to regular house ants. Dealing with them takes much more patience and careful planning than taking care of a regular ant infestation.
Thankfully, you can remove crazy ants by acting quickly to locate their nests and using the right products to target the entire colony. Read on to effectively deal with crazy ants, which are an invasive species, and successfully get rid of them once and for all.
This site receives compensation from the companies featured in this listing, which may impact where and how products appear. This listing doesn’t feature all companies, products, or offers that may be available.
What Are Crazy Ants?
As the name implies, crazy ants exhibit erratic and wayward behavior while scavenging. Their ant trail is bizarrely scattered, with their colony scavengers moving around aimlessly. Frustratingly, this makes them difficult targets for extermination.
Compared to other ant species, crazy ants have much longer legs and antennae. Adult crazy ants are reddish-brown to black in color. Their average length is 1/8 of an inch or 3 millimeters, and their bodies are covered in coarse hair.
Crazy ants are sometimes referred to as tawny or Raspberry crazy ants (due to their discovery in the United States in 2002 by Tom Raspberry, a Texas exterminator), and their black-bodied versions are called longhorn crazy ants.
Where Do Crazy Ants Live?
Unlike common garden ants, crazy ants don’t nest in mounds of soil. They establish their colonies under rocks, dead leaves and tree branches, compost, or garbage piles. When cold weather comes, they invade nearby structures such as homes and buildings to reestablish their colonies inside a more comfortable habitat.
A single crazy ant colony is relatively small, but clusters of colonies in close proximity form supercolonies. Each supercolony typically has 15 to 20 queen ants, and each is capable of establishing a new colony nearby through a process called budding.
Read Also: How do you get rid of ant hills?
Inspecting For Crazy Ants
Act fast at the first sign of an infestation of crazy ants, which are omnivorous and can target your stored food products. Even leaving dead insects inside your home serves as an open invitation to crazy ants. They’ll eagerly consume insect carcasses.
Crazy ants have also been known to inflict serious damage on electrical equipment. As soon as you spot a couple of these crazies wandering aimlessly around your home, it’s imperative to identify, locate, and treat their nests as soon as possible.
It’s hard to track down the nesting sites of crazy ants since they’re known for their reluctance to form trails. However, you can still manipulate them by baiting with honey, maple syrup, or peanut butter. Scavengers will easily pick up the scent, eventually encouraging the workers to form a trail from their nest toward the scavenging site. Follow this trail from inside your home to determine entry points needing to be sealed.
Crazy Ant Treatment & Removal
When you locate the crazy ants’ nest, you can treat the trail and the colonies simultaneously. Use a non-repellent ant spray to prevent your targets from wandering off. Insecticide sticks to the bodies of affected ants and passes on to other individuals in the colony.
For better results, you can complement spray insecticide with dust treatment. Dust crevices, cracks, holes or gaps, corners and all areas of your property suspected of ant activity.
Crazy ants are classified as invasive insects.
When cold weather comes, they invade nearby structures such as homes and buildings to reestablish their colonies inside a more comfortable habitat.
How To Prevent Crazy Ants?
Now that you know getting rid of crazy ants is a tedious task, consider preventive steps to keep infestations from recurring in and around your home. As much as possible, maintain good housekeeping practices:
- Remove food sources and clean up leftovers and spills immediately
- Wipe your kitchen sink and dining table clean after every use
- Remove dead insects and dispose of your trash daily
Make sure to keep your outdoor premises orderly:
- Keep your grass and other vegetation well trimmed
- Remove dead leaves and tree branches from your lawn
- Remove piled stones or lumber to eliminate possible crazy ant nesting sites
For severe cases of crazy ant infestation, it’s best to call a qualified exterminator.
Final Thoughts
The best way to get rid of crazy ants involves identifying their nests, using the right treatment products, and implementing preventive measures. In most cases, you can effectively eliminate these pests and keep them from reinfesting your home.
However, if you have a severe or repeat infestation, don’t hesitate to reach out to a professional pest control service for assistance. They have stronger pesticides and ant killers to help remove crazy ants.
Frequently Asked Questions
The best way to get rid of crazy ants is to locate and treat their nests using a non-repellent ant spray and insecticide dust.
Crazy ants don’t typically form visible mounds. Inspect your property for nests under rocks, dead leaves, tree branches, compost piles, or garbage. You can also make ant bait with honey, maple syrup, or peanut butter to create a trail leading back to their nest.
It depends on the size of the colony and the effectiveness of the treatment. It may take several weeks of consistent treatment to fully remove the ants.
