What are pharaoh ants

Asked cjslater recently.

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Pharaoh ants, or Monomorium pharaonis to give them their proper Latin names, are what is know as 'introduced social ants' .

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Q.� What do they look like

A.� The workers are very small, only a couple of millimetres in length. They're light yellow to reddish brown in colour and don't have a stinger.

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Q.� Where should I look out for their nests

A.� Their nests are tiny, often no more than the size of a thimble. They can be found in clothes and paper but are more commonly found under floorboards and behind walls. Pharaoh ants like building their nests in warm humid places, near hot water pipes, for example.

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Q.� Why are they so good at spreading disease and generally being a pest

A.� Firstly because of their preferred habit of trailing through such unsanitary places as drains, toilets, bedpans, sinks and dustbins. They particularly like the warm humid environment of hospitals.

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Secondly because a colony can suddenly split, with a large number of workers and a fertilised female suddenly leaving to set up another colony, known as 'budding'. This method of spreading themselves around means that it can take years for some buildings to be rid of them.

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Q.� What can I do about them

A.� Pharaoh ants are pests that can spread potentially dangerous diseases, contact your local council if you think you have an infestation of these ants.

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Expert termination usually involves lacing bait with a slow acting toxin that the workers pick up and eventually carry back to the colony where the queen and the larvae eventually succumb to the poison. But ants are wise to many would be effective insecticides.

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Q.� Where is the bait laid

A.� Bait has to be laid along active feeding trails. Just putting bait near a trail won't work: ants have been known to walk past the most tempting bait, even if it's just centimetres away from their known food route.

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Q.� What do pharaoh ants eat

A.� Just about anything, from peanut butter to shoe polish. They also gnaw through fabric and rubber goods.

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Q.� How many eggs can a queen pharaoh ant lay

A.� Unlike most ants, they breed continuously throughout the year in heated buildings and mating occurs in the nest. A single queen can produce many hundreds of workers in only a

few months. A mature colony can have as many as 300,000 or more members.

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Do you have a question about an insect

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by Lisa Cardy