Who are flying ants and what to do when they appear in the house?

Ants are initially wingless insects, however, in some species, wings still appear in a certain period. Surely you have seen these in the warm season. At the same time, flying ants are often found not only on the street, but also in residential premises. And here before the owners the question immediately arises of how to get them out.

general information

Flying ants, as seen in the photo, have a pair of well-developed wings. But at the same time, these insects do not belong to any particular species. These are just males and females during the mating season. And their wings appear only for the implementation of the breeding process.

On a note! Wings appear far from all species of ants. Plus, in some species, exclusively males are inspired!

Winged ants can be observed in mature colonies every season. Under favorable conditions, such individuals gather in groups and mate. Often this happens in the summer with high humidity in clear warm weather, usually two to three days after a rainfall.

The need for wings is explained as follows. The fact is that the ants try to avoid mating with individuals from their own colony, and the wings that appeared during the breeding season help them travel relatively long distances and look for a partner from other nests.
A few hours after mating, male flying ants die and the females try to establish new colonies. They store sperm collected during mating throughout their life in a special organ of the abdomen and spend it as necessary to fertilize the eggs.

Having built a new nest, the female becomes the queen or uterus. In this case, only a young virgin ant uterus can be with wings.

However, not all females manage to become the founders of a new ant colony. Some fall prey to predators, others fail to grow their first offspring, still others die of hunger or because of adverse living conditions. In addition, left without wings, they automatically lose the ability to fly and, accordingly, cannot move to a more convenient place to create a nest.

The reasons for the appearance in residential premises

How and why does an ant with wings end up in an apartment? There may be several reasons for this:

• firstly, he could get into the house through an open window - males, in search of females, fly into chimneys, onto trees and even onto roofs of houses;
• secondly, you may have an ant nest in your apartment, which you did not even suspect - with the onset of the mating period, winged individuals begin to fly out of the nest in search of partners;
• thirdly, the nest of ants can also be located on the neighboring living space - flying individuals are quite capable of moving inside the apartment building, for example, through ventilation shafts.

Since years of ants occur in the warm season, often winged individuals are found in the country house. And with a large accumulation of them in the house, it can be assumed that insects are selected from a recently established nest.And since for the normal development of the colony a constant source of food is necessary, then most often the anthill is located in the kitchen or in the pantry with supplies. Thus, they will be found in kitchen cabinets and cabinets, in drawers and on shelves with products.

Flying ants do not pose any direct danger to humans - they, as a rule, do not bite, and if they attack, they only defend themselves, and their bite is practically painless. But at the same time, the neighborhood with him is hardly pleasant.

Methods of struggle

Since flying ants are ordinary ants, it is quite possible to get rid of them in the house using methods and means that are used in the fight against any other domestic insects.

Important! The complexity of the fight against flying ants lies in the fact that, even if their nest is in your apartment, they arrange their mating games outside its walls. For this reason, it is necessary to look for ways to destroy them either before the mating period, or after it, when the insects get rid of the wings!

Folk methods

If there are few insects, then before applying chemicals it is worth trying more gentle methods of control. So, what folk remedy can bring flying ants? There are several of them:

• we coat the areas near the cracks, baseboards and ant paths (if any) with table vinegar, butter or garlic juice;
• you can prepare a poisonous mixture - in a container we combine 200 ml of water with 100 ml of liquid soap, mix thoroughly and spray in the places of possible nesting of ants using a spray gun;
• prepare a sweet bait - pour water in a saucer, and put jam or honey in the center. Insects attracted by the sweet aroma will crawl into the water and drown;
  
• if you managed to determine the exact location of the nest, then you need to fill it with steep boiling water - in this case you are guaranteed to get rid of all members of the colony together with the uterus;
• boric acid - mix boric acid powder in meat or potato mince, make small balls and arrange them in the kitchen. Working ants will eat the poisoned bait themselves and take it to a nest where the queen may well die from the poison.

Insecticides

If your apartment is gradually starting to turn into a nursery of flying ants, then it is already advisable to use a more powerful tool - an insecticide. The chemical industry is able to offer gels, aerosol preparations and sprays. Among the most effective:

• "Raptor";
• "Regent";
• Fumitox;
• "Combat";
• "Raid";
• Fas.

Important! Any insecticide should be used strictly according to the instructions!

And do not forget that if there is no order in your house, then even after defeating the insects, after some time they may well return again. Therefore, in order to avoid a “relapse”, you should carry out constant cleaning, regularly wash the stove, wash and sweep out the garbage from under the refrigerator and nightstands. It is advisable to store the products in sealed containers and empty the bin as often as possible, especially in summer. If there are pets in your house, then their dishes also need constant cleaning, and the food must be kept in tightly closed jars. If possible, do wet cleaning and be sure to wipe the tables after eating. Fulfilling these simple requirements, you will make your home as comfortable as possible for yourself and unattractive for any insects.