Bigger Argentine ant population leads to more home invasions

Posted 9:16AM on Sunday 20th October 2002 ( 22 years ago )

LEESBURG - Sandra Davenport has no children that scatter cookie crumbs, spill syrupy drinks or leave chocolate fingerprints in her home. And she's a professional house cleaner, so she keeps her home spotless. So she's wondering why she has swarms of ants in her pantry, breaking into plastic bags of food and even somehow squeezing into closed Tupperware containers. Even tidy homes have not been spared from attacks of Argentine ants throughout the South in recent weeks. The ants reach their peak of pushiness in September and October when they climb trees and file into homes to forage for sweets to store for the winter. David Williams, a U.S. Department of Agriculture entomologist in Gainsville, Fla., said Argentine ants used to be the dominant ant in the Southeast until they were supplanted by fire ants. Now Argentine ants appear to be targeting urban areas, such as Atlanta, south Florida, the Florida panhandle and New Orleans, he said. ``Condos and apartment complexes seem to be the worse,'' Williams said. ``They're hard to control because you have so many units.'' Although fond of sugar, these scavengers will eat just about anything, from tuna to juice to termites. And they have a knack for getting through tight spaces even screw-on caps and snap-on plastic lids in their quest for food. Entomologists believe there are more reports of Argentine ant invasions this year because of the mild winter of 2001-02. More survived, so they multiplied more prolifically. The black-to-brown ants, only one-sixteenth of an inch long, are commonly known as sugar ants because of their fondness for sweets, but they'll eat nearly anything. ``I reached into my cabinet and they were inside my butter and parmesan cheese,'' said Davenport, who lives near Leesburg, north of Albany in southwestern Georgia. ``They had managed to get under my Tupperware into my sugar container.'' She inspected her house, but couldn't find a trail. ``I take the garbage out every day. ... I keep a clean house. It bothers you when you know you keep everything picked up.'' Davenport sprayed pesticide, but wound up calling Sims Pest Control. ``They came and took care of it,'' she said. ``They took things out of the cabinets, sprayed and put out ant traps.'' ``Ants are one of the hot topics with our company,'' said owner Joey Sims. ``People go away on vacation and when they return, their kitchens may be wrapped up in ants. ``The No. 1 thing people need to do is sanitation,'' he said. ``That is not to say a house is dirty. People just need to take some extra precautions. Some of the cleanest houses have ant problems.'' Lee County, which is one of the state's fastest growing areas, has subdivisions popping up on land that was once a forest or a pasture. Sims and his wife, Connie, believe some of the local ant problems may be due to human encroachment into the ants' domain. ``We've come to believe that Lee County is built on an ant hill,'' said Connie Sims. Dan Suiter, a University of Georgia urban entomologist who works with the pest control industry, said there seem to be more Argentine ants throughout Georgia this year, and the population size seems to be linked to the severity of the previous winter. Following a pheromone trail laid out by scouts, the ants can appear suddenly in a home, often while the occupants are on vacation. ``It's like the Ho Chi Minh trail in your kitchen,'' Suiter said. ``They don't sting or bite, so they kind of play second fiddle to the fire ant, but they're as much of a problem because of their sheer numbers and the ecological impact.'' Argentine ants hitched a ride to New Orleans about 1891 in coffee shipments. They have spread eastward to Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas and westward to Texas and California. They have also spread to Africa, Australia and Europe, where scientists recently announced the discovery of a ``supercolony'' containing billions of ants and stretching 3,600 miles from the Italian Riviera to northwestern Spain. Argentine ants destroy other ant species, including native ants, just by their sheer numbers, Suiter said. In California they pose a threat to citrus crops and the horned lizard, which eats only native ants and is finding fewer to consume. Normal Argentine ant colonies can have up to 1 million ants, but since they don't build mounds like fire ants, they are harder to detect, Suiter said. During droughts, such as the current one, they head for moist areas, such as the pine straw or mulch around homes and flower beds. They also climb trees and collect the liquid secreted by sucking insects. Baits with slow-killing pesticides can eventually eliminate entire colonies, but it's difficult to clear an area because the insects can attack homes from hundreds of yards away. ``I've gone on more ant calls this year,'' said technician Blake Sims, the owners' son. ``I've heard predictions of another mild winter so there will possibly be an increase next year.''

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