Understand proper amount for bait placements

Andy Linares, President/Founder, Bug Off Pest Control Center

The beauty of deploying ant baits is that we’re using the ant’s habit of sharing food with nestmates (trophallaxis) against it. All of those foragers act as tiny Trojan horses when they return to base.

The problem is that many pest management professionals (PMPs) do not use enough bait load to collapse the colony(ies) quickly. If bait placements are depleted before neutralizing the colony, the colony will rebound.

By the same token, most PMPs do not use enough varieties of bait formulations, actives and matrices to compensate for the ant’s nutritional predilection at any given moment. Variety serves as a hedge against any rejection of a particular bait.

Finally, ants require fluids. Always supplement solid bait placements with a steady supply of liquid baits.