Ants?

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JHZR2

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Saw these in a number of places in my stone walled, detached, unsealed garage. Think they are ants. Opinions?




Concern is that in that box was some turpentine and some rags that were used to wipe turpentine and linseed oil.




There's definitely a distinct narrowing between thorax and abdomen.
 
Naw. My money's on Al.
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yep small flying ants its that time of year

possibly tons of stinkbugs incoming too.. depending on location.
 
Okay, those appear to be either flying ants or maybe termites.
So you propose to do what?
 
Since its detached i would treat around the perimiter with Taurus SC( same agent as Termidor, only less expensive) a fipronil agent that is not detectable/slow kill and will be carried back to any nest( including termites). Then you could spray with a couple of times a summer with Demon wp( Cypermethrin 40%) as a preventative, which is way cheaper than Taurus/Termidor).
 
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Originally Posted By: Rand
possibly tons of stinkbugs incoming too.. depending on location.


Yep....I'm seeing alot of them around right now.
 
Originally Posted By: spasm3
Since its detached i would treat around the perimiter with Taurus SC( same agent as Termidor, only less expensive) a fipronil agent that is not detectable/slow kill and will be carried back to any nest( including termites). Then you could spray with a couple of times a summer with Demon wp( Cypermethrin 40%) as a preventative, which is way cheaper than Taurus/Termidor).


^^^
This


The way it works is you trench around your foundation (~ 6" deep x 4" wide) and pour in the pre-mixed Taurus SC around the foundation. Do not "spice it up" as it is a slow kill that is carried back to the nest. It is designed for them to not detect it as the go through.

The Demon, or my other favorite is Bifenthrin (Talstar, Bifen IT) is sprayed on active sites This they detect and will run from while dying.

Termites are persistent little suckers so if you treat around your house with a repellent insecticide they will systematically poke around and find a weak areas to go through. With the Taurus (Fipronil) they do not detect it and it rubs off on other termites as they pass each other. In a few days the whole colony is sick and dies.


Always use per the label instructions for concentration and rate so us DIYer bug sprayers don't get a bad reputation for killing all the bees.
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i think there is enough EPA friendly people here to where that is a bad idea.
i always used soapy water. kills em, works for me.
 
I think you guys are going off in the wrong direction.. I'd be highly surprised if those are termites.. we have no termites here.. and tons of those.. flying ants.

Bucketloads of earwigs here though. (literally buckets.)

Been using bifen XTS.. its the nuclear war option for earwigs.

I have been battling them since I purchased this house in 2013. There were piles of carapaces all over from spiders eating them.

I tried every friendly way of killing them, oil traps(oil filled soda can bottoms), diatomaceous earth, light spraying of bifen(premix ortho home defense) on the foundation and inside.

All they did was come in by the thousands and die in the basement and all over.

EPA is all fine and dandy until you drink an earwig in your coffee. I tried for 4 years...

This year:
21gal(dilute .3oz/gal) of bifen xts in a sprayed in a 10-15ft strip around the house.. and a week later.. only 25 or so corpses in the basement vs hundreds a day. I bought a special stick vac just to suck them up. I resprayed after 10 weeks.. now finding less than 25 a week..

but that was all off topic. I would definitely identify the pest before treating however.
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Okay, those appear to be either flying ants or maybe termites.
So you propose to do what?


Step 1: leverage thousands of eyes instead of two in order to make an assessment. This is the first time a Ive seen these in the 10+ years Ive lived here. Ive heard of one or two houses around with termite damage, but not a ton. So it's not clear to me that they are a big issue.

Step 2: if termites (my gut said no, but see step 1), then determine if DIY or pro help is prudent. If ants, see if any steps are needed at all. Our house requires climbing steps to go in, which I think helps as we never have ants or other bugs in our living areas. Plus we keep things very clean.

Step 3: execute, or not.

My feeling is ants due to the big pinch between thorax and abdomen.

Just want to ensure there's no chance of damage from them.
 
Twice a year I drench my place top to bottom, including trenching the perimeter with Termidor / Taurus SC to keep pretty much everything at bay. In between the twice annual drenching I also hit the place with Demon Max or Demon WP. To keep a resistance thing from getting started I also use Permethrin 36.8% occasionally to kinda mix things up. Being in the desert the primary targets are scorpions, termites, spiders, ants, gnats, flys and noseums. As such we don’t see much hanging around the place, and if something does show up, it’s dead, just the way I like it. I like to time everything just before they swarm or come to maturity.
 
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