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You are here: Home / Food Pests / The various species / Hymenoptera / The pharaoh ant

The pharaoh ant

Latin: Monomorium pharaonis.

Pharaoh ant
Pharaoh ant
Season for Pharaoh ants
Season for Pharaoh ants

A tiny, bright yellow ant. The workers are only approximately 2 mm long. It is originally a tropical species, which has spread across the world through imports. In Northern Europe it has been known since the 1920s.
In Northern Europe, the pharaoh ant depends on heated buildings. The pharaoh ant is most often found in food stocks and businesses, but can also be troublesome in canteens, hotels, hospitals and in private households. All kinds of food may be eaten by this ant. Like the common black ant, the pharaoh ant also has appetite for jam, sugar and honey. Meat products, cheese, high-fat foods, dead insects, carrion and mouse droppings are also among the things that this ant eats. In hospitals, pharaoh ants crawl into sterile products and under the patients’ bandages. Furthermore they seek out waste, carrion and drains, so there is no doubt that the pharaoh ant can carry bacteria to food.

There are usually several queens in a pharaoh ant colony. The colonies are placed in dark cavities near heat sources. Temperatures between 27 and 30 ° C are preferred. There may be several colonies in one building. The colonies live in peaceful coexistence and have some degree of connection with each other.

Pharaoh ant seen from side
Pharaoh ant seen from side

It’s not easy to exterminate pharaoh ants. Start by examining their prevalence so that the extermination can be done throughout the whole infested area. For this purpose, one can lay out pieces of raw pig liver in plastic bags with holes in them or on tin foil. If there are pharaoh ants nearby, they will quickly be attracted to the bait. Knowing their prevalence you can begin the extermination in the outer edges of that area and systematically work your way towards the centre. The extermination itself is to take an insecticide (liquid and / or powder) and thoroughly treat the areas where the pharaoh ants live or move, and into all suspected cracks and crevices. Application of a pesticide in restricted belts in places where the ants have to pass, for example, pipe penetrations, lists, etc. is an addition to the extermination. To exterminate pharaoh ants, a youth hormone-like substance, methoprene, has also been used with success. The method is that the hormone – embedded in a mixture of the ants’ favourite foods – is laid as bait for the foraging worker ants. They bring the mixture into the colony as food for the larvae and queens. The mixture prevents larvae from developing into adult ants and queens lose the ability to lay eggs. The hormone has no effect on the adult worker ants and finished pupae of the colony. Therefore it will take a few months before all the ants have died naturally. These substances only work on insects and are therefore completely safe for humans and pets. One can then add traditional means after a period of a few weeks after the last use of hormone-bait.

Food Pests
Introduction
An old problem
Competition for food
Pests can ruin stored goods
Why not just eat the insects
Some insects are unhealthy to eat
Allergy to pests
Transmission of infectious diseases
Where do pests come from?
Synanthrope species
(1) The house dust mite and the sugar mite
(2) The firebrat and the silverfish
(3) The German cockroach and the forest cockroach
(4) The rust-red flour beetle and the confused flour beetle
(5) The merchant grain beetle and the saw-toothed grain beetle
(6) The cigarette beetle and the drugstore beetle
(7) The rice weevil and the granary weevil
(8) The pharaoh ant and the common black ant
History of the dark flour beetle
Pests in bird’s nests
Mould fauna
The Look and Behaviour of pests
Insect appearance
Internal
Insect development
Insect senses
Behaviour
Water and Moisture
Temperature
What insects live off and live in
The Air
Mites
Bug Indentification
The various species
Mites
The flour mite
The sugar mite
The common house mite
The Lardoglyphus zacheri
The prune mite
The cheese mite
The house dust mite
The Cheyletus eruditus
Silverfish
The Silverfish
The firebrat
Cockroaches
The German cockroach
The Oriental cockroach
The brown-banded cockroach
The American cockroach
The extermination of cockroaches
Crickets
Earwigs
Booklice
Butterflies
The Mediterranean flour moth
The warehouse moth
Tropical warehouse moth
The brown house moth
The Indian meal moth
Grain beetles
The saw-toothed grain beetle
The merchant grain beetle
The rust-red grain beetle
Flour beetles
The yellow mealworm beetle
The lesser mealworm beetle
The dark flour beetle
The confused flour beetle
The rust-red flour beetle
The bolting cloth beetle
Furniture beetles
The drugstore beetle
The cigarette beetle
Bostrychidae
The lesser grain borer
True weevils snout beetles
The granary weevil
The rice weevil
The corn weevil
Bean weevils
The common bean weevil
The coffee bean weevil
Skin beetles
The bacon beetle
The dermestid beetle
The leather beetle
The khapra beetle
The reesa vespulae
Chequered beetles
The red-legged ham beetle
The red-breasted copra beetle
The black-legged ham beetle
Spider beetles
The Australian spider beetle
The white-marked spider beetle
The golden spider beetle
The smooth spider beetle
Plaster beetles
Flies
The common house fly
The lesser house fly
Blowflies
The grey flesh fly
The cheese skipper
Fruit flies
Hymenoptera
The common black ant
The pharaoh ant
Wasps
Birds
The domestic pigeon
The house sparrow
Prevention and control of birds
Rodents
The house mouse
The yellow-necked mouse
Mouse prevention
Mouse control
The brown rat
The black rat
Rat prevention
Rat control
Imaginary pests
Niches of food pests
A: The Waste Niche
B: The seed niche
C: The dead plant niche
D: The sugary excrement niche
E: The carrion niche
Prevention and Control, Integrated Control
A. Inspection of the company and its environment
The environment
The premises
Examination of raw materials and food on site
Sampling
Laboratory methods for detection of pests in food
B. Statement of the problem
C. Prevention and control
1. Proper organisation of the company
2. Proper operation
3. Exclusion, proofing buildings
4. Packaging
5. Non-chemical control measures
6. Chemical control
D: Effective monitoring and communication
Practical information
Index

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