Skip to content

Your partner for Pest Management Professionals since 1933

Ants Tips and Tricks

Capitalize on ants’ ability to share liquid baits

Ants. Photo: ©istock.com/Stephan Zabel
Photo: ©istock.com/Stephan Zabel

No audio available for this content.

Mike Goldstein, Sales Manager, Professional Products, Woodstream
Mike Goldstein, Sales Manager, Professional Products, Woodstream

Ants can easily digest and quickly share liquid baits, eliminating the need for them to process the bait before sharing it with the rest of the colony.

If you use a liquid with a slow-acting active ingredient like boric acid, it can interfere with the ant’s digestive system. It works slowly to give worker ants time to get back and share the bait with the rest of the colony, killing the ants you see and the ants you don’t. This slow kill allows time for each foraging ant to make several trips to the bait. As they travel, ants produce a pheromone trail to let other ants know where to find the food supply. Complete control may take up to two weeks, so make sure you manage customer expectations.