 This presentation will show you how to carry out an IPM program for ants. We'll define IPM, discuss anti-identification and biology, and go through various stages for managing them, including in-depth information on baits. At the end of the presentation, you will be given a few scenarios describing various situations that you may encounter in school settings. You will have the opportunity to discuss with the group what you would do if this were to happen in your school. So sit back and get ready to learn all about IPM for ants in schools. You will never be able to completely eliminate all ants nesting around buildings. However, you can manage them and keep them out of buildings using an integrated pest management approach. Integrated pest management, or IPM, uses environmentally sound, yet effective science-based ways to keep pests from annoying you or damaging plants. IPM programs usually combine several pest control methods for long-term prevention and management of pest problems without harming you, your family, or the environment. Pesticides are applied as a last resort, and least toxic methods are used. Because IPM relies mostly on non-chemical preventive methods, it reduces or eliminates pesticide use. Less pesticide makes the environment safer for people and wildlife, combining several effective methods into one program gives better results. IPM programs save time, money, and improve management of pests. IPM programs require that people work together. Everyone has a role. Students, teachers, and administrators need to keep their school grounds clean and report pest problems. Custodians respond to problems or notify school IPM coordinators. The IPM coordinator keeps records and designs an IPM program specific to the needs of each individual school. Successful IPM begins with correct identification of the pest. In addition, you can't manage a pest without understanding its biology. The Argentine ant is the most common ant problem in California. It will be the focus of this presentation. Several other ant species occasionally occur and cause problems, however they won't be covered in detail. See the UC IPM Pest Note series, and the key to identifying common household ants on the University of California IPM website for information on other types of ants. Ants are sometimes mistaken for termites, especially in their winged form. Winged forms of both pests leave their nests in warm weather to mate and establish new colonies. To see if your pest is an ant or termite, look at the abdomen, antennae, and wings. The first part of the ant abdomen consists of one or two nodes depending upon species. The abdomen is constricted where it joins the thorax, giving an appearance of a thin waist. The termite's abdomen is broad with no apparent waist. Ants have elbowed antennae while the antennae of termites are never elbowed. On winged forms, the ant's hind wings are smaller than its four wings. Termite front and hind wings are the same size. In addition, ant wings have few veins while termite wings have several small veins. Ants are social insects, living in large colonies made up of queens, males, and workers. Each has a specific job. Queens establish new nests and lay eggs. Males mate with queens. Worker ants, which are sterile females, search for food, feed the colony, and defend the nest. Understanding these facts about biology is key to developing an effective management program. Ants can be beneficial. Ants traveling through soil will help loosen it, allowing water, air, and nutrients to flow more freely through it. Ants also decompose dead plant and animal matter, and they are often predators of other insects. Often when colonies are disturbed, you can see worker ants carrying larvae and pupae to safer locations. Argentine ants have taken over California, or at least it seems that way, because they are aggressive toward other ant species, and do not compete among themselves. Several small colonies are joined together creating larger super colonies. Colonies may have more than one queen. Argentine ants nest underground in soil, just below the surface. Nests may be shallow, but colonies are very large and diffuse. When you see a trail of ants, no matter how large, keep in mind that you are only seeing a small fraction of a large underground colony. So when you are trying to manage ants, consider the whole colony, not just the ants you see. Food availability drives what ants do and where they go. Throughout the year Argentine ants search for sweets, such as candy, cough drops, and sodas, or if they are outdoors, honey-do, produced by aphids, scales, and white flies on leaves. During the spring when queens lay eggs, workers may prefer to search for proteins to feed the developing colony. However, they may also feed on proteins during other times of the year. Examples include pet food, peanut butter, nuts, seeds, and dead insects. Food preferences vary somewhat among ant species. You can find ants wherever there is an attractive food source. Ants flock to honey-do-laden plants, garbage, or other discarded food, and areas of moisture near buildings. Look for entry points to buildings, such as holes or cracks in foundations, and walls or tree limbs and plant branches that touch buildings. Ants may invade classrooms, lounges, kitchens and other food storage areas, bathrooms, and offices. They may travel over and under desks, under sinks and other water sources, around pipes or electrical wires, in lockers, near dumpsters and garbage cans, under bleachers, and around concrete slabs. Colonies often nest in planter boxes, raised planting beds, or potted plants, and travel up trees for honey-do. Keep your eye out for ants. Even if you see only a few stragglers, there may be more on the way. Worker ants leave the colony in search of food sources or new nesting sites. These are scouts, and they wander in a random pattern, sometimes traveling several hundred feet until they find a suitable food source. Once food is found, scouts take a straight route back to the nest, laying down a chemical trail often along a physical structure. Soon after you see the scouts, large trails of ants generally appear. Look for trails of ants whenever you are walking on campus. Report problems to your custodian or IPM coordinator. If it is your job, follow up quickly on reported problems. Find places where ants enter buildings. When you spot ant trails, follow them from the attractant to the nest, if possible. Written records are important. Records keep the communication lines open between teachers and staff. Place a monitoring form in a common area where teachers and other staff can report pest problems. Map locations where problems occur. This is an efficient way of knowing where to monitor and treat. The Healthy Schools Act requires a treatment record for all pesticides other than exempt materials. It is also a good idea to keep records of all other management actions you take. For each action, record the date and the method of management used. If you apply baits, note the material you use and where you place them. Follow up on all management actions and record the result. Learn from your experience. Successful treatments can be repeated. So how do we outsmart ants? We need to focus on a realistic goal. That goal is to keep ants out of buildings. In an IPM program, we make it harder for ants to get in. We take away their food. And when all that fails, we trick them into killing their colony with baits. No matter how hard you try to keep them out, ants always seem to find a way to enter buildings. However, there are a number of things you can do to keep most of them out most of the time. Cock all cracks and holes in foundations and walls. Cock around windows, electrical outlets and pipes. On this pipe, we're going to try to seal the whole thing, the whole beauty ring onto the wall with a bunch of cock behind here to stop the ants from getting into this pipe. Use weather stripping around doors and windows. These methods must be combined with others for good ant control. Sanitation is the key to ant management. The best way to discourage ant invasions is to keep things clean and eliminate sources of food and water. In kitchens, clean floors, counters, shelves, and anywhere that food is prepared, served, or stored. Clean greasy and sugary spills immediately and keep sinks free of dirty dishes. Remove all food sources and store all foods, especially sugary foods such as honey and syrup, in sealed containers. Keep food containers off the floor. Repair leaky faucets and pipes. In classrooms, keep food sealed and designated to a specific area. Clean immediately after snacks. Remove food from desks daily. And remember, if you use food in crafts, clean up at the end of the day and let your students take their projects home. If you have class pets, don't leave pet food out. Empty garbage regularly and change the liners. Keep trash outdoors if possible. Rinse out all recyclable containers and keep them in a closed bin. Wash garbage containers regularly. Place them away from the buildings and keep them on hard surfaces. Motivate students to put trash in containers. There's no limit to ant invasions. Ants may invade teachers' lounges, lockers, water fountains, and bathrooms. Keep students, teachers, and staffed in form of their roles in sanitation. Tell them to report ant trails and leaks in plumbing. It takes everyone working together to keep a clean environment. Ants attracted to food and water sources next to buildings are more likely to invade. Make that area inhospitable. Manage food sources, such as garbage, and trees and shrubs with honeydew-producing insects such as aphids, whiteflies, or scales. Remove sources of moisture and shelter, such as wood piles, organic mulches, grass, and other plants so that they are away from buildings. To keep ants out of honeydew-laden trees, apply a sticky barrier around trunks. Trim tree limbs and shrubs away from buildings. Bates are insecticides mixed with materials that attract worker ants. When pesticides are needed in an ant management program, baits are the best choice. When worker ants search for food, they take it back to the nest to feed the queens and immatures. Bates work the same way. The advantage of baits is that they kill the ants in the colony, not just the workers in the trail. Killing the ants in a trail with sprays will provide only temporary relief because a new trail will soon emerge from the colony. Recognize that baiting takes patience. Bates must be slow-acting so that workers are not killed before the bait reaches the colony. It could take 7 to 10 days or more before you see the results, and it could take several weeks before the problem goes away. Bait products are safer than sprays because there is less human exposure and there is little chance for the material to get into the environment. Remember, baits won't be effective alone. You must also remove food sources and seal up entryways. Ant baits contain either a sugar or protein-based attractant, along with the active ingredient, or toxicant. Look for the active ingredient listed on the label on bait products. Common active ingredients include borate, arsenic trioxide, hydromethanone, fibranil, abomectin, and sulfuremin. When using baits, it is often beneficial to set out multiple bait products so that ants will have a choice. Ant baits are available as liquids, gels, or solids. Liquid formulations are most commonly used and are used in bait stations. Gels are packaged in small tubes. Use gels indoors in protected areas. Squirt along ant travel ways in small cracks and crevices. They are not as effective outdoors. Solid baits are packaged as granules. Around schools place granular bait in bait stations. Granular bait can also be applied directly, but this is not usually recommended for schools. Pre-packaged baits such as ant steaks and small plastic containers contain either liquid or solid baits and are available at most nurseries, lawn, and garden centers and hardware, grocery, or drugstores. They should be used primarily outdoors. They can be placed indoors if needed. To increase your success rate, set out various bait products, giving ants a choice, and remember to remove other food sources. Bait stations protect baits from being disturbed and they are safer to use when children or pets are around. Oftentimes they can be hidden in mulch or under other debris so that children or pets do not notice them. However, ants can still access them. Reusable bait stations are more useful than pre-packaged baits because they don't have to be replaced as often. These stations are permanently installed into the ground or attached to walls or pavement near the foundation of a building where ants are commonly found. They have removable cups that can be filled with several different types of bait. These stations can be opened and checked to see what bait is being fed on and can be refilled regularly. This is particularly useful for liquid baits as they have a tendency to dry out periodically and need to be refilled. Use baits only when there is an ant problem and use them primarily outdoors. They can be used indoors but only when there is a serious infestation, otherwise you could actually attract ants indoors. Outdoor baits draw ants out of buildings. Place baits along trails where ants are likely to find them. Place near entryways to buildings, edges of buildings and at nest openings. Avoid placing baits where children and pets can pick them up. If indoor baits are required, place them near the entry point rather than across the room at the food source. Be sure to clean up the food source and ant trail before placing baits. Try to choose locations where they will not be disturbed because baits are slow acting. You will continue to see trails of ants for several days. Baits should be used in an integrated program that includes other methods such as sanitation. Baits will only be effective if ants are attracted to them. To ensure that ants will find the bait, remove all other nearby attractive food sources. Try different active ingredients and formulations in each bait station to enhance success. Squirt sugar gel bait into a protein-based prepackaged bait or squirt some protein gel into a sugar-based prepackaged bait. This is a protein-based container and I'm going to squirt a little bit of sugar-based gel inside it so that the ants have several baits to choose from. And then this has a sticky back which we can peel off and place down in a corner where it will be out of the way and the ants will be able to find it. In reusable stations, use both protein and sugar baits in liquid and granular forms. Use liquid baits in covered containers to make them last longer and not dry out. Evaporation changes the concentration of the active ingredient. Monitor bait stations and refill with bait as needed. If you see ants feeding on the bait, try not to disturb the trails or they may not bring the bait back to the colony. Don't use any insecticide sprays while you are using baits. They are not needed and will only disrupt the baiting process. After ant trails disappear, remove baits so that you don't actually end up attracting ants to an area. Argentine ants nest outside, but they move indoors when conditions change. They come in looking for food, moisture, or shelter. Keep ant problems to a minimum with exclusion and sanitation techniques. If ants do invade, determine what the ants are attracted to and remove the food source. Vacuum up trails or wipe them with soapy water. The soap removes the scent trail. Locate entry points and caulk up the openings. If potted plants are infested with ants, remove them from the building and submerge the pots in water with a few drops of soap. Put out bait stations and apply gel bait at entry points to prevent further invasions. Do not use insecticide sprays such as aerosols because they don't provide long-term control and are forbidden by many school districts. Do not use insecticidal chalk, sometimes called Chinese chalk. It is an illegal and dangerous product. Many pest control companies suggest monthly treatments of insecticides around the perimeter of buildings to prevent invasions. However, spraying will disrupt your IPM program. Spraying around the foundation kills worker ants without killing the colony. These treatments may appear to knock down the population, but ants will build back up and invade again. They are also expensive and do not provide the long-term control that baits, in combination with exclusion and sanitation, do. Perimeter treatments also pose a threat to the environment. The runoff can get into storm drains, creeks and streams. The key to ant management in a school environment is persistence. We don't use any kind of insecticide spraying around to protect the children, but we have to continually bait. It works very well where we've had streams of ants for years. Even after spraying, now we have very few. As soon as we put out the bait, the ants eat it up and we have to repeat that process many times, but it controls them very effectively. For more information about integrated pest management for ants, visit the UC IPM website. For more information on school IPM and the Healthy Schools Act of 2000, see the California Department of Pesticide Regulation School IPM Program website. On the following screens, you will be presented with several scenarios that will reinforce key ideas in the presentation and give you a chance to discuss ant management with the group. Follow the instructions for each scenario. For many of the questions, you will be instructed to pause the program after the question is read, so you can discuss your thoughts. Please resume play when you are ready. What can you do in this situation to prevent or reduce ant problems? Name eight things that don't involve pesticides. Press pause now. The answer will be revealed in five seconds. Prevent or reduce ant problems by reducing food sources, shelter and entryways. Trim branches and band trees. Remove nesting areas and fallen fruit. Use lids and liners for trash cans. Trim back or remove vegetation growing next to buildings. Reduce irrigation near the building foundation. Finally, caulk cracks and seal holes to prevent ant entry to buildings. What can you do in this situation to prevent or reduce ant problems? Name six things that don't involve pesticides. Press pause now. Prevent or reduce ant problems by reducing food sources, shelter and entryways. Remove or clean food from the counter and seal it in containers. Transfer food from cartons and boxes into sealed containers. Wash dishes. Don't leave dirty dishes in the sink overnight. Empty the garbage and recyclables regularly. And use liners in garbage cans. Clean up food and spills. Finally, caulk around pipes or openings to prevent ant entry. Which of the following will provide long-term ant prevention and control? Spray the ant trail. Clean up food sources. Place baits near attractive food. Caulk cracks and foundations. Spray around doors and windows. Use baits when ants are active. Spray colony entrance. Focus efforts on colony. Place baits near ant trails. Leave baits out all year round. Fix leaky pipes. Spot treat baseboards, cabinets. Remove infested potted plants. Here is a summary of the techniques discussed. Pause the program here to discuss any questions. Press play to resume. For long-term ant prevention and control, use baits, eliminate sprays and keep the surrounding areas clean. Discuss where you can place baits. Outdoors, place baits along ant trails where ants are likely to find them, such as along edges of buildings or at nest openings. Indoors, remove the food source and ant trail before baiting. Place baits at ant entry points, in cabinets or on counters. What do you think the immediate results would be if you applied an insecticide to eliminate the ant trail? Sprays can kill ants in a trail almost immediately. But they won't kill ants in the colony. What do you think you would see within a few days after spraying an insecticide to eliminate the ant trail? After a few days, because the colony wasn't killed, ants will start to return to the trail. What would the long-term results be after spraying an insecticide to eliminate the ant trail? Sprays give immediate results, but don't provide long-term control. What do you think the immediate results would be if you set out baits to eliminate the ant trail? Baiting will often not give you immediate results. Ants need time to feed on the bait and bring it back to the colony. Is there something you need to change to make baiting more successful? Remove attractive food sources so ants will find the bait. What do you think you would see within a few days after baiting to eliminate an ant trail? After a few days, the bait will start to kill the colony, and fewer ants will be searching for food. What do you think you would see over the long-term with baiting to eliminate the ant trail? Baiting can provide long-term control when other attractive food sources are removed. How long should you wait to see if your bait is working? One to two days? It may take one or two days for ants to find the bait and bring it back to the colony. It's too early to tell if your bait is working yet. What can you expect after five to seven days? You will probably not see complete control yet, but if the ants are present, they should be feeding on the bait. What can you expect after ten days or more? By ten days, you should be seeing a significant reduction in ants. Baits may take up to a week or even several weeks to work. To make baiting more effective, try using two different baits at once. And remember to clean up other food sources and seal entryways. Why are ants infesting this room and how can you clean up the problem? Wipe up ant trails and remove food sources. Remove the potted plant if infested. To prevent ants from entering, caulk around the window and place bait outdoors at entry points. Where would gels be most effective? Outdoor round pipes? In cracks of doors and windows? Along baseboards? Along trails and sidewalk cracks? Around indoor pipes? Gels are most effective if used indoors in protected places. Finally, where will you go if you need to find more information? Check out the University of California IPM website and the DPR School IPM website.