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  • Cornfield Ant Ants

    Cornfield Ant
  • Cornfield Ant
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Elimination

Cornfield ants infiltrate houses to look for food, which they take back to the nest. Indoors, it’s enough to spot spray with Maheu&Maheu Crawling Insect Killer or Maheu&Maheu Insecticide Dust around the edges of the rooms. The product must be applied where the ants enter the home.

Outdoors, Maheu&Maheu Insecticide Dust can also be applied directly to nest openings (small craters). However, for large infestations we recommend you spray a liquid insecticide on affected areas as well as at the base of the foundation and on an adjacent strip about 3 m wide to ensure they do not enter the house.

Actions

  • Spray or treat nests directly and treat the outside perimeter of the house with an insecticide

Prevention

  • Seal the outsides of windows, doors, eaves, chimneys, etc. as completely as possible.

Description and development

The cornfield ant (Lasius neoniger ) is about 3 mm long. Its color varies from light to medium brown, and occasionally dark brown.

Ants are social insects that live in colonies. They are led by a queen ant. Queen ants are the only females in the colony that are winged at the beginning of their adult lives. The other females are wingless workers who maintain the nest and search for food. At a specific time, which varies according to species, winged males and females leave the colony to mate. This is called the mating flight .
In the case of the cornfield ant, the mating flight occurs in August or September, usually on hot, humid days. After mating, the males die because they are unable to feed themselves. The females move away to establish their nests. As soon as a queen finds a good spot for a colony, she lays a few eggs. These eggs will develop into larvae, which will become the colony’s first workers. The queen takes care of them until there are enough workers to replace her and carry out the work in her stead. The queen is the only member of the colony to reproduce.

Habits

The cornfield ant’s favorite food is aphid honey dew, but it also feeds on living and dead insects and flower nectar. It digs its nest in sandy soil, in lawns and other areas. The outside of the nests are in the form of several small craters with small openings at the top . The ants move into houses through cracks in the foundation, especially after a heavy rain.

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