The two species of ants in Birmingham, Alabama, Dave’s Pest Control gets the most calls for are fire ants and argentine ants. Fire ants are mostly an exterior problem, and argentine ants are mostly indoors, but thankfully argentine ants are not poisonous.  

Fire ants make those large annoying mounds throughout your yard and by driveways and sidewalks. Granular baits can be used and are successful, however at least around Birmingham, AL, localized treatments of every mound with a liquid insecticide seems to be most effective. First the mound above the ground is wet down with an insecticide, and then we probe as much as 2 feet down into the mound to treat with a liquid insecticide.  Fire ants do not discriminate what they bite and can be a significant danger to babies, children, and pets. Fire ants will commonly invade nurseries to feed on spilt milk from a baby’s bottle. We have fire ant programs to utilize throughout the summer to keep the local population at bay and provide a safe environment for your loved ones to enjoy the outdoors.

Argentine ants are also a large nuisance around Birmingham, Alabama. They account for thousands of dollars of ruined groceries. Many people also call these ants sugar ants. They can be seen outside the house trailing by the thousands on pavements, decks, brick, and into your home. The biggest problem with these ants is their ability to make large nest inside the walls of your home. They do this for many reasons such as surviving the winter, getting away from heavy rains, and sometimes just because they want to.  For this reason many control plans include the use of baiting and liquid treatments. Most of the time, these ants can be eliminated indoors through the use of gel bait. Bait is placed indoors in a safe area away from pets and children. Ants will make a nice clean trail going to and from this bait, taking it back into the wall to feed the entire colony. Each ant will eat enough bait to feed an additional ten ants. One hundred ants will eat enough to kill one thousand ants. While your pest professional is baiting, it is important for the home owner to leave the ants alone and let them feed on the bait. It is very tempting to easily spray and kill these ants, however, this will ruin the ant bait and you will only kill the hundred you currently see instead of the results from bait in killing thousands. If there is a constant heavy supply of ants coming inside, a very heavy liquid treatment must be applied every month to the exterior of the home.