Oliver Mayfield, co-owner of Mayfield Brothers Pest Control in Chattanooga and Cleveland, Tenn., says a mild January and February is the reason for an abundance of thief ants (and other insects and rodents) in the area. People have told me to put out red pepper or vinegar, but they come back." "We have spray, but you need a professional. "You can't do anything really," Dietzen says.
Phillips has been her exterminator since 1987 and, when she saw a few ants in her kitchen, she called. "You have to keep ahead of the ants," says homeowner Wilma Dietzen. Recent heavy rains have soaked the thief ants' homes and forced them to look for other places to nest- that often means your house.
"We've been seeing a lot of them," Phillips says. In recent years, it was stink bugs, but this year, it's thief ants, so named because they nest near other pests, especially larger ants, and steal their larvae and food. "You need to spray outside and create a barrier to keep them from going inside," says Ola Phillips, owner of Lady Bug Exterminating.Įvery year, it seems that some new pest invades people's homes, she says. In either case, you should probably call an exterminator because spreading pepper, wiping down with vinegar and using spray bug killers will only work temporarily, according to experts. And there are likely thousands and thousands of them. You have thief ants and they have set up house somewhere nearby. If you see a trail of them marching single file, too late. It's very likely a scout out looking for food such as cheese or greasy tidbits, and you don't want it getting back to tell others. If you see a little ant about the size of a baby's freckle crawling around your kitchen, kill it (sorry, Buddhists). This story is featured in today's TimesFreePress newscast.
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