Why Aren’t Ants Taking the Bait?

Ants cooperate, so bait them heavy. As a pest management method, baiting is a powerful strategy for several reasons. Baits are pesticide applications that rely on the pests themselves. Because it is considered food, the pests gladly take in the bait, and most placements (for insects, anyway) are well above the lethal dose.

The pests are looking for your application and willing to participate in your program. How can this possibly go wrong? Well…

THEY CAN’T FIND YOUR BAIT. Ants are generally quite good at finding food, but that also means they can find food that isn’t your bait. Be sure to remove alternate food sources any time you can. This will help focus the ants on your bait.

Take care to place bait in areas where ants are active. It is also important to keep baits from becoming an attractive nuisance to children, pets and other non-target organisms who may find the bait attractive.

Depending on the species, ants have colonies that may number in the hundreds of thousands or more. If you’re going to put out bait, be sure to bring enough for everybody. Some ants from immense connected colonies require a lot of bait. Pavement ants (Tetramorium immigrans) are generally pretty easy to deal with, but some species defy baiting because they switch food sources too often or they have too many resources.

THEY DON’T LIKE WHAT YOU BROUGHT. There’s no pleasing everybody. Some ants are fussy and may abandon your bait before the job is done. Others may have little use for any of the baits available to us. Others can be baited far more easily at different times of the year. For instance, black carpenter ants (Camponotus pennsylvanicus) will readily take a variety of baits early in the spring as they end their overwintering phase, but once their environment offers an abundance of food sources, they can be quite fussy.

It can be helpful to place cards with a variety of baits to see what the ants will take. This is called cafeteria baiting. Some species are looking for protein and some are looking for sugar and carbs. You can put out some cards with honey and peanut butter (or a non-peanut substitute, if you have allergen issues). The ants will show what they want. Whatever you offer, the ants will make their choice, and hopefully, something on your menu is acceptable. You need to follow up quickly to take advantage if the ants choose the bait as a food source.

FINAL THOUGHTS. Ants are going to work together for maximum efficiency, so when baiting them, make sure they like it, don’t make them hunt for it, and give them enough to get the job done.

Mark Sheperdigian is a 1982 graduate of Michigan State University with a bachelor’s degree in entomology. He is vice president of technical services for Rose Pest Solutions in Troy, Mich.