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AUTHORS		FAQ NAVIGATION
Who e-mail Handle Web site Phillip Pi y Ant The Ant Farm Randy Rencsok y Mr. Ant AntCam Andre Schmidt y Jinei Myrmecology James Trager y Dr. Ant		Prev Top Next Chapter Chapter Page Page

6.1 Why are ants coming into my home?

Some of what is below was taken with permission from Stewart
Clark from the following Web page:
http://www.terro.com/antcontrolfaq2.php

First one has to learn about ants to understand why they are
coming into your house. Being able to identify whether the ant
is a queen or a worker is extremely important, as well as
identifying the precise reason(s) they are entering your house.

See section 3.3 for how to distinguish between termites and ants.

Ants come into houses for various reasons. Here's a list:

* Food Foraging (ants and humans like similiar foods). Ants
  particularly like sweets and humans usually have large supplies 
  like meat, fat, etc.
* Water Foraging (often in times of drought ants will be found 
  near faucets foraging for it to take back to the nest).
* New queens, from their nuptual flights, are often found in or
  around homes looking for new nesting sites. 
* The colony is using your house for a living quarters. Most 
  often this is indicative of wet and decaying structures. Many
  species need some moisture in their nesting sites they usually
  will not inhabit dry housing structures.
* Flooding. Sometimes in extreme cases when ants homes are
  flooded, they will temporairly occupy human dwellings. This is 
  usually temporary, but it can be extremely annoying.

--Mr. Ant