Pavement Ants Wiggle Into A Warehouse in Middletown, NJ

One of Cowleys national commercial accounts in Middletown, NJ contacted us and reported an ant issue in their warehouse. This warehouse was huge, at least the size of 12 football fields! You can only imagine the number of employees that come in and out every day as well as the potential for bugs to enter. One employee had found a lot of dirt around one of the pillars in the warehouse. He wasn’t sure what was going on so he informed his manager. The manager reported the issue to our main office and I was dispatched to inspect the situation. 

When I arrived at the building I spoke to the warehouse manager who led me right to the piles of dirt around the concrete pillar. A close inspection revealed that these were pavement ants. Pavement ants are small ants, only about 1/8 of an inch long, and are usually dark brown to black. They often nest under pavements — which is how they got their clever name! They are far from picky eaters as they will feed on almost anything from sugar, fruits, small seeds, and grease. The pavement ants found some cracks in the slab and began making their way up into the building. This happened right before a major rainstorm. It is known that ants will leave the ground when they sense the barometric pressure change in the air. That means rain is coming and their homes will soon be flooded, so they should head for higher ground. 

I advised the manager not to sweep up the dirt or sand for the next 72 hours. He looked at me a bit confused and I explained that I would be treating the area with a non-repellent product that will wipe out the entire colony as long as the product is there for them to walk across. Ants groom and feed each other so spreading the product amongst the colony is very easy to do. By leaving the area alone for three days you are allowing the ants to walk across the product and start the transfer effect to the other ants. I applied a light liquid application to the area surrounding the pillar as well as 20 feet in the opposite direction of the access point. The warehouse manager was completely satisfied with the work and was very pleased with how fast we were able to get out there to deal with the problem.