Hello all,
I need help with IDing what I think is a flying ant. I have never seen flying ants in my life, but after Googling some, I think that's what I've got.
My knowledge of insects and ants in particular does not go beyong your average "lay" person. So, please bear with me.
I need help with identifying, dealing, removing and prevening what I think is a variety of ants.
For the past couple of weeks (2-3wks of March) there have been appearing some insects which, I think, are ants. I am attaching some photos and videos.
Sorry for the inferior pic quality - the insect kept moving and moving and I tried the best I could.
To me - a "lay" person - it looks like a larger black coloured ant with wings. I saw it jump/fly from one spot to another.
I am in MOntreal, QC, Canada - if this location can help with identification.
Other info: I have lived in my current apartment for 5 years and have never had any insect like that (occasional centipedes, lady bugs and ordinary spiders are the extent of the insects I've seen here).
But only this March - the last couple of weeks - I've already encountered 5 of these "ants" (if that's what they are).
I also have some pets (rodents), but I've had my pets for the past 4 yrs and have never had any 'ants' like that. So I don't think i has anything to do with these pets.
I also have some old wood - old tree limbs (maple).
All these limbs have been thoroughly washed, scrubbed and then treated with hot boiling water to kill all possible bugs/whatever. Each tree limb got anywhere between 5-9 pots of rolling boiling hot water (since I couldn't use fire to treat the limbs).
Also, most of my tree limbs have been here for a few years now (they are for my pets' habitat).
I did bring a couple of new tree limbs back in November, but they were already very old, and I scrubbed, washed and treated them with hot rolling boiling water as usual. And there were no insects from them whatsoever.
Also, these supposed "ants" (what I think are ants) appear only in the room where my pets live.
Again - I've had my pets in the same room for the past 4 yrs and never had any ants.
My questions are:
1) Are these ants?
2) What might have brought these ants here?
Since the environment has been the same - my pets with me for the past 4 yrs and their habitat for as long - where would these "ants" come from? What could attract them here?
3) How do I get rid of them? Since I have my little rodents, I cannot use any insecticides. And since my apartment is rather small, I cannot move my rodents temporarily anywhere in order to fumigate/treat their room. So I would really appreciate suggestions on how I could treat the room safely with my rodents still in the room (any homemade remedies?)
4) How do I prevent these 'ants' in the future?