flying-ants

Safeguard Gets Rid of Flying Ants!

Many types of ant species produce flying ants. If you see flying ants in or on your home you may have a lot more non flying ants nesting in, on, or under your home. Flying ants are reproductives that start new nest sites. It can be difficult to tell which type of ant you have - based on the flying ants you see. But based on where you see them and when you see them we can usually narrow it down. We perform free on site estimates for most species of ants that produce flying ants.
		The flying ant.
Flying Ants / Ant Swarmers		Male winged ant - Carpenter Ant
All ants belong to the family 'hymenoptera' which literally means 'to mate in flight'. The flying ant is not a good flyer and the flying ant usually cannot fly more than a half mile. The flying ant usually breaks off its wings in flight or soon thereafter. Many types of ant species produce winged ants, flying ants, or ant swarmers. When and where you see the the winged ants can help us tell you which type of ants are causing your problem.

Winged Ants
Most of our calls about winged ants end up being about Carpenter Ants with wings or Moisture Ants with wings. Both species produce flying ants and both types of winged ants swarm in and from homes. If you have flying ants in the spring, April or May, you probably have Carpenter Ants. Carpenter Ants come in different sizes and colors and you should visit our Carpenter Ant page more info. If you have winged ants in late summer, you probably have flying moisture ants. Although winged ants tend to get our attention fairly quickly, the worker ants, the ones you don't see, or haven't been worrying about, are the ants that do all the damage. Long after the winged ants disappear, the worker ants will still be hidden away in, on, or under your home, often doing damage to your home.
		Carpenter ant female on the left, male on the right.
Safeguard Gets Rid of Winged Ants!
Over the counter baits and sprays are not your friends. They do not get rid of flying ants. They are highly repellent by nature and tend to mask a problem or drive it to another area where you can't see it. They kill exposed ants and chase the rest away. To get rid of winged ants, you need to know what kind of worker ant you have, what kind of ant species. You get rid of flying ants, when you get rid of all the ants. We have links to pages about most common ants, up and to the left. If you would rather call someone and talk to an ant expert, we would love to discuss how to get rid of flying ants with you. We are fast, effective, and local. We offer honest, quality service. We would love to get rid of flying ants for you.
		Moisture ant males - very small
Termite ants
Ants are closely related to bees and wasps. It is easy to mistake winged ants for winged termites, which are common in some states. Some ants even have stingers. Ants are not closely related to termites. Many ant species damage wood, non of them actually eat it as a food source. Termites do. More info about TERMITES (Coming soon.).
		Winged termites have a fat body and two sets of equal length wings.

Big ants with wings.
Since many types of ants produce winged reproductives it may not be possible to tell which type of ant you have by the fact that it has wings. Winged ant females are typically much larger than even the largest ant workers in a colony. Winged males may be the same size as workers, or much smaller. Carpenter ants females may as big as a full inch, Moisture ants females may be over a half inch in length.

Black ants with wings
...or red...or brown
We aren't picking just on black ants with wings here, there are just more types of ants that are black in the Northwest. Certainly there are red ants with wings and brown ants with wings as well.

Big black ants with wings
By far, the most common large black ants with wings are carpenter ant reproductives. Visit here for more info on CARPENTER ANTS.

Little black ants with wings
They could be from a smaller ant species, or they could just be the male reproductives from a larger species, collect a few for identification and look around for other ants.

Ants swarmers
Identifying your winged ants
The extra muscles needed by ants to operate wings, and the extra tissue to connect them to their bodies, distorts the natural shape of the insects body, making it much more difficult to identify. But keep some samples and we would be happy to drop by and identify them for you at no charge.

Why do I have ants with wings
There is a really good chance that you have some sort of ant infestation. Its possible one or two just wondered in but you should have your home inspected. The parent nest responsible for those winged ants is within a half mile of your home and maybe much closer than that. Such as in your house, your yard, or next door at your neighbors.

Why do I have ants with wings