Sponsored by

INSIDE:Market Overview

Most Challenging Ant Pests

Best Practices: Inspection & Control

Invasive Species Insights

Ants By The Numbers

Greetings from Syngenta

Ants continue to be one of the most problematic insects for the professional pest management industry, and their impact shows. Ninety-two percent of pest management professionals (PMPs) surveyed for this 2016 State of the Ant Market report believe ant

infestations either increased in their market areas or remained the same over the past year.

These results tell us that ants are a constant presence for your businesses across the country. However, this also means you have a clear opportunity for increased revenue and business growth.

As a company committed to providing comprehensive ant control resources and support, Syngenta is proud to sponsor this year’s State of the Ant Market report. In the following pages, you can see the latest reports and statistics from fellow PMPs about the effects ants have on their businesses, from callback rates to the most problematic species. You’ll also gain valuable insight into survey results, application tips and even information about the invasive tawny crazy ant.

To supplement this wealth of knowledge, Syngenta provides ant control solutions that can enhance your business offerings. Our product line-up includes residual spray products such as Demand® CS, Arilon® and Tandem® insecticides. In addition to residual sprays, Advion® and Optigard® ant gel baits feature two different active ingredients and bait matrices, securing their place as two of the leading products for ant control. We are also continually looking at ways to develop more beneficial packaging for our ant control offerings, such as the return of our popular 12-pound bag of Advion fire ant bait.

Although ant problems are growing, the future of your businesses grows brighter with them. Syngenta is honored to work alongside PCT to help facilitate this growth by providing information, resources and innovations so you can provide peace of mind to your customers.

Mark CoffeltHead of Technical ServicesSyngenta Professional Pest Management

For more information, visit www.SyngentaPMP.com.

/SyngentaPest

©2016 Syngenta. Important: Always read and follow label instructions. Some products may not be registered for sale or use in all states or counties. Please check with your local extension service to ensure registration status. Advion®, Arilon®, Demand®, For Life Uninterrupted™, Opti-gard®, Tandem® and the Syngenta logo are trademarks of a Syngenta Group Company. Syngenta Customer Center: 1-866-SYNGENT(A) (796-4368).

In the State of New York, Tandem may only be applied for indoor uses.

State of the Ant MarketSponsored by

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For most pest management profes-sionals, ants make the phone ring. They’re “the biggest money maker as far as the amount of new calls” they

cause, said Lance Griggs, owner of Spectrum Pest Management in Madison, Ala.

At Advance Tech Pest Management Ser-vices in Clermont, Fla., “ants probably gen-erate about 75 percent of new customer calls” for interior service and that number has grown in recent years, said Owner Greg Amann.

In fact, 43 percent of PMPs believe ant in-festations increased in their market area over the past year, according to the PCT 2016 State of the Ant Market survey. (Forty nine percent said the incidence of ant infestations remained the same.) “I’m dealing with four species of ants that weren’t even here when I got started in business” 20 years ago, said Amann of the invasive pests now endemic in his region.

PMPs reported a slight uptick in ant control revenue in

2015. They expect m

ore growth this year due to an early

season start and invasive species entering new markets. ANTS

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Sponsored byState of the Ant Market 3

While ant control generated only 18 percent of overall service revenue for the typical provider, nearly half (48 percent) of PMPs saw this percentage increase over the past three years, found the survey. That included Doug Foster, owner of Burt’s Pest Control in Columbus, Ind., who said ant control revenue was up 20 percent in 2015 over the year prior.

More than half (53 percent) of survey respondents said they expect ant control revenue to increase in 2016. Terminix Service in Columbia, S.C., is “geared up to deal with significant ant problems” this season, said Training and Technical Supervisor Kevin Hawthorne, BCE. Like other PMPs, he’s predicting “sig-nificant populations of ants” mainly due to the Southeast’s mild winter. Many parts of the country went without hard

or prolonged freezes that suppress pop-ulations so ants remained active during winter months. Even in Canada, PMPs were fielding ant calls in mid-winter.

“We are seeing significant ant pressure early in the year” that is more normally seen in July and August, reported Dan Givens, technical director of Active Pest Control in McDonough, Ga. According to the survey, 87 percent of PMPs said spring and summer are their busiest seasons for ant control.

Foster, however, said his ant revenue had declined 15 percent by mid-April compared to the same period last year. He wasn’t sure if the ant pressure was lower or if he wasn’t taking full advan-tage of the opportunity. Still, “I do see a growth opportunity” for the service due to the sheer volume of do-it-yourself products in stores; people obviously

have ant problems and some don’t want to control the pests themselves, he said.

WHAT TREATMENTS WORK BEST? While ants generate revenue they’re “also the biggest headache” in terms of callbacks, said Griggs. According to the PCT survey, the average callback rate was 8.4 percent for ant work.

In follow-up interviews, PMPs said controlling the pests generally involves:

Finding the colonies – “Finding the colony and treating it directly is the most effective way to get (ants) under control” but it’s not always easy to do, said Hawthorne. “If the problem is indoors, we’ll try to follow the trails back outdoors to find out where they’re nesting,” he said.

With a species like Argentine ants

ABOUT THE SURVEYThe PCT 2016 State of the Ant Market survey was sponsored by Syngenta and compiled by Readex Research, a privately held research firm based in Stillwater, Minn.

A sample of 3,402 owners / operators of pest control busi-nesses was systematically selected from the PCT database. Data was collected from 347 respondents – a 10 percent response rate via online survey from March 22 to 31, 2016.

Seven percent of respondents were terminated from the survey after indicating in the first question they did not offer ant control services. The survey results represent an estimated population of approximately 6,400 recipients. The margin of error for percentages based on 347 usable responses is plus or minus 5.3 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

State of the Ant MarketSponsored by

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STATE OF THE ANT MARKET BY THE NUMBERSOver the past year, how has the incidence of ant infestations changed in your market? What percentage of your overall service revenue is

generated by ant control services?

Number of respondents offering ant control services: 324

43%49%

increased

remained the same

5% decreased

5% decreased

2% decreased

2% cannot compare; not involved a year ago

4% cannot compare;

not involved three years ago

7% no seasonal difference 2% no answer

0% no answer

44% Summer

43% Spring

3% Fall

1% Winter

1% no answer 22%

3%6%

18%32%

34%6%

1%8.4%

21%22%

13%8%

7%2%

5%18%

30% or more

20% - 29%

15% - 19%

10% - 14%

8% - 9%

5% - 7%

3% - 4%

1% - 2%

median:

30% or more

20% - 29%

10% - 19%

5% - 9%

1% - 4%

no callbacks

no answer

average

In the past three years, how has the percentage of revenue from ant control changed?

Compared with 2015, how do you anticipate the percentage of revenue generated from ant control services to change?

48%increased43%

remained the same

53%increased

45%remained the same

What season tends to be the busiest for providing ant control services?

What is the typical callback rate for your ant control services?

Sponsored byState of the Ant Market 5

“you’re going to have multiple colonies,” reminded Givens, who at one property found a colony under every rock and leaf pile he turned over. Another pop-ular nesting site: the pine mulch used in flower beds, said Griggs. And don’t overlook the trees. “Argentine ants are honeydew eaters – that’s their natural food source – so if you take enough time to look they’re always going to be in the trees like crepe myrtles,” said Givens.

Following trails can be difficult if the homeowner has applied a do-it-yourself product that is repellent. Foster, who deals mainly with odorous house ants, said this can force a colony to bud, or split into separate colonies, so techni-cians may find four or five trails from dif-ferent colonies running up foundations.

Spending adequate time – Finding ant trails may require lying on your belly and observing. That’s why Foster builds extra time into initial ant service calls. Resist the urge to immediately grab your sprayer, duster or bait gun; instead, “sit on the floor and look around,” he reminded. “A lot of times we’ll find something” – like the ants trailing in the grooves between hardwood floor boards – that otherwise would be missed, said

Foster. His technicians also spend time inspecting crawlspaces and basements, checking behind insulation for nests.

Building in this extra time “seems counter-productive” but “it’s actually the fast way because it’s going to save you a lot of time” in the long run compared to coming back for a re-service, he said.

Griggs once offered one-time ant service, but he learned it takes two to three visits to control infestations of

odorous house ants and Argentine ants, so he changed his service model and now charges accordingly.

Treating the perimeter – For areas with significant ant pressure, PMPs apply a non-repellent product to the exterior perimeter of structures, target-ing possible entry points. Hawthorne urged PMPs to inspect problematic areas where ants tend to nest, like stumps, landscape timbers and flower pots, and to “stay away from repellent products; they always tend to make the problem worse.” Ants detect these products and will “shoot the gap” to find other entry points, explained Amann.

Amann, who has “maybe 1 percent callbacks,” asks customers to give exte-rior treatment one week to work. If he

needs to return, it’s usually because the nest is in a wall or void. At this point, he turns to baits.

Baiting – When it’s difficult to locate the colony PMPs rely on gel, liquid and granular baits. “Baits are good if we put them in the right places and we explain to that customer how they work;” how they don’t instantly kill ants but must be carried back and transferred through the colony, reminded Givens. That requires educating frustrated customers who “want you to wave the magic wand” and make their ant problems disappear, he said.

PMPs also need to change up baits to find the one that most appeals to the ants. This can change during the season depending on ant biology and available food sources. “There are excellent ant baits out there” but “if you can’t get (the ants) to eat your bait” they’re useless, said Givens.

Dusting the voids – PMPs also cited the importance of dusting wall voids and hard-to-reach areas where ants may travel. Foster applies dust behind electri-cal sockets and insulation. Givens dusts voids where the pests are likely traveling from one water source to another.

Using quality products – Foster relies on “everything in the toolbox” to control odorous house ants. A number of PMPs cited the effectiveness of products with

FLOOD FACTORSA mild winter in much of the U.S. and Canada kept pest management professionals busy controlling ants nearly all winter long. But how did flooding, which plagued parts of the South and South Central U.S., affect ant populations?

Initially it lessened the ant problems as floodwater “washed away the ants,” said Kevin Hawthorne of Terminix Service in Columbia, S.C., which is still recovering from a historic flood in October. But floodwaters also “washed away our product” and the treated soil; once the water receded and the ground started to dry, the ants “rebounded pretty quick,” he said. Hawthorne saw numerous fire ant rafts in the flood. “They are survivors,” he said.

"I’m dealing with four species of ants that weren’t even here when I got started in business” 20 years ago. – Greg Amann, owner, Advance Tech Pest Management Services, Clermont, Fla.

State of the Ant MarketSponsored by

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WHO RESPONDED? Nearly all (93 percent) of the 347 pest management professionals who completed this survey of-fer ant control services to their customers.

Most respondents (44 percent) operate pest control companies in the South, followed by the West (22 percent), Midwest (20 percent) and Northeast (14 percent).

dual active ingredients. Amann, who previously worked in

the chemical supply business, uses “the best products on the market no matter what the cost.” He explained, “Callbacks cost more money than anything. If I can prevent a callback by using the most expensive product on the market, I save myself money.”

PMPs encouraged manufacturers to continue to innovate. “New (control) methods and new tools for our war chest” have significantly reduced call-backs, said Griggs.

Focusing on prevention – For PMPs who convert customers to quarterly service after the initial ant service call, prevention is key. Otherwise, species like Argentine ants “will out-produce you; you can’t kill them fast enough,” said Givens.

At accounts with previous Argentine ant problems, Hawthorne has techni-cians set out liquid bait stations near structures and trees before the ant popu-lation grows huge. “The earlier you start, the better chances you have of gaining control,” he explained.

Amann does an exterior perimeter treatment every three months as even the best products cannot hold up for long in the Florida sunshine. “After 90 days, there’s not enough product on the out-side of this house to stop (white-footed ants)” from running trails up the foun-dation to the soffits, he said.

Baits are good if we put them in the right

places and we explain to that customer how they work.” That requires educating frus-trated customers who “want you to wave the magic wand” and make their ant problems disappear. – Dan Givens, techni-cal director, Active Pest Control, McDonough, Ga.

Do you offer ant control services?

93%yes

7%no

Number of respondents: 347

Number of respondents: 324

Where is your company located?

14%Northeast

20%Midwest

22%West

44%South

Sponsored byState of the Ant Market 7

Odorous house ants, little black ants, pavement ants and carpenter ants were cited by 51 to 77 percent

of pest management professionals as the most problematic ants in their service areas, found the PCT 2016 State of the Ant Market survey. These same species,

NEWCOMERSON THE MOVEThe usual suspects keep the industry busy but invasive species like the tawny crazy ant have Southern PMPs on alert.

along with Argentine ants, accounted for the largest percentage of service calls last year.

Although PMPs reported that no single ant species is the most difficult to control – odorous ants were selected by 16 percent of providers, carpenter ants by 15 percent, Argentine ants by

13 percent and pharaoh ants by 10 percent – in follow-up interviews they did identify some species as most taxing.

For Lance Griggs of Spectrum Pest Management, odorous house ants and Argentine ants are “neck in neck” as the most common and most challenging. “Both of those species give us fits,” said Griggs. “They’re just the most resilient” pests and have heavier populations year-end, year-out compared to other ants, he said.

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AMERICA’S MOST WANTEDNumber of respondents offering ant control services: 324What ant species tend to be problematic in your market area?

carpenter ants

pavement ants

little black ants

odorous house ants

argentine ants

fire ants

pharaoh ants

crazy ants

acrobat ants

ghost ants

bigheaded ants

white-footed ants

moisture ants

rover ants

tawny crazy ants

other

77%57%

52%51%

40%40%

37%27%

23%15%

12%9%9%

8%6%

5%

Carpenter ant

State of the Ant MarketSponsored by

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While odorous house ants, carpenter ants and fire ants keep technicians at Terminix Service on their toes, the Argentine ant is “definitely the most challenging because of their sheer num-bers,” which are “quite astounding,” said Kevin Hawthorne, BCE.

In metro Atlanta, Argentine ants have “out-competed our native species so they are the primary ants here now,” said Dan Givens of Active Pest Control. “When tawny crazy ants get up here they’ll out-compete the Argentines,” he predicted. Tawny crazy ants are hitching rides up I-95 from central Florida, Jack-sonville and Tallahassee in transported plants and soil, he said.

Hawthorne, based in Columbia, S.C., is “fully expecting to deal with (tawny crazy ants) at some point in the near future.”

Givens, who previously was in the

chemical supply business, went on a service call for tawny crazy ants south of Brunswick, Ga., and was amazed at their “incredible numbers.” The trail of dead ants that the tawny crazy ants were using as a highway looped around one entire side of the building and was “six to eight inches tall and one to two inches wide,” he recalled. Technicians had “killed a bunch of ants but they kept on coming,” he said. With multiple queens, “they’ll basically out-produce your control efforts unless you get bait back into the colony, but that’s easier said than done,” said Givens.

Ant populations “come and go,” said Advance Tech Pest Management’s Greg Amann, who saw the number of tawny crazy ant infestations decline in his central Florida market this year. And “I can’t tell you when I last saw a pharaoh ant,” which was his number one ant problem for years, he said.

Today his most challenging jobs in-volve ghost ants, white-footed ants and bigheaded ants. “I can find bigheaded ants just about anywhere” now, said Amann, who watched this species spread through his market area over the past 10 years.

While odorous house ants, carpenter ants and fire ants keep technicians at Terminix Service on their toes, the Argentine ant is “definitely the most challenging because of their sheer numbers,” which are “quite astounding,” said Kevin Hawthorne, BCE.

16% 18%18%

15%11%

10%9%

5%3%

2%2%2%2%

1%1%1%1%1%

15%13%

10%7%

6%6%

5%4%

3%3%

2%2%

1%0%

1%7%

What ant species is the most difficult to control in your market area?

odorous house ants

carpenter ants

argentine ants

pharaoh ants

pavement ants

crazy ants

little black ants

fire ants

ghost ants

rover ants

tawny crazy ants

white-footed ants

bigheaded ants

acrobat ants

moisture ants

other

none

Number of respondents offering ant control services: 324 Number of respondents offering ant control services: 324

What ant species represented the largest percentage of your service calls in 2015?

carpenter ants

odorous house ants

argentine ants

little black ants

pavement ants

fire ants

ghost ants

pharaoh ants

rover ants

crazy ants

tawny crazy ants

white-footed ants

bigheaded ants

acrobat ants

moisture ants

other

none

Sponsored byState of the Ant Market 9

THE BIG THREEAccording to the PCT 2016 State of the Ant Market survey, the three most difficult to control ant species are the odorous house ant, carpenter ant and Argentine ant. Here’s a closer look at these troublesome pests from The Mallis Handbook of Pest Control (10th edition):

Odorous house ant (Tapinoma sessile) – When crushed, these native ants emit a rotten, coconut-like odor. Found throughout the U.S. and southern Canada in almost every habitat type, it is becoming a serious pest in the Midwest and mid-Atlantic region (especially Kentucky, Virginia and New Jersey) and is common in parts of Tennessee, Arkansas,

Mississippi, California and the Pacific Northwest.

Co lon ies have mu l t ip le queens, multiple nest sites, reproduce by budding, lack ag-gression between same-colo-ny nests and dominate areas they invade. In urban areas,

odorous house ants may move their nests in response to chem-

ical or mechanical disturbance and then move back once conditions are suitable again. These ants establish trails early in the season to find suitable nest sites and later to find

nearby food resources. Nests usually are located outside in shallow soil beneath objects like boards or stone. Indoor nests are associated with moisture, like within wall voids near plumbing.

Workers forage day and night to collect honeydew, their favorite food. They also collect living and dead insects. Odor-ous house ants often are subordinate to more aggressive species like Argentine ants and avoid areas where these foes are active. This works to their advantage: Researchers found that odorous house ants quickly fill the void of ant colonies that are eliminated.

Carpenter ant (Camponotus species) – Of the 50 Cam-ponotus species in the U.S., 24 are considered structural or nuisance pests. Their combined geographic distribution covers the entire country. The most common pest species include C. pennsylvanicus, the black carpenter ant found in New England, the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, South and south-eastern Canada; C. modoc, the western black carpenter ant found along the West Coast, in Rocky Mountain states and southwestern Canada; C. vicinus, whose range extends from the West Coast to the western edge of Midwest states and Texas; and C. floridanus, the reddish Florida

carpenter ant that is active year-round and found in the South and into Mississippi and Louisiana.

These ants enter build-ings to nest or forage. Ma-ture colonies consist of a parent nest (usually located outdoors in a tree, stump or firewood) and nearby satel-lite nests when need exists for more territory, resources or a drier, warmer nesting site for larvae and pupae. Carpenter ants are primarily nocturnal, relying heavily on physical cues, chemical trails and possibly airborne odors for orien-tation to and from the nest. They also travel in underground tunnels found up to 200 meters long.

Carbohydrates (honeydew, juice of overripe fruit) are the primary energy source of adults. The consumption of protein (dead and live insects) coincides with brood production in the summer and fall.

Argentine ant (Linepithma humile) – Likely introduced to the U.S. in New Orleans in the late 1800s on ships from Brazil, the Argentine ant is now established in the South-east, California and Hawaii and has been reported in Ari-zona, Missouri, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon and Washington. Argentine ant colonies lack borders, sometimes extending over entire habitats. The colony has tremendous capacity for growth and expansion due to numerous queens and the splintering off of new colonies. Nests gen-erally are found outdoors in shallow soil often at the base of plants or trees infested with homopterans, which produce honeydew, the ants’ primary food.

These ants have a system-atic approach to foraging, depositing pheromone trails continuously (not just on the way back from a food source like most ants) to ensure they always cover new ground. Researchers have tracked ants 60 meters from where they had been fed. The ant’s diet changes over the year. Researchers found the amount of prey the ants carry into the nest increases in May; accep-tance of sucrose water or honey decreased from December through February. Approximately 99 percent of food brought into the nest is in liquid form.

Odorous house ant (Tapinoma sessile) Photo: Eli Sarnat, Antkey, USDA

APHIS ITP, Bugwood.org

Carpenter ant (Camponotus species) Photo: Gary Alpert, Harvard

University, Bugwood.org

Argentine ant (Linepithma humile) Photo: Pest and Diseases

Image Library, Bugwood.org

State of the Ant MarketSponsored by

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$ELLING ANT CONTROLPMPs offer peace of mind when marketing ant control services by promoting service guarantees, IPM, control excellence and certified technicians.

When it comes to market-ing ant control services, pest management pro-fessionals most often

emphasize their certified technicians (51 percent), service guarantee (48 per-cent), integrated pest management (40 percent), control excellence (40 percent) and preventive service (37 percent), according to the PCT 2016 State of the Ant Market survey.

Doug Foster of Burt’s Termite & Pest Control has had great success the

past few years with radio ads for his ant control service. The spots run from late February through the spring months, and in September and October when odorous house ant activity spikes again in his region.

Terminix Service advertises its fire ant control offering; structural ant control is part of the company’s general pest control service and is not marketed separately, said Kevin Hawthorne, BCE. According to the PCT survey, 15 percent of PMPs do not market their ant control services.

What aspects of your ant control services do you feature in marketing efforts?

certified technician(s)

service guarantee

integrated pest management

excellent control

preventive service

free inspection

eco-friendly products

monthly service

low prices

other

company does not market ant

control services

no answer

51%

48%

40%

40%

37%

33%

22%

18%

16%

3%

15%

1%Number of respondents offering ant

control services: 324 (multiple answers)

Sponsored byState of the Ant Market 11