How does ant budding affect my restaurant?

"We used ant sprays in our restaurant, but now we have small trails in three different break rooms instead of one. What happened?"

This is called ant colony budding, and it happens when a colony senses a disturbance, like a repellent spray, and responds by splitting. A queen, along with a group of workers and brood, breaks away to start a new satellite nest somewhere else in the building. For a restaurant, this means an isolated infestation in the kitchen can turn into several smaller ones spread across prep areas, storage, and break rooms. Pharaoh ants are especially known for this, as well as odorous house ants.

This is exactly why repellent sprays are discouraged in food service environments dealing with these species. A quick fix can make the underlying problem worse, not better, right as you're trying to pass an inspection.

How to prevent ant colonies from budding

This is where it pays to have our professional technicians on your side. Our approach relies on identifying the exact ant species before any treatment begins, since budding ants like pharaoh ants and odorous house ants require a different strategy than a spray-and-go approach.

When a species is difficult to identify in the field, our board-certified entomologists can examine it to confirm the species and recommend the right course of action.

Our ant control services are built around integrated pest management, targeting the source of the colony instead of just the ants you can see. Find out more about our restaurant pest control services.