Please identify swarming flying bugs - Ask Extension
To Whom it may concern:
Can and will the department identify a bug for an every citizen at no cost.
My bedroom is being swarmed by what looks li...
Knowledgebase
Please identify swarming flying bugs #866649
Asked May 01, 2024, 2:55 PM EDT
To Whom it may concern:
Can and will the department identify a bug for an every citizen at no cost.
My bedroom is being swarmed by what looks like flying ants. They show up at 8pm almost like clock work. I suffer from migraines, so I cannot use a spray. I tried repelling them with Citronella oli, but it seemed not to work. What I am doing now is squirting them with dishwashing liquid when they land on my bed. They are surprisingly attracted to my laptop which I keep on my mattress. I captured and killed 6 on Tuesday and 7 on Monday. I think they first appeared on Sunday evening. I believe the ones I am killing might be scouts because after I kill a few, they stop arriving.
I believe they might be hatchlings because a saw a large one that looked the version. On the day they appeared, I was bitten by a venomous insect which might have been a spider which, if so, means I was double ganged. I suffered painful stiffness the site of the bite. I hurt like H.ll whenever I moved my neck.. I used Flexeril to relax the muscle. I has almost cleared up. I was going to go the the ER today if it hadn't.
Knowing the ID of the bug could help bring them under control and eradicat them. Thank for reading my appeal.
Baltimore City County Maryland
Expert Response
These look like winged ants. Winged ants are the reproductive members of a colony, and their only function is to find mates and then find a new site to start a nest (for the females...the males die pretty soon after mating). In the wild, many of them will die by predation (birds love to eat them) while they fly around trying to mate or explore potential nest areas. Worker ants do not have wings, may be smaller than the winged caste, and are the bulk of the colony, foraging for food to bring back to the nest.
It's worker ants that bait stations target, since winged ants will not be gathering and sharing food (which has toxins in it to kill the colony when it's shared, as they are designed to do). If you have lots of winged ants indoors, that suggests that a colony is nesting somewhere inside the house, as opposed to a colony outside sending foraging scouts inside by accident. You can try using ant bait stations, sold in many hardware stores and garden centers, to kill the main colony, but they will not kill the winged caste. Fortunately, most of them will die soon enough on their own, especially if they can't find food for themselves (the workers have been feeding them until they left the nest).
An indoor pesticide spray is not necessary, but you may need to hire a pest control professional to find a nest and remove it. Ants nesting indoors might be using water-damaged wood (if they are carpenter ants) or wall voids, so looking for an old water leak might reveal a location for a nest.
The only other recourse is to seal all gaps/cracks well, and repair/replace any worn-out door and window weather-stripping and insect screening to prevent access for these and other outdoor insects. In interior spaces, sometimes they gain access to a room though a vent or vent cover, gap around a wall outlet or light switch plate, caulking gaps around a sink or bathroom fixture, and so forth.
Spiders eat insects and would likely eagerly consume any ants that wander into a web, so in that way, they can help "clean-up" any wandering ants, at least to a point. They do not bite people unless accidentally squished (even then, we only have one species in Maryland with venom of moderate medical significance, the female black widow). Excluding spiders from indoor spaces can be accomplished with the same tactics of well-sealing any gaps/cracks in walls, molding, flooring, etc. Bite reactions can of course vary for people with sensitivities, but presumed spider bite reactions are usually confused with other arthropod bites (a tick, perhaps) or other non-insect sources of skin irritation or infection. We do not have medical training, so can't provide more detail about what may have happened in your situation, and working with a doctor for any adverse reactions, like you plan to do, is recommended.
Miri
It's worker ants that bait stations target, since winged ants will not be gathering and sharing food (which has toxins in it to kill the colony when it's shared, as they are designed to do). If you have lots of winged ants indoors, that suggests that a colony is nesting somewhere inside the house, as opposed to a colony outside sending foraging scouts inside by accident. You can try using ant bait stations, sold in many hardware stores and garden centers, to kill the main colony, but they will not kill the winged caste. Fortunately, most of them will die soon enough on their own, especially if they can't find food for themselves (the workers have been feeding them until they left the nest).
An indoor pesticide spray is not necessary, but you may need to hire a pest control professional to find a nest and remove it. Ants nesting indoors might be using water-damaged wood (if they are carpenter ants) or wall voids, so looking for an old water leak might reveal a location for a nest.
The only other recourse is to seal all gaps/cracks well, and repair/replace any worn-out door and window weather-stripping and insect screening to prevent access for these and other outdoor insects. In interior spaces, sometimes they gain access to a room though a vent or vent cover, gap around a wall outlet or light switch plate, caulking gaps around a sink or bathroom fixture, and so forth.
Spiders eat insects and would likely eagerly consume any ants that wander into a web, so in that way, they can help "clean-up" any wandering ants, at least to a point. They do not bite people unless accidentally squished (even then, we only have one species in Maryland with venom of moderate medical significance, the female black widow). Excluding spiders from indoor spaces can be accomplished with the same tactics of well-sealing any gaps/cracks in walls, molding, flooring, etc. Bite reactions can of course vary for people with sensitivities, but presumed spider bite reactions are usually confused with other arthropod bites (a tick, perhaps) or other non-insect sources of skin irritation or infection. We do not have medical training, so can't provide more detail about what may have happened in your situation, and working with a doctor for any adverse reactions, like you plan to do, is recommended.
Miri
