CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

Cooler Weather Could Bring End to Ant Invasions — But Rain Could Bring them Back

If invasions of ants have been bringing you down, cooler weather and possible rain or drizzle forecast for next week may turn things around.

“Once the weather cools down, you’ll see a drastic decrease,” said Dean Wiley, pest control manager for the Newport Exterminating company. “It’s been a late summer, and ants have been pretty bad. Argentine ants don’t like the heat much, so they come insdie to get cool and find water.”

Ants typically become a problem in late summer, Wiley said.

“It depends on what kind of summer we have,” he said. “This year it started in August and never quit. The last time I can remember being this busy was back in 96 or 97.”

Dan Timothy, assistant manager at Corona del Mar’s Crown Ace hardware, said they have seen a “big increase in volume” of anti rodent devices as well as traps and sprays for silverfish and ants.

Gina Arzate, manager of Pest Control of Newport Beach, agreed.

“It seems to be, in several years, the worst,” she said. “Ants are particularly clever when it comes to getting inside a home. They drop from the attic, come through a crawls space.”

Wiley said when the weather turns cooler, usually by the end of October, ants will return to underground nests. Typically, he said, the ants people see outside or in their homes represent about one-eighth of their colonies.

The National Weather Service has forecast cooler temperatures and possibly thunderstorms on Wednesday night through Thursday.

But while the cooler weather could drive the ants underground, too much rain may have the opposite effect, Arzate said.

“When we get rain, it can flood their nests, and they come into the homes looking for shelter,” she said. “With rain in the forecast, we could see another spike in ants.”