In the many years I have been in Pest Management, I never thought European Fire Ants in Bellevue would be possible. Then, I had a discussion with Laurel D. Hansen, Ph. D., from Spokane Valley Community College and the most accomplished authority on ants in our region. She had chosen United Pest Solutions staff to support her gathering of ant samples in our region and informed me that the European Fire Ant had been seen in Bellevue.
United’s staff, after attending an exhaustive study on ant identification and sample collection, began to gather samples throughout our region, identifying at our office and sent them on to Spokane and Laurel. It has been United’s policy to capture samples of all insects and communicate any peculiarities to the customers we protect.
As we received confirmation of our findings, it became apparent that the European Fire Ant was spreading into the communities we service. The European Fire Ant got started around Lake Washington, but our findings drew our attention away from the lake. Samples of this ant were also found in:
- Mukilteo
- Edmonds
- Shoreline
- Renton
- Redmond
- Duvall
European Fire Ants are generally not a native species for our region, but they are here. They are reddish brown ants, 1/8th to 3/16th inches long, and can inflict a painful sting. Their colonies are rather large, having multiple queens and more than 20,000 workers. These ants like to establish nests in areas of high humidity like that under leaf litter and under other items.
Upon confirming our findings, we emailed our customers immediately and responded by treating the nests we found, providing a follow-up service to insure the issue is resolved.
The technicians at United Pest Solutions are constantly training to guarantee the best and most comprehensive inspections and resolution of the changing pest environment we live in.
Our goal is to provide peace of mind and trust for our customers, and we will continue to be at the cutting edge of our industry.