RI, MA EHS Pest Control Blog

Did you know that an ant's abdomen contains two stomachs?! One stomach holds food for itself while the other one contains food to be shared with other ants.

Here's a few more cool ant facts:

• Ants have 250,000 brain cells while humans have 10,000 million.
• Combined weights of ants on earth is more than the combined weight of humans.
• Ants began farming about 50 million years before humans thought to raise their own crops.
• Ants rarely fight but when they do fight it is a fight to death most of the time.
• Ants often sleep seven hours a day, while a type of ant i.e. fire ant takes about 250 naps each day.
• The legs of the ant are very strong so they can run very quickly. If a man could run as fast for his size as an ant can, he could run as fast as a racehorse.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Termites and Carpenter Ants Drove Tiger's Ex to Demolish $12 Million Mansion

Finally, an explanation why Elin Nordegren, Tiger Woods' ex-wife, bulldozed the $12 million oceanfront mansion she bought only last year.

Her builder told People magazine the 17,000 foot, six bedroom home in North Palm Beach, Fla. wasn't built to code to withstand Florida hurricanes. To top it off, Habitat for Humanity found the place was crawling with termites and carpenter ants. So it made more sense structurally and economically to tear it down and start over with a new home.

The 32-year-old Nordegren, who's living nearby with her and Woods' two children, invited the charity to salvage tens of thousands of dollars worth of cabinets, hardware and fixtures before sending in the wrecking crew. Said Habitat's director of deconstruction, Bobbi Blodgett: When we pulled out the windows, the bugs were everywhere... To rebuild that house would have been ridiculous. We're so grateful to Elin. It's rare we get this kind of donation.

Nordegren got $100 million in her divorce from Woods so she can afford it. She never shared the demolished mansion with Woods, who recently appeared as an honorary captain for his alma mater Stanford at the Fiesta Bowl.

George Williams,
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA 

Click on image to enlarge

What are you looking at in this picture???

It is a ton of ants inside a mailbox! Imagine going to get your mail, a normal daily occurrence. This time you feel something all over your hands and when you look at your hand and mail you have a HEEBIE JEEBIE reaction with associated scream then you drop your mail. A few more convulsing twitches because you feel like they are still on you and then the whole incident is over……almost. You swat the remaining ants off the mail, grab your cell phone, and call your husband to complain about the ants.

“You are a friggin entomologist….why the heck are their ants all over our mailbox???!!!” By now you have figured out that I am the person she is talking to, this is my mailbox, and the woman is my wife Jackie. See, I get to take my work home with me! I spot baited the mailbox with some ant gel when I got home and they were gone the next day. I’m sure this is not the end of it…….

George Williams
General Manager - Staff Entomologist

Pest Control, RI, Pest Control, MA