The code on most insecticides of any sort including Advion Ant Bait Gel will be an indicator to the manufacturer of what batch the product came from and when it was produced or packaged. The shelf life and expiration is all dependent on how you store the product once you receive it. The product you received should have a shelf life up to 5 years from the date of manufacture.
Advion Ant Bait Gel is a professional grade product and is not sold in retail stores. We do carry the product and offer fast, free shipping.
The date on your tubes of Advion Roach Bait Gel is not an expiration date as professional insecticides and their shelf life is entirely dependent on how you stored it. The REL is referring to the release date, or the time in which that batch was packaged so they know if any problems occur when it was made and how many tubes were distributed. The shelf life of unopened tubes when stored in temperature stable environments is normally 5 years. The active ingredient within the product is not what usually goes bad, its the food based ingredients that make up the majority of the product to attract the insects. Just like any food, over time it will start to become stale and less attractive to the insects to eat. While we cant say for certain that it will still be attractive after the 5 years, you are welcome to still put it down for the insects to go to as a food source and may continue to see control.
We recommend that you contact your veterinarian. In most cases, an animal would have to eat very large quantities of ant bait gel for there to be any problem. The product label and the MSDS are always available on the Advion Ant Bait Gel page if you need to contact your veterinarian. In the future, be sure to apply to the gel in small dots directly into cracks and crevices, so that the ants will have easy access to the gel and your pet will not.
To remove old Advion Gel you can first try hot soapy water. If that does not work vegetable oil takes it right up.
It is normal to see dead or dying ants during the ant baiting process with Advion Ant Bait Gel. Ants will have to succumb at some point after eating the bait and they are often "kicked out" of the colony after they start acting sick, thus you will see sick or dead ants. It is also normal to see live ants removing dead ants for this reason as well. Usually the ants have already returned and spread the bait to the colony at this point and the work has been done. In time the bait will eliminate the entire colony including the queen, just keep putting the bait out as long as you are seeing activity.
Advion Ant Bait Gel takes advantage of the natural behavior of ants. Foraging worker ants are attracted to the sweet formula of the bait. After consuming the bait, the foraging ants will return to the nest and share the bait with the rest of the colony, including the queen(s). By ingesting the active ingredient Indoxacarb the ant's nervous system is disrupted, ultimately ending in death.
Yes, Advion Ant Bait Gel is labeled for all major species of ants including: Argentine, Big Headed, Carpenter, Cornfield, Crazy, Field, Ghost, Harvester, Honey, Little Black, Odorous House, Pavement, Pharaoh, Pyramid, Red Imported Fire Ant, Rover, Thief and White Footed.
Syngenta, the manufacturer of Advion, moved away from having a REL(release) date on their baits and they now come with a Lot # that corresponds to the production of that product. The first 3 letters will usually be "ABW" which can be ignored as this corresponds to the facility the batch was produced in. The next number is for the last digit of the year it was produced. For 2018 this would be ABW8 for example. To indicate the month it was produced, the letter after the year in the code would be in alphabetical order if January = A, February = B. So a Lot of ABW8B would be produced in February of 2018.
The Advion Roach Bait Gel and the Advion Ant Bait Gel both have the same active ingredient but the inert ingredients are different and are designed to attract either roaches or ants only. They would not be interchangeable for either pest.
Advion Roach Bait Gel does not have an expiration date printed on the container. The shelf life of unopened tubes when stored in temperature stable environments is normally 5 years.
Advion Ant Bait Gel can be used outside, but will not stand up very well to outdoor elements. You may want to consider applying Termidor SC around the outside of the foundation for ant control. See our Ant Pest Guide for more information about treating ants in and around your home.