It seems like ants are everywhere outdoors. If you have a snack outside, it won't be long until you see ants checking out your food. While you expect to see ants outdoors, you don't want them in your house. Ants can be a daily nuisance indoors even when their colony is outside. They're particularly bothersome if you need to leave food out for your pets since ants will swarm food bowls. Getting rid of ants isn't easy, and you'll probably need an ant control service to help when your yard has a bad infestation. Here's why ant control is difficult as well as some basic steps for keeping ants out of your house.
Why Ant Control Is Challenging
There are many species of ants, and each type of ant has its own behaviors and preferences for food. To be effective at eliminating and preventing ants, you have to understand the nature of the type of ant you're dealing with. Also, ants exist in such huge numbers that you could kill ants every day in your house and not affect the colony at all. That's why it's often best to direct your efforts at the colony rather than the ants that march in and out of your house searching for food.
What To Do About An Ant Problem
When you see ants in your house, you'll probably notice they're coming and going along a single path. Follow the path to their entry point so you can seal it to keep them out. Ants may be crawling in under your door or through a tiny gap in your window. It's hard to seal every tiny gap in your home, so let the ants point them out so you can take action.
Then you can kill the ants that are indoors. Clean the trail area inside and outside your house so the scent doesn't attract other ants. Since ants are such tiny creatures, they don't have much trouble getting in your house. If the ants come back through a different opening, it may be time to tackle the colony.
When you're trying to kill off the colony, leave the ants alone that come inside your house. They're going to help you by carrying poison back to the queen and colony. Avoid using repellents or sprays on the ants you see. Instead, put out poison bait they can dine on and carry back to the queen to poison the other ants. This may take some time, but it could be an effective way to deal with your ant problem.
An ant control service may take things a little further and hunt down the colony and treat it with pesticide. This might be a better way to get rid of dangerous ants that can sting or destroy your home. Fire ants and carpenter ants are two species of ants that are harmful, so getting professional help with those is a good idea.
When you come upon an ant in your home, what do you do? Maybe you kill that one ant and then set some traps to catch any others that come with it. Perhaps you spray some insecticides along the baseboards or in other places where ants tend to congregate. Sometimes these measures might take care of the problem, but other times they don't. If ants continue to be an issue, you'll need to call a pest control company. The same goes if you are dealing with roaches, mice, or some other pest. Learn more about pest control and what these companies do as you explore this website.