There are many species of ants, totaling over 10 billion ants across the world. While ants are necessary for the ecosystem, they can also be a huge nuisance to homeowners dealing with an ant infestation.
While ant infestations are not typically dangerous for homeowners, they can be annoying and can spread bacteria in your home. By learning more about the signs of an ant infestation, you can get rid of ants in the home before they become a bigger issue.
Do you want to learn how to deal with an ant infestation? Keep reading these top tips to follow if you notice ants in your house.
Use Indoor Ant Baits
One of the most efficient ways to remove ants from your home is to use indoor ant baits. While it can be tempting to kill the ants that you see in your home, this will not eliminate the entire problem.
The ants that are currently in your home are worker ants that are looking for food for the colony. If you kill these visible ants, you will find that more worker ants will replace them. To get rid of ants more efficiently, you can leave ant bait in your home.
Ant bait is typically an edible, sweet material that is mixed with materials that are toxic to ants, like boric acid. These baits attract the ants that are looking for food and they will take the ant killer back to the rest of the colony in their hidden nest.
This way, you can eliminate the entire colony as efficiently as possible.
Remove Ant Trails
When worker ants come into your house looking for food, they leave something known as ant trails. These are trails made from pheromones, or natural chemicals, that help other ants follow the same trail and communicate with each other.
This is because ants rely on scent. As a scout ant looks for food in your house, they will leave these trails for worker ants to follow.
By getting rid of the ant trails in your home, you can prevent the other ants from following the same path and entering your home. You can find scent trails near entry points to your home, whether this is a gap in the floor, near baseboards, or in other unsealed holes.
While ant scent trails are invisible, you can identify them if you see ants walking in a straight line. Then, you can clean the area to remove the trails. Using vinegar, bleach, or even baking soda is an easy way to remove an ant trail in your house and prevent ants from entering your house and following the trails.
Spray Pesticides Outdoors
While it can be difficult to find an ant nest, doing so can make it easy to eliminate the entire colony at once. If you follow the ants from your home back to their colony, you can use liquid pesticides to kill the colony.
To make sure they do not come back, you need to make sure you kill the queen ant. Otherwise, she will breed more ants in the future.
If you need help finding the best pesticide for ant removal, Why U Buggin Pest Control can help!
Keep Your House Clean
A vital part of preventing and eliminating an ant infestation is keeping your home clean. Like any pest, ants often come into your home looking for food, water, and shelter. If they find crumbs in your home or other food sources, it will keep them coming back for more food.
By keeping your house clean and sanitary, you can prevent ants and other pests from getting into your home. Make sure you always keep foods sealed and off the floor, and regularly clean all the surfaces in your home.
Use Natural Repellants
If you do not want to use ant poison or pesticides to remove your ant removal, other types of natural repellants can keep ants out of your home.
Even things like essential oils can keep ants and other pests out of your home. Some of these include lemon, peppermint oil, and tea tree oil.
Other natural repellants can be found in nearly any kitchen. Cinnamon acts as a natural repellant to ants because of its strong smell.
Another strong-smelling ant repellant is vinegar. While it can repel ants, it can also kill them. Vinegar is a great ant repellant because it still repels ants even after it dries.
Seal & Spray Potential Entry Points
Finally, to prevent an ant infestation, you must find potential entry points into your home. Often, ants can get into your home through small cracks near your doors and windows. They can also enter through small holes in the exterior of your home, like those used for the pipes in your plumbing system.
By identifying these entry points, you can seal them and spray potential entry points with pesticides.
Even if you can’t find these entry points, you can spray an ant barrier around the entire exterior of your home. Simply spray a 12-inch band of insecticide near the foundation of your home to keep ants from crossing over the barrier.
Find Other Ways To Stop an Ant Infestation
Dealing with ants in your home can be a never-ending issue if you don’t find a way to remove the entire colony. By learning how to remove ants from your home, you can eliminate ants and prevent them from getting into your home again.
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