Ant Control

Ant Control.

Black ants appear out of nowhere, creating black spots along the kitchen walls or crawling around your children’s room. Aggressive ant control is important, especially since once they colonize and establish themselves, they are much harder to get rid of. Keep reading to learn how ants live and how to rid your home of these pests.

This is the life of an ant.

Ants live in colonies. It is very rare that an ant is sighted alone because a colony member usually travels close behind. A typical colony is run by the female queen who lays hundreds to thousands of eggs. The worker ants who are unable to lay eggs go out in search of food. You may have noticed that ants walk in a straight line; this is because a pheromone trail is left behind so they never get off path.

Ants can eat a variety of foods. They are attracted quickest to sweets like sugar and candy, however, they also get food from wood and other materials that could be part of a plant or animal.

Tips on controlling ants.

Before using toxic pesticides to control the ants, it is best to understand the two different categories of infestation. Knowing what type of infestation you have will help you to decide on the best ways of controlling them.

Controlling colonies outside your home.

Ant colonies usually exist outside the home, but when the ants have found a way to march up to your steps and enter, they can quickly colonize indoors. To prevent this, there are two ways to control pesky ants:

• Look for easy entry openings such as crevices and cracks and completely seal them up. The ants are very good at finding small openings.

• Scrub around the trailing area to get rid of their trail of pheromones. The ants will no longer have a scent guide leading into your house.

Controlling colonies inside of your home.

As stated earlier, ants can colonize indoors and start nesting inside your house. This gets more common when the weather gets into warmer months of the year. Once they have found their way into your food supply, they can gain a foothold and become a harder to battle nuisance.

Two tips to get rid of them:

• The use of over the counter insecticides. These will be able to kill most of the ants visible, however, this is the only short-term solution. As previously written, the Queen has already laid a lot of eggs at this point and you’re not able to attach the source of the problem, the nest. Also, over the counter insecticides are bah for your health and dangerous to be used around pets and children.

• Find the nest and destroy it. This is the most effective way to combat the ants. This can be done through the presentation of ant baits, but the very best solution is to call in the experts at Guarantee Pest Control. Let us rid you of your pesky ant issues.