Ant Control in House

Once you’ve let ants infest your home, removing them becomes a struggle. There is little chance that they’ll leave on their own. So, you’ll need to conduct ant control in-house and outdoors. This means implementing DIY ant control in the house or calling a pest control company to handle the infestation for you.
We recommend that people attempt to remove ants independently, but it’s time to schedule an inspection if that doesn’t work.

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Methods of Ant Control in Houses

Ants will enter your home for any number of reasons. Though, they are most often entering homes in search of food. Ants aren’t explicitly targeting your house—it’s more likely that your home is simply in their foraging area. If they find a little food on the ground or your countertops, they’ll return soon with an army of their friends. This is how ants collect the nutrition they need to feed themselves and their young.

Ant control in houses isn’t the most straightforward task to take on. But, if you want to know how to get rid of ants, here are some methods you can attempt.

Use Ant Bait

Many people use ant pesticides to kill any ants they see. This works now, but others from the nest will quickly replace the few you manage to kill. If you kill the ants as you see them, you will never make any real progress.

Instead, we suggest using ant baits for ant control in houses. Ant baits contain poisonous material that ants are likely to carry back to their colony. So even if you don’t know where the colony is, ant baits will strike the infestation right at its source.

Ant baits are edible materials that are usually sweet, sugary carbohydrates. They consist of edible materials mixed with a toxic substance effective on ants but not animals or humans. Boric acid is a common poison used in ant baits. However, it’s a natural substance that isn’t toxic to humans, making it an excellent ant poison.

There are various forms of ant bait. Some are “stations” that contain granular materials. Others are liquids that you spray onto your home’s surfaces.

Regardless of which type of ant bait you employ, the goal is to place it within the ant’s usual foraging trail. When doing so, make sure to keep it outside the reach of pets and small children. After some time, ants will discover the bait and carry it back to their colony. If enough ants share in the meal, your ant problem will quickly end.

Use Spray Pesticides

More often than not, ants create trails that lead from the outdoors into your home. If your ant troubles come from a colony you’ve already identified, spraying pesticides can sometimes eliminate the issue. Use a pesticide solution to drench the nest in hopes that the poison will reach the queen.

Using a pesticide can kill outdoor ants quickly, but ensure the colony you confront is the real source of ants in your house. If you attack the wrong colony, the ants may disperse and enter your home, looking for refuge. If this happens, you could have more ants on your hands than before.

For more information about pesticides, read this article that the Environmental Protection Agency released: Do you really need to use a pesticide?

Keep Your Home Clean

Ants enter your home, searching for food and water. If you have a dirty home with plentiful crumbs and other edible material lying about, that will attract ants quickly. Therefore, sanitation is critical for ant control in houses.
You don’t want to make it easy for the ants. Keep your food items sealed. Floors swept and a clean surface. It’s essential to keep things clean while you work to eradicate nests. Ant control becomes much more manageable if ants have no option but to eat the poisoned bait you’ve left out for them.
One thing you may not want to clean is the ant trail. You’ll need to know where the ants are coming from to place bait appropriately. Wait until after the bulk of the ants are gone to clean away ant trails.

Where Do Ants Come From?

Ants are common household pests because homes often have plentiful food sources available within them. Ants eat almost anything that humans would eat. So crumbs, spilled foods, and pet foods are all attractive meals for ants. Suppose they recognize that they have unlimited food in your home. In that case, they’ll eventually build nests within your walls and beneath your floors. That’s why the most significant parts of ant control in houses are denying them food substances and nesting areas.
If you’ve noticed an increase in the number of ants in your home, contact OMNIS to learn more about ants and ant control.

Preventing Ant Infestations

Ants can enter your home through minute cracks and crevices. Seal windows, doors, cables, pipes, and wire entry points to keep them from entering. Also, inspect your foundation for tiny cracks that can grant ants access to your home. As stated in previous sections, keeping your home clean should also be a priority when working to prevent ant infestations. More about Inspecting Your Property for Signs of Ants.

Urgent Ant Control In Houses: Carpenter Ants

The most commonly seen ants are pavement ants, odorous house ants, and pharaoh ants. These species feed heavily on sugars, greases, and similar household substances. These ants won’t cause damage to your property, but they are a health and happiness hazard.

On the other hand, carpenter ants can cause significant damage to your home. These ants feed on decaying wood. They create tunnels through a home’s wood framing to get to the decaying areas. This leads to substantial structural damage in some cases.

You can identify carpenter ants on sight. They are reddish-orange to black, and they have large wings. If you ever see ants with wings, there is a high chance they are carpenter ants. Likewise, notice residual wood dust or debris surrounding your home’s foundation and sill plate. That could also be a sign of carpenter ant infestation.

Long-Lasting Ant Control in Houses

Attempting to remove ants on your own can be a long and tedious process. If you don’t see the results you desire, it’s time to call in the professionals. When you schedule a free inspection with OMNIS Pest Control, a technician will arrive on your property at the time you choose. They’ll identify entry points and the nest’s location during the inspection.

To learn more about ants and ant control in houses, schedule an inspection with one of our skilled technicians. They’ll help you eradicate your ant infestation quickly. You can reach us by calling 720-583-4126 or using the contact form below.

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