How to Deal with Ants in Your Home before Calling Pest Control Services

How do you deal with ants in your home before calling pest control services?

• Find that queen
• Observe their trail
• Use ant baits
• Postpone your cleaning
• Spray at the most opportune time
• Keep your home clean
• Bar the ants from entering your home
• Destroy their nests outside

 

Ants are virtually everywhere. Just when you think you’ve already gotten rid of them, you’ll see hundreds—or thousands—scurrying away in another corner of your home. Just when you think you can finally focus on rodent control, apparently there are still some pesky pests you need to control.

The thing about ants is, aside from appearing practically anytime, anywhere, they’re social insects. This means you’re not just going to deal with a handful of ants, but a whole colony of them.

This makes it essential for you to bar their entrance into your home as well as you can. If they still manage to find their way in, then you have no choice but to learn how to get rid of them. If worse comes to worst and you can’t handle them on your own, then you better seek a professional’s help.

But before that, here’s how to deal with ants in your home prior to calling pest control services:

Find that queen

It’s essential that you have a basic grasp of how this whole ant business works. Aside from the colony (or the ants you see traipsing freely around your home), there’s the queen.

The queen is most probably hidden from view. When the other ants are toiling hard to scavenge for food, she’ll remain cloistered in her nest, continuously laying eggs.

So no matter how many times you get rid of the ants you do see, they’ll keep on coming back unless you eliminate the source—that is, the queen.

 

Observe their trail

Dealing with ants is pretty much like preparing for a military attack. You can’t just plunge into their territory there and then. You need to calculate your movements first.

In this case, it’s advisable that you observe where the worker ants are coming from and headed to. This will give you an idea of where their nest it.

 

Use ant baits

Don’t just impulsively eliminate every worker ant you see. Aside from observing and following them, you might also want to consider setting up ant baits.

Once the worker ants see the bait, they’ll immediately take it and carry it back to the queen.

Eating this, of course, will be the death of the queen.

Postpone your cleaning

Sure, it might be extremely tempting to sweep your ants. But you don’t want that—after all, doing so will eradicate the ants’ odor trail, which is basically what the other ants will follow.

If you’ve already placed the baits, then this odor trail will lure in the ants to your trap.

 

Spray at the most opportune time

It’s important for you to know when to spray and when to wield your pest control prowess—that is, when the worker ants have finally led you to the queen and their nest.

 

Keep your home clean

It starts with cleanliness. Just like with rodent control, your house should be constantly kept tidy and sanitized, if you want to keep your home devoid of pests.

That is, don’t make it easy for the ants to discover food and water! Make sure that there no crumbs scattered on the floor. Wipe the spills in your countertops. And never leave unwashed dishes in the sink!

 

Bar the ants from entering your home

Because ants are so tiny, they can easily slip in between the most constricted of cracks and crevices.

To curb this, be sure to seal the gaps around windows, doors, sockets, pipes, and all other plausible access points.

It’s also a good idea to spray an insecticide near these entrances.

Destroy their nests outside

Unfortunately, ants won’t just plague you inside your home. This means that they can still reside outside. You might still want to get rid of them. After all, it won’t be long before they choose to invade your home as well.

 

Key Takeaway

Ants can be extremely bothersome. They’re pests that you need to control.

Unfortunately, aside from devoting your efforts to rodent control, you also have to deal with these tiny insects.

In some instances, luckily, you can deal with ants on your own; there are just some things that you need to do. Once these pests go beyond your control, however, make sure to consult the professionals.