How to Stop An Ant Infestation
While ants may not be a nuisance when they’re outside in your yard, they can be a major problem when they make their way into your home. They have the ability to move around, infesting different areas quickly. They’re likely to show up when the weather is warmer outside, and they’re in the process of looking for a food source. The problem occurs when you don’t immediately notice you have an ant problem. In a short amount of time, you can have hundreds of them wandering around inside. Do you know what signs of an ant infestation to look for?
Different Types of Ants
There are approximately 16,000 different species of ants that exist. House ants will typically be less than 1/8th of an inch in size. There are carpenter ants that are around 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 inch in size. Carpenter ants will chew on the wood structure of your home, your doors, baseboards, and windowsills. They cause a lot of damage in a short amount of time. Luckily, ants rarely transmit any kind of disease or infection. That doesn’t mean they’re not a nuisance though.
How to Stop an Ant Infestation
You can use all kinds of techniques to eliminate ants that you find in your home, but you have to find the problem’s source to truly eradicate them. There may be areas around your property that are attracting the ants. Ensure you keep your home clean, don’t leave food scraps around, and remove your garbage daily. You’ll want to make sure your patio doesn’t have crumbs or food left out, and the same goes for your porch or garage. You’ll also want to seal up any small holes around doors, windows, and your foundation.
When to Call a Professional
It’s a good idea to try and take care of an ant problem on your own, but don’t let things get too out of control. Leaving the issue alone will only allow them to reproduce, damage your home, and make a mess. A professional can work with you to develop safe ways of eliminating the ants and preventing a problem in the future. Bait traps are commonly used. They are small containers that will be placed in areas of the home where ants are active.
The ants will be attracted to the bait inside, and they will die when they consume the bait and poison inside the container. They may take the poison back to their colony, which can quickly take care of an ant problem.
Ensuring that your yard is kept in tip-top shape will help deter ants from coming onto your property and into your home. Homes that are kept very clean and disinfected tend to have fewer ants invade them over the years.
Be careful using chemical sprays inside of your home to kill ants or prevent them. There are products on the market that have very dangerous chemicals in them. You don’t want to cause health issues for any humans or pets living inside the home.
Sources:
https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-get-rid-of-ants-2656468
https://www.terminix.com/blog/diy/how-to-get-rid-of-ants-in-the-house/
