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Do You Want to Get Rid of Ants? (A Complete Guide)
This is a common domestic phenomenon throughout the world and a typical problem, especially to a housewife who likes to keep her household neat, clean and ant-free. Ants are not troublesome during the autumn, fall or winter seasons.
During this time they remain in their nests to avoid the cold. This state is called diapause. But as soon as the sun rises with a healthy smile, they come out from their nests and become a torture for the neighboring households. Ant is a social insect. It likes moving in groups.
The Guidelines in this Page:
The Best Ways to Get Rid of Ants
Why at my House?
What is the Easiest Way to Get Rid of Ants?
What are the Types of Ants?
How are they Making your Life Miserable?
Seriously, I want to get rid of ants from my HOME permanently!
The Best Ways to Get Rid of Ants
If you’re in a hurry, below are the summarized best ways to get rid of ants and stop them from invading your home!
Diatomaceous Earth (if used correctly)
Liquid Dish Soap
Liquid Ant Baits
Vinegar
Non-Repellant Insecticide Spray
Outdoor Ant Repellants
Wipe Down Home Surfaces
Periodic Vaccuming
Seal Trash Bins
Seal Food Containers
Seal Home Entry Ways
Clean Your Gutters
Address Moist Areas
Clear Vegetation
Remove and/or Cover Wood Piles
Why at my House?
Like all insects and animals, ants too look for food. Your house has plenty of it. An ant colony only forms near a house when they find a vast resource of food and water, especially for the young ones. In the cycle of their life, they need to:
Keep warm
Have easy access to food
Reproduce
Fun Facts
Crazy Ants are attracted to Electronic devices like AC, computers, dishwashers where they find a tunnel to stay temporarily. But when live electronic equipment creates connection through their bodies, lead to short circuits and eventually the ants die. But this causes them to create an alarm by releasing a pheromone scent from their bodies indicating fellow ants to rescue them. More crazy ants enter to the electronic device causing a total breakdown of it.
The cleanliness of the house does not restrict them to reach their goal. Various ants like odorous ants, sugar ants, moisture ants search for places to build new colonies during the spring and summer times. Carpenter ants make their way through the wooden doors or woodpiles.
Prevention is better than Cure: Prevention is a better option to get rid of ants. Hygiene is the most important factor for any household. If you keep your food in proper, sealed places, it would be difficult for the ants to find them. Once they find this struggle, they’ll leave soon. It is the most cost-effective process too.
Here are Some Ideas of Hygiene
Regularly wipe house surfaces: Ants walk in defined paths outside or inside your home. While traveling, each ant leaves a typical odor which the following ant trails. If you use a strong disinfectant to wipe and remove the trail, it becomes difficult for the follower ants.
Periodic Vacuuming: Using your vacuum cleaner periodically, help you cleaning surfaces of your home including furniture and carpets where ants are sucked in the machine and killed.
Seal Trash Bins: You must keep your trash beans outside the house. The in-house regular trash bean should be tightened with no thoroughfare and finally when disposed should be tightly sealed too.
Seal food containers: Same with the food containers. You should seal them properly so that ants do not find their way to go into them.
Seal all entries: Ants crawl through cracks and natural holes within your house in windows, doors, and walls. You should take good care to seal those openings.
Regularly clean your sewer: Sewers and drains collect a lot of rubbish like rotten leaves, food wastes, etc. which is a healthy breeding ground for ants.
Other Damp places near your home: Investigate other damp and warm places near your home which could be a breeding ground for ants too. They could be swamps, ponds, lakes, etc.
A safe distance of vegetation from your home: If trees, shrubs, and other vegetation have close proximity to your home, it is quite natural that ants have easy access to your house. Regular cleaning, watering and cutting plants in your garden keep ants away from your home.
Soggy wood logs or remains: A moist and damp wooden surface attracts ants easily as it is a perfect place for a temporary nest which is near to the source of food. Especially black carpenter ants make an easy home for themselves on wet wood. You should at least cover these moist wooden areas with plastic tarps which on one hand, are waterproof and on the other, do not allow ants to go into.
Skip the research and talk to the exterminator to kill Ants
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What are the Types of Ants? How are they Making your Life Miserable?
Odorous Ants:
These are black or dark brown ants, approximately 3 mm in length. They easily create nests in walls or floors of a house which is warm and moist. They invade kitchens and other food storage areas. They are called Odorous because when they are crushed, pungent smell is released.
Can Be Killed: Easily
Best way to get rid of: Ant Baiting
Pavement Ants:
These are also black or brown ants, approximately 3 mm in length. But they have two spines and two nodes between the two body parts. They are also called Sugar ants in parts of North America. Their nests lie on sidewalks, courtyards, and driveways near houses. They feed on leftover food from the household which is not properly disposed of. They are a nuisance for kitchen and if provoked can sting.
Can Be Killed: Easily
Best way to get rid of: Ant Baiting
Ghost Ants:
They belong to the same family as the Odorous Ants. Their legs and abdomen are pale in color which makes them easier to hide from human eyes. They are approximately 1.5 mm long. They usually have multiple nests. They look for sweet food and are found in the kitchen.
Can Be Killed: Easily
Best way to get rid of: Ant Baiting
Carpenter Ants:
The name derives from their skill of nest building. They are the largest ants in the US. Their size varies from 3.4 mm to 13mm. They are either black or reddish yellow in color. They build their nests in wet wood, moist homes caused by water leakage. They go inside a house through open pipes and wires
Can Be Killed: Easily
Best way to get rid of: Ant Baiting
Moisture Ants:
They live in damp, humid locations. Moist soil, damp wood or a soggy home environment is their ideal nest. They are approximately 4.45 mm in size.
Can Be Killed: Not easily
Best way to get rid of: Ant Baiting / Removal of excess water.
Rover Ants:
They are small dark brown or pale ants. They can survive in any habitat. They live in barks, leaf litter, trash piles, bathrooms, and kitchen. They find cracks in indoor to enter. They are approximately 2.5 mm is the size. They do not cause physical damage to homes but causes a nuisance with their infiltration and it becomes really difficult to get rid of them.
Can Be Killed: Not easily
Best way to get rid of: Find their cracks of infestation and shut them.
Argentine Ants:
They are light and dark brown ants being approximately 2.8 mm long. They too have their nests in mulch, under debris and other moist places which are outside the house. They do not enter a house other than times when the weather cools down and they look for food.
Can Be Killed: Easily
Best way to get rid of: Find their cracks of infestation and shut them.
Fire Ants:
These ants build their mounds in open sunny areas outside houses. They are reddish in colour and are about 1.6 to 5 mm in size. They can build mounts up to 61 cm in diameter and 18 cm in height. Fire ants sting which is painful and fatal to young and the old people.
Can Be Killed: Easily
Best way to get rid of: Find their cracks of infestation and shut them.
Crazy Ants:
Crazy Ants get their name from a totally unpredictable way of their movement. They do not follow any trails like other ants. They are reddish-brown in color and are about 3.2 mm in size. They are flexible in living in both dry and moist environment. They do not build nests or mounds but live in tree cavities, under debris or big stones. They travel in a huge group and can communicate with each other if they are under attack.
Can Be Killed: Easily
Best way to get rid of: Find their cracks of infestation and shut them.
Identify your ant and kill it!
The Natural Way
Diatomaceous earth: It is not poisonous and does not need to be eaten to be effective. It is an alternative to chemical pesticides. It looks like a white powder which you can spread around the appliances placed at the corners of rooms, cabinets, carpets and open spaces like patios, window frames, and flower beds through which ants crawl to your home.
Liquid Dish Soap: During the wet season, you will see an army of ants marching to your kitchen, bathroom and other misty spots in your home. Mix 2 tablespoon of liquid dish soap with 1 pint of water and spray the mixture. They will suddenly stop, suffocate and die. Wipe the dead ants and keep the mixture handy.
Liquid ant baits and gels: Even it is poison, it is sweet. Ants crave for sweet food. After eating the poisonous sweet an ant returns to its nest and dies. Other ants feast on its dead body, unknowingly spreading the poison to them.
Vinegar to block path: Vinegar itself is an ant killer. Moreover, it covers the trail and hence other ants’ cannot find their route.
Non-repellent insecticides, sprays: These kinds of insecticides or sprays work in two methods. If outdoor, it kills the ant as soon as it is in contact with it. They have a strong toxic element to stay for a longer period. For residual or indoor treatment, these insecticides are applied beforehand on targeted surfaces and allow the ant to get affected and transfer it to other fellow ants in the nest.
The Natural Way
At home, some ants are harmless. But their behavior annoys you. Though being minimal in size, they tend to irritate you with their dynamic behavior of finding food. They are also visually unpleasant.
If you find ants annoying you, the outline of the above-mention solutions will help you.
Seriously, I want to get rid of ants from my HOME permanently!
Permanently? – Impossible!
Would they go on their own? – Impossible!
Can you do it yourself? – Probably!
Do I hire a professional? – Precisely!
Can I get some suggestions? – Obviously!
Skip the research and talk to the exterminator to kill Ants
Click here and access our exterminator search tool- instantly get free quotes from the authentic house of exterminators in your local area.
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