Most people dread ants when in their colonies. When they invade your home in large numbers, you get the urge to destroy them in an instant and get rid of the mess immediately. However, it may not be that easy to eliminate these small insects by killing those who visit your home. Queen ants can produce hundreds of thousands of eggs, so there is a need to understand these small insects before they cause havoc in your house. Some types of ants, such as carpenter ants, can bore through your door frames.
1. Understanding Ants
Ants are tiny insects in size, and they live in large colonies. There are three types of ants.
· The Queen
The queen is the only bee that can reproduce, and it’s hidden deep into nest spaces. The queen bee is protected and fed by the female workers.
· Female workers
Female ants are the workers in the colony. They protect the queen, the young ones, gather food and they police their territory. They usually do not produce their own; the queen ant generally does reproduction.
· Male Ants
Male ants are sperm producers and die sooner after mating. However, their sperm can survive for several years.
2. Home Invasion by Ants
You may find a trail of ants on the floors or walls of your home following each other, going back and forth. The ants usually invade your home foraging for food, water and shelter. The ant nest could be somewhere outside your home or hidden within the crevices of your walls. The ants mark their path from their nests to your home using chemicals they produce to trail their way.
3. How to Prevent and Eliminate Home Invasion by Ants
Once the ants invade your house, you need to get rid of them the best way possible.
· Seal Walls Crevices
The first thing is to seal any crevices on your walls and floor to prevent the ants from getting easy access to your house.
· Keep Your House Very Clean
Although easier said than done, you need to keep your house very clean. The ants mostly invade your home for food and water. It’s therefore advisable to keep your spaces very clean. Additionally, keep your food tightly sealed to avoid ants from accessing the food
· Use Bait to Invade Their Nests
After understanding the behaviour of ants, it becomes easier to deal with the ant invasion.
Since the ants are in your house for food, locate their food source and use borax, vinegar, essential oils or cucumber peels to poison their food. The ants will carry the poisoned food to their nests, where the destruction will take place and thus eliminate the colony, especially the queen. Borax or boric acid poisons ants, but it’s not harmful to human beings and other insects in small quantities.
· Locate and Target the Colony
If you can trace the nest where the ants are taking the food, you can target the colony using a safe liquid pesticide spray. Note that general chemical sprays are harmful to the environment and other important insects such as honeybees. It’s, therefore, crucial to use only safe liquid insecticide sprays such as pyrethrin sprays. Pyrethrum products are safe for the environment.
· Call Ants Exterminator
At times you may need the services of a professional exterminator to deal with your ants’ invasion. The ants’ exterminator will professionally and safely eliminate the ants.
4. Carpenter Ants
There is another category of ants that invade rotten wood apart from foraging for food in your house.
The carpenter ants are destructive; they bore through your furniture and other wood structures such as door frames. The tiny carpenter ants can cause massive destruction to your wooden structures, which can be expensive to repair. In such a case, you can seek the services of a professional ant control expert. For those around Montana, you can seek assistance from Missoula ant control experts who will assess your situation and provide a solution to your woes and give you more advice on keeping the ants at bay.
5. An important point to note
Ants are essential in other ways; they help aerate the soil. Therefore, a few ants in your compound may not be a threat to you or your pets. As such, you need just to let the ants enjoy their life.
Conclusion
You can keep the ants from your home by taking preventive measures or eliminating them using safe products such as borax. Else you can call ants control experts who will come to your aid and save you from the hustle of tracing and placing baits. Enjoy your ants free home and protect your wooden furniture.
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