How To Fix Your Ant Problems

There are over ten thousand different species of ants, each of these species of ants has different types associated with them. Ants live in large colonies that are usually located near a source of food or water, ants need both to live. Nearly every species of ant lives in the ground and commonly make their nests under concrete slabs. Concrete slabs are used because they give protection from predators and the elements. It basically supplies the ants with a ‘roof’ for their home.

Colonies consist of one or two queens, and multiple workers both male and sterile females, these worker and forager ants are the ones you will see the most. In the spring, the ants will develop wings to fly to a new location to colonize including the queen. Ants can eat all kinds of animal and plant materials, including protein, sweet foods and starchy foods.

There are two problems that need to be considered when you begin practicing ant control. Are the ants nesting inside your home? Or Are the ants nesting outside your home and foraging inside? Dealing with ants foraging in your home is easy, they use chemical trails consisting of pheromones to make paths that guide them into your home or to a source of food, by cleaning cracks and theses areas, you destroy these paths for them to follow. You can also use sprays outside your home to create a ‘perimeter defense’ against any ants nesting outside your home. Placing bait traps along these paths also help a lot.

Dealing with ants nesting inside your home takes more effort and some careful spot treatment of certain areas. Using a lot of bait traps is required since you want to eradicate as many of the ants as possible and optimally the queen as well. If the queen is eliminated then the colony will cease to reproduce. Placing multiple bait traps and using sprays in known cracks will help.

Look for bait traps and gels that use fipronil as the active ingredient, this ingredient is used in many flea treatments and is effective in eliminating swarming and colony insects such as ants. Ants are easy to control with the right tools, and you can save hundreds of dollars by doing it yourself. In the time it takes to call for an appointment, you could lay four or five bait traps around your home and the problem will be gone in a few days. There are many guides and resources on the internet that can help you with more specific pest control problems, including other kinds of insects.