Planning Fun, Summer Gatherings

Dealing With Your Ant Situation

When ants come marching in, you may wonder if you should be concerned. There can be hundreds of them swarming around bits of food and scouring your floors and cupboards for more. Although ants are usually just annoying, you want to get rid of them. You can take several different approaches to dealing with these pests.

Co-Existence

Ants are usually not a health problem, so you do not have to worry about contracting any diseases from them. Of course, a few species of ants can give you painful bites. These ants are usually red, so they are easy to spot. Any other type of ant is merely a nuisance. Since the ants themselves are not harmful, you may want to avoid using any harmful substance to kill them. Spraying pesticides at them is not always helpful anyway. You may be able to peacefully co-exist with a moderate number of ants in your home. 

Control

If you are a live-and-let-live sort of person, you can brush the ants off your plate and continue on with your day. If ants irritate you, track them to the nest. The ants you see will take food back to the nest and lay down a pheromone trail in the process. Other ants follow that trail back into your home. Once you find the nest, you can destroy it by using a pesticide, or you can treat the trail as well as the outside of your house to keep the ants outside. That way, you protect your home without killing all the ants. Of course, if your house is overrun with ants and you cannot control the infestation on your own, call your professional pest control professional for advice.

Prevention

Most ants are tiny, so they can easily slip into the smallest openings. One way to prevent ant infestation is to carefully seal up all cracks and breaks in the exterior and interior of your home. This task can be a difficult and time-consuming one, but it is effective. Use caulk as your primary sealant. If you are out of caulk, you can spread petroleum jelly in the opening. Ants cannot cross this substance.

Ants are rarely a danger to you or your family. However, many people cannot stand the thought of insects crawling over their countertops, dishes, and food. You can take steps to get rid of ants in your home without using pesticides in some instances. However, if you find yourself overwhelmed by the ant population, you should call in the pest control professionals for help.