How To Get Rid Of Ants

Ants are a natural nuisance; they are always there but more active during spring and summer. There are different species of ants in Australia including the garden ants, green ants, bull ants, coastal brown ants, and fire ants.

Perhaps you have been wondering what caused an ant invasion in your house; this post will answer that question and provide some practical methods to get rid of ants from your home.

What Are The Causes Of Ant Invasions?

Food

Ants are always on the lookout for food to scavenge, and once they find some, they signal the rest of the colony. So, if you see one ant, that may not be the first or last!

Moisture

Ants can survive on little to no water, and they get most of their requirements from the food they eat. However, some ant species love moist wood, which makes them live near cabinets or sinks if there is a leak in your plumbing system.

Conducive Environment

Ants are typically found outside of your home since they need the environment to regulate their body temperature. They can, however, colonise in areas with cracks or crevices. If you have any windows that might let this occur, no doubt ants will enter you home.

How To Get Rid Of Indoor Ants

Know their Source

To evict ants from your kitchen, start by looking for their source. If it is sticky honey or stray spoons in dirty dishes left on their own, then you know where to begin cleaning up.

The next step will be figuring out how best to get rid of them once you’ve found what makes these poor tenants feel welcome. Once you remove their source, they’ll likely move elsewhere themselves.

Stop their Trail

Ants rely on pheromones to communicate and following one another. To stop the tiny trails from being seen, you need to spray them with something that will break up their scent signal before they leave it behind – like vinegar mixed in the water!

Simply take some crushed white wine bottle (or any clear household cleaner), add 1 part liquid per 3 parts drinking vinegar at room temperature, until the color lightens slightly; then simply mist this mixture anywhere ants are spotted so they cannot use each other’s trail anymore.

Set Up Ant Repellent

To exterminate ants naturally, mix peppermint or lavender oil (two scents they hate) with water and spray the mixture on entry points like window sills. If you decide to take the chemical route, look for a product that contains boric acid; however, some can be harmful if misapplied, so read the instructions carefully!

How To Get Rid Of Outdoor Ants

Search Around your House

Carpenter ants like to nest in wood, so if you find ant beds around your yard or near any outdoor structures such as foundation piles for homes, they may have been there for a while. They also prefer wet and damaged pieces of lumber; check tree stumps and other places where this kind of condition might exist!

Use Hot Water

Ants are pesky pests and can be difficult to get rid of. Once you’ve found their hive, pour boiling water into the hill.

Keep your Surroundings Clean

A well-maintained property is the best way to keep ants away. Keep an eye out for potential entry points such as branches and bushes touching your house, which these pests can use to sneak into your home.

How To Keep Ants Away From Your House

Clean your Home Always

Your kitchen is typically an ant’s favourite room in the house, so pay special attention to it. Keep your countertops clean and free from crumbs because they are often targeted by these little insects as well.

Regularly wipe down any surfaces that might serve as prey for ants, especially during warmer months when bug populations may increase due to more food sources around like fruit bowl edges or pantries which have not been properly cleaned.

Regularly Check your AC, Pipes, and Sinks

You should check your pipes and sinks regularly to make sure there are no leaks. You can also check air conditioning units and anything else that may create moisture in the home or office space you work in, which will attract ants.

Close the Windows and Doors

Seal up your windows and doors this spring to keep out more than just ants. Remember that it’s tough during warm weather, especially with kids running around all day long! Try keeping them closed as much as possible while still letting your kids enjoy their playtime outside.

What Are The Fastest Ways To Get Rid Of Ants?

Controlling ants is a challenge, but it can be overcome with some thoughtful preparation. One of the most critical steps in controlling these pests from raiding your home and kitchen items is proper food storage procedures such as taping closed boxes or bags containing perishable goods like cookies before putting them away for long periods.

The best way to keep ants from raiding your pantry is by purchasing airtight containers. Lids should lock tightly, preventing scavengers from gaining access and providing a haven for bugs scavenging on the outside like they always do! After every use, wash off all residue with hot water or bleach (start light). This will ensure that there’s nothing left behind that the ants could be used as food sources.

Do Over-The-Counter Ant Repellents Work?

Ant control products like those found at your local hardware store come in many forms. However, it’s important to remember these substances may be harmful if the product label directions are not followed and will only solve a small portion of your ant invasion.

Sprays only work on the ants you can see; they function only as a deterrent because they pose no residual effects capable of providing a lasting solution to your ant problem. If the ants can enter your building, the spray will not hinder what they can do. Again, remember that the spray doesn’t affect the colonies outside of your house. Therefore, so long as the colonies are still intact, the supply of ants is unlimited.

If you find a colony of ants in your home, it’s essential to take steps before they multiply. Most ant treatments only work if applied directly on the colonies, so there is no easy way for the average homeowner to get rid of them without professional help from an expert pest control company. Pest Aid can help you eliminate the ant colonies in your house and give you a permanent solution to your ant invasion problem.

Why Do Some Ant Colonies Survive After Treatment?

Ant colonies can survive if the pest treatment was not properly administered. Again, the colonies may survive just because the queen survives. You have to know that ant problems do not start in your home; instead, they start in the nest, and you only notice them when they invade your home.

Some people believe that the more ants they see, the more the chances of breeding, but that is not true. The only ant that breeds is the queen mother. As long as she wasn’t killed during the ant treatment process, she can produce more than enough ants to invade your home because the more she makes them, the more they look for food, and your kitchen and other parts of your house will be their closest choice.

To make the matter worse, the queen never leaves the ant nest after establishing her colony, so there is no chance that she will be killed with other ants in the kitchen or other places in your house.

She brings worker ants from the colony to feed her young, which she populates constantly. The workers you see in your house are nothing more than those created by this clever ant queen; other types exist too, like soldiers and drones for protecting their territory or mate-seeking missions outside of it, even if they’re not at home! It’s impossible to get rid of an entire ant nest without killing the ant that is the source of other ants, and that is the queen herself.

This is why you need the services of a reputable ant control company, who have the experience not just to get rid of your house of ants. Still, they also go the extra mile of detecting the colonies of these ants near you, destroying the them, and making sure the queen mother is not there to revive the ant population.

You May Need Help To Get Rid Of Ants

Getting rid of ants by oneself can be a huge challenge. If you have tried all you can to get rid of them and they are still appearing, it is better to consult an expert. There are many companies around who specialise in getting rid of ants.

You may have to consult them to help you in eliminating ants completely from your house. They will carry out a proper inspection to identify the source of the ants which is the colonies, destroy these colonies and eliminate the queen mother, thereby ensuring that no new ants are introduced into your home.