We get it. Ants keep appearing in your house, and you don’t know what to do about it. In Overland Park, and cities all over, ants are some of the most common pests dealt with by tenants, homeowners, and pest control professionals- so it’s no surprise that you’ve suddenly found yourself with an infestation.
How did I not notice this happening? You might be thinking. How have I suddenly gone from having an ant-free home to my home becoming an ants’ nest?
Well, the answer is: pretty easily. Since ants can live in most places: backyards, balconies, patios, terraces, amongst shrubbery, and even in cracks and hollows in the wall or the foundations of your home, they’re often near, if not already on or in your home, and since they live in colonies, if you have a few, you’re likely to have many.
If you leave your doors open often to let fresh air in, or have cracks or holes in your walls/foundation that are large enough for an ant colony to use, chances are they’ll use these to enter your home- especially if you give them a reason to.
Why do ants suddenly appear?
You might be thinking am I doing something wrong? It’s a common question residents of Overland Park ask when dealing with an ant problem. If you’ve acquired a sudden infestation of ants in your home (and this isn’t the first time), it’s highly likely that you’re doing things that are making your home attractive to the little critters, such as leaving food out, not storing food in cupboards, and not cleaning up crumbs and spillages in a timely manner- especially spillages with a high sugar content, such as in fruit juices and fizzy drinks.
Otherwise, it might be that your home is easily accessible to ants, for example, if your house’s foundation or brickwork has holes. Here is a great article to help you know if you have a crack in your foundation.
Moreover, ants hibernate in winter, so a change in season could increase the likelihood of your home receiving a hoard of unwanted visitors- particularly in the spring and summer, since ants thrive in mild to warm conditions.
If you are unlucky, ants may not just come into your home but have started building nests inside in preparation for the winter months.
Most ants, however, generally are coming from the outside and are only coming in to find food and bring it back to their queen.
How do ants Enter your home?
Now that you know why they appear, you need to identify how they enter your home. You can prevent ants from your home by making a few home repairs and may not need to worry about ant traps at all unless you already have an ant infestation.
Here are five ways ants enter your home.
- Cracks in your foundation
- Windows that are not adequately sealed
- Under your door or spaces between the door and the frame
- Utility Lines and pipes that enter your home
- Toys and Furniture that may have been left outside for a while
If you haven’t sealing your door from pests is a great place to start. From there, we recommend looking around the foundation, especially if you are in an older home.
How do I get rid of the ants in my home?
There are a few DIY tricks you can try, such as using ant bait-style products to lure the ants into the trap which you can then dispose of. However, a lot of the time, you won’t catch every ant, and these traps can also be hit and miss- in some cases they may work, but it’s not a guarantee.
Because it’s tricky to solve the complete extent of your ant problem on your own, it’s always best to call professional pest control from the outset. Thanks to years of experience carrying out ant control- as one of the most common pests in Overland Park –they’ll be able to exterminate your ant problem, and provide you with advice on what you can do yourself to reclaim an ant-free home.
What ways are there to stop ants coming into your home?
Once you’ve taken care of your current infestation, and the pest control professionals have paid a visit to your home, they can carry out an assessment to figure out where your ant visitors have gained access to your home, and help you to advise you on sealing these entrances: this can include caulking cracks in the walls, or securing your wiring to ensure there are no ant-sized gaps.
Apart from this, you should always make sure to store your food properly: in sealed containers, in the cupboard, since the smell of food can attract ants and encourage them to make the trip into your home. More than this, always ensure that any spillages or dropped food are cleaned up in a timely manner, because, if left, these tasty accidents will end up serving a whole colony of ants within your home. A pro tip to deter ants even further, is if you make sure to clean up spillages with a lemon-scented or vinegar based solution, since this scent masks the delicious sugary scent of the dropped food, and is a natural bug repellent.
Below are some air tight storage containers we recommend to keep ants out of your pantry.
So, if you want to be rid of ants from your home for good, take all the precautionary measures you can to make your home less attractive to the critters, and call us to get ant control in Overland Park. We won’t just get rid of your ant infestation, we will help you come up with a personal pest control plan that works for you.
