Spring and summer season is just about everyone’s welcome change. The weather starts to get warmer, we get to do more outdoor activities and of course, nature begins to turn green again. The one major downside to this wonderful time of year is that it puts the pests back out to create new issues for pest control. The ant is one of the more alarming and irritating common household pests in the South. Throughout the late spring and early summer, these opponents begin to build their mounds and begin searching for food, and if we are not vigilant, they may start living in our houses.
Luckily, there are plenty of easy and effective methods to deter ants from invading your home, only obey these quick tips and you can enjoy a household free of insects.
Be aware of the scout ants
One of the first signs of ants is scout ants making their way into your house. Such rebel ants take their name “scout” very seriously and all their task is to find food sources for the colony. When you find one of these ants in your kitchen or other living areas scouring around, it’s a definite sign that you may have more ants moving in. When you come in contact with scout ants in this post, it is a strong sign that you need to take action with the remaining measures.
Keep the surface clean and dry
What is the one thing, without which no organism can live? Of course food! While you need to eat with your mates, that doesn’t mean you need to leave proof of your meals around the room, because this is precisely what ants are searching for! The most important thing you can do to deter insects from entering your home is to ensure that you keep it clean and to ensure all food items are washed up and stored in sealed containers.
Clean the dirty dishes on time
Vacuum regularly
Keep your floor clean
Following a major tasty meal, the last thing we want to do is get up and continue cleaning, but that’s just what needs to be done! Leftover food and dirty dishes left throughout the house are readily enticing to ants and can become an insect trap if not timely picked up.
Store food in sealed boxes only
As for most common household pests, holding food for humans and pets alike in locked, airtight containers is important. Restricting exposure to food sources ensures that ants cannot obtain entry which may drive away any other pests that could concurrently look for a food source.
Seal cracks of your home
It’s time to start stopping insects from entering your home once you’ve finished extracting food items and preventing access to them. Function as your own guide, and look for places within and around your home that might be possible ants entrances. Sealing holes around windows and doors and with caulking the base of your house will remove many of the visible openings for insects to use. With exposure to the elements, these sealants can degrade over time, so it’s best to keep an eye on them and reapply if required.
Get rid of ant trails
If you have established an ant problem already, it is important to identify where they come from and remove their tracks in order to prevent them from continuing to enter your house. Simply applying a vinegar/water combination along the ant trail’s length can confuse the ants and cause them to find a new way to their food source. Ants leave scent tracks for other ants to track, and you’ll probably find somewhere you’ve followed one path. When you spray ant tracks, it is important to keep an eye out for departures from that path to other locations in your house, and also to spray them down.
Ant baits
If you’ve seen scout ants in your house, it’s a good idea to start setting bait traps in the places that scouts are seeing. While baits can potentially draw more ants, the ants can take the poisonous baits back to the colony and may help eliminate the colony itself, not just a few ants who find their way into your house.
Control the growth of ant colonies
When you encounter ants in the house, then you will surely find a colony (or several colonies) outside your house. You also need to make efforts to control insects in your yard to be able to control them in your house. When you find mounds that form around your house, take action and apply exterminating products to the colony itself and the region around the colony immediately. The correct cleaning out of these colonies would eradicate the whole community and prevent it from spreading out and creating a new habitat elsewhere.
Spray an ant barrier all across
Proper application of an ant barrier (insecticide) around the edge of the base of your house can help steer scouts away from home, stopping ants from reaching for food. Although products are available from local hardware stores that can aid, this is best left to specialist pest control businesses, as they have tools that are more reliable than those commercially available.
Now as you are well aware of the steps that can help keep those ants away from entering your home, you must follow them and enjoy a safe place to live in.
Author Profile
Vaishali Sonik is one of the passionate writers who have an interest in spreading the word across the web about different niches. With her being active as a pro writer, she found that it is a good idea to educate people about keeping their home, office, building, and more healthy. If you are looking for more tips on how to keep your home pest-free and healthy you can also check this.