Find Out How Ants Enter Your Home and Know Various Ways to Get Rid of Ants and Prevent Future Infestation

From where do ants enter the house? Millions of homeowners keep wondering as to how ants suddenly appear in homes. It looks like they appear in different areas of the home out of nowhere. Though ants are also a part of the ecosystem, you don’t want them crawling around in your house.

If you are a homeowner, you would definitely like to broaden your knowledge on how ants get into the house. Most importantly, you want to know how to stop those ants that appear all of a sudden. There are different ways in which ants can enter your house. Once some ants enter, their number continues to increase – unless you get rid of that housekeeping mistake. If you understand why ants enter a home, you can prepare yourself to stop them and get rid of them. Below, we’ll discuss ants infestation as well as the treatments in detail. Read on.

What Attracts Ants inside the House

When ants start their search for food, their search can lead them almost anywhere. Ants hunt for a wide variety of foods. But they have a special fondness for sugary and sweet stuff. Since homeowners also have various kinds of sweet substances inside the house, ants are easily attracted.

Whether it is a few grains of sugar, a small spillage of juice, or tiny crumbs of cake or other sweet stuff, it can attract ants. In fact, ants will be attracted to all kinds of sweet substances – even if that substance doesn’t contain a lot of sugar. When searching for food, the worker ants go to different areas of the home. Once some ants find a source of food on the countertop, the sink, or any other place in the home, they return leaving a scent trail. Other ants from the colony of ants use this scent trail to get to the recently discovered source of food. So, if you just caught sight of a few ants in the home, you can expect many more are coming in.

How Do Ants Enter the House?

Ants are tiny creatures, and so they can easily pass through tiny gaps. You will hardly notice where they enter the house. You’ll only know when you see them crawling in different areas of the home.

Here are some places where ants can enter your home:

Cracks in Walls:

A large number of homes aren’t fully sealed. This means cracks can be found in walls, doors, and windows among others. Particularly, the corners and the places where the walls join the ceilings have gaps through which ants can easily make their way into the house. Ants can also enter the house through tiny holes that the house may have in different areas.

Gaps in Floors:

Ants can also appear in the house from under the floor covering. If you have flooring of planks of plywood, the floors are likely to have tiny gaps through which cants can come in.

Windows:

In a house, windows offer great relief as they allow the sunlight and fresh air to come inside. If ants have a colony outside close to the window, they can easily use the open windows for entering inside. Many window frames have tiny gaps in them. Ants can also use these gaps to get into the house. So, even when you keep the windows closed, the small gaps in the window frames will provide easy access to ants from outside the house.

Doors:

Ants can also enter the house through the doors. If your doors aren’t properly sealed and have gaps along the sides or the bottom, these gaps are large enough for tiny ants to enter. Also, unused doors get cracks in them over time and this allows ants to easily enter the house.

Little Holes in the House:

Holes are created for electricity, plumbing, and gas lines to enter. If these holes are not properly sealed afterward, they can provide access to ants from the outside of the house. It is not just ants, but different types of pests and insects that can enter the house via these holes.

Toys and Plants:

Ants don’t enter your home only through cracks, gaps, and holes. There are many other ways that ants find their way into the house. A quick example is a toy that you left in the yard for a season. You never know if that toy became a host to an ants colony. As you bring the toy inside, you bring an entire colony of ants into your home. Likewise, there can be plants or stuff or other articles that you bring inside that could be the source of ants into your house.

Most houses have cracks and gaps due to poor sealing. You won’t know about these unless you spot some ants and follow them to find out where they are coming from. Doors, windows, foundation, floors, corners, and many other areas in the house give access to ants if they are not properly sealed. Ants can also build nests in different areas of your home. Usually, it is moist places or rotten wood where ants build nests. If you have nests inside the house, you’ll see a frequent infestation of ants. Though most species of ants are harmless to humans and not generally dirty, they can cause damage to foundations and other assets.

For a detailed explanation of the infestation of ants and various species of ants, feel free to get in touch with Activated Pest Solutions Inc. The pest control service is available in and around Menifee, California.

How to Get Rid of Ants

It is annoying to see ants in the home, kitchen, or bathroom. Ants entering your home may carry unwanted bacteria. Ants can damage wooden structures by burrowing through them. If you notice ants in any area of your home, you should try to stop them as soon as you can. There are many tips and techniques that you can use to stop ants from entering the house and get rid of them.

Take Note of Ant Trails:

Where are the ants coming from? Observe the movements of the ants in your home. Follow their trails to find out the direction and source from where they are entering your home. Once the worker ant finds some food material, they go back to the nest leaving a scent trail behind. Soon, other ants pick the trail and reach the place to gather more food.

Bait the Ants:

Many homeowners will apply pesticides over the ants as they crawl along a surface. But doing this will not help much. You don’t just want to get rid of the ants that you see marching. What you really need to do is fool the ants so that they can carry poisonous food material to their nest. That’s exactly where the use of ant baits comes into play. Ant baits look like edible materials. They are usually sweet and sugary, but actually, they contain toxic substances. Don’t worry about the toxicity of ant baits. They are slightly toxic and non-harmful to humans. However, you should keep them out of reach of kids and pets.

Wait for Few Days:

You need to give it a couple of days so that ants can take the ant bait back to their nest. The waiting period depends on where the colony is located and how large it is. If the ant baits that you first put there are all taken away, you may need to place some more. It can take from a few days to a few weeks to destroy the entire colony of ants so that there’s no future infestation.

Drench the Nest with Pesticides:

You’ll be able to apply a heavy dose of pesticides to the ants’ nest, only if you can find the nest. If the ants are entering your home from outside, the nest is most probably located outside. Finding the nest is a tough job for most homeowners. You need to closely follow the ant trails to find out the location of the nest of the ants. If you succeed in finding it, you should soak the entire nest in pesticides to get rid of all the ants at once.

Tidy Up:

Sanitation is essential to prevent the infestation of ants. If you want to stop ants from getting into your home, you need to keep the countertops, floors, and other frequently used surfaces clean. Make sure to keep sweet stuff and food items properly sealed at all times. Make it a point that you don’t leave food crumbs and spillage of sugary liquid on the surface.

Seal Entry Points:

If you observe the movements of ants closely, you’ll be able to find their entry points. Ants usually get into the house through minute cracks and gaps. If you plan to get rid of ants as well as avoid future infestation of ants, you need to find the entry points and seal them properly. Look for cracks and gaps along with the doors, windows. Also, properly seal the holes from where electricity, cable, water, and gas cables enter your house. Leakage in water pipes and dripping faucets also need to be fixed quickly, because moisture helps ants thrive. Just like ants search for food to eat, they also look for water.

Though infestation of ants can happen due to various reasons, there are multiple tools and tips that you can use to control and get rid of these invaders. To get rid of ants, you can also use a protective barrier around the perimeter of your house. If the infestation is too much to handle for you or you want to prevent future infestation, you should seek the help of extermination experts.

Do You Have Ants in Your Home?

Have ants appeared in your home out of nowhere? Do you have more questions in regard to ants’ infestation and ways to control it?

If you are worried about the recent infestation of ants and all your efforts to figure out where they are coming from have failed, Get in touch with Activated Pest Solutions Inc now. Located in places like Temecula, Hemet, San Jacinto, Murrieta, or Menifee Menifee, CA, we offer extremely effective extermination services for both residential as well as commercial clients. We have a proven track record of fast and reliable pest control. Our team of extermination experts is waiting to answer your questions and solve your problems as well as equip you with valuable tips.

Give our office a quick call or send us an email with your specific requirements for your free consultation and a free quote. We can come up with customized pest control solutions for every situation. Keep your homes and apartments free from ants all year round and have complete peace of mind.