When ants come marching into your home you need to be ready to do some fancy footwork of your own to get them out. Not only do you need to know where they came from,you need to know what they are searching for too. Follow these tips for finding out where the ants are coming from, what hidden food sources you may be providing to them and how to get rid of them for good.
Like other insects, ants can find their way into your home through cracks and crevices around windows and doors, through a tiny hole in a window screen or around unsealed areas of foundation. Basically, ants can, and will, crawl through any ant-sized hole to make their way into your home.
1. Begin by checking for obvious areas where ants can enter you home.
2. Observe the ants and watch where their trail leads. You can often observe a steady stream of ants as the enter and leave your home.
Finding the entrance ants are using is important, but don't seal it yet! You'll want to give them time to carry bait back to their nest before sealing off the entrance hole against future invasions.
Ants come inside the home to for age for food or to seek water. The kind of food they seek depends on the type of ant. Ants can be divided into two basic groups according to their feeding habits.
Some antswill eat either grease/protein or sweets. All ants seek water.
The firstline of defense in getting rid of ants is to remove their food source andeliminate sources of water. Here's what you need to do.
Now that you have eliminated food sources for the ants, it is time to get to work to kill those that remain or that return to your home and kitchen. The best ant killers for the kitchen are those that don't pose a risk of contaminating your food and don't pose a health risk to small children and pets. One of the best remedies is boric acid. It is non toxic to people and pets but can wipe out the whole colony of ants within a few days. It works best when mixed into a food source as the ants consume the food and boric acid (found in the laundryaisle) and carry it back to their nest where it kills the ants. How you offer boric acid depends on the type of ants in your home and kitchen.
If you are not sure if you have sugars ants or grease ants, go ahead and make a boric acid mixture with both peanut butter and honey. Remember, even though boric acid is non toxic doesn't mean you should be lax about where you place it. Place the mixture out of the reach of small children and pets.
You should see a drastic decrease or halt to to the parade of ants within a few days. Now is the time to seal up the entrance hole and make sure ants cannot return to your home.