Ways to Control Ants in Your Home.

Reasons for the appearance of ants

To get rid of ants in an apartment once and for all, the first thing you need to do is understand where they came from, if possible, destroying the root cause. So, there are several options for the appearance of ants in an apartment:

• From the basement. Pharaoh ants or so-called house ants are not adapted to life in the wild. Colonies live in damp, poorly ventilated basements, from where worker ants get into apartments in search of food. Recently, red ants have become very fond of settling in new buildings, so residents of new houses have no fewer problems with insects than owners of old housing.
• From neighbors. There are many reasons why an ant family settled in the neighbors’ place, but there are only 2 reasons why the pests decided to move. Either they had nothing to eat in their old place, or the residents of the neighboring apartment began to actively fight the ants.
• From the street. The story is more likely to concern private houses or residents of the first floors of apartment buildings. Thief ants, unlike pharaoh ants, do not live in buildings, but they prefer not to go far. Thieves build nests near human habitats, make paths to kitchens in search of food.

Important! If the apartment is above the first floor, be vigilant: flying individuals can fly in through an open window. The wings of thief ants appear closer to autumn, it is at this time that you should carefully check whether insects have appeared in the apartment.

• From the store. Sometimes we bring ants into our homes ourselves: on clothes, shoes, food products. Most often, these are single individuals of street species – they do not pose a danger, but you can also bring pharaoh eggs in a grocery bag.
• With a pet. A cat or dog is a “taxi” in which ants can enter the apartment. It is advisable to wash animals, examine them after each walk, and better yet, treat them with special drops or put on collars that repel insects.

Important! Most often, house ants appear in apartments where they have something to eat. Check if you leave food on the dining table or countertop, close the trash can, and thoroughly clean the kitchen after cooking?

Signs of the presence of ants

The main problem with ants is their tiny size. Firstly, they penetrate into the smallest cracks and hard-to-reach places. Secondly, it is quite difficult to detect an individual – it is not a cockroach, which can be seen from afar.

The only indirect sign of the presence of insects is cobwebs in closed bags with food, which could also be left by moths.

When the anthill has reached an impressive size, small translucent ants become clearly visible: they penetrate into jars, bags of food, make paths to the feeding place, often go out to “hunt” as a whole colony.

But what to do when the cluster is not yet visible, but you saw individual individuals 1-2 times, now you doubt whether there are any Are there ants in your house or not? Conduct an experiment: place pieces of sugar or napkins with honey in the kitchen and bathroom (the ants’ favorite habitats) and leave them for 24 hours. In an apartment where there are ants, you will be able to see individuals on the bait.

Important! You should check the traps during the day – at night, worker ants crawl back to the nest.

What are they dangerous for?

Black forest ants have a reputation for being hard-working insects that do no harm. With domestic ones, the situation is different: they are real parasites that should never be left at home.

Pests not only cause moral discomfort, but also:

• carry bacteria on their paws – from safe to pathogenic, infecting food products with them;
• hide food supplies that can become moldy or covered with fungus – as a result, they harm the health of residents;
• throw garbage from the anthill anywhere in the house, including in cabinets, on tables;
• penetrate electrical appliances, disrupting their operation or causing a short circuit.

After all, ants can bite! An adult may not notice this, but an allergic reaction will immediately form on delicate baby skin – itching, redness.

How to find a nest?

To get rid of ants from your home, it is not enough to simply destroy the visible workers. The greatest danger is posed by the queen, which gives birth to new individuals. As is known, she lives in a nest: but how can you find it?

The red ant queen lives for 1-1.5 years, during which time she lays almost 5,000 eggs (up to 35 per day!) – and there can be several queens in an anthill! New inhabitants of the anthill develop in 40-45 days. Workers live up to 2 months, males – about 3 weeks. As you can see, simply killing visible ants will not fix the situation – you need to destroy the producer, that is, the queen.

The ants themselves will tell you where they live: be patient, just watch them. Workers do not get food for themselves, they feed the entire anthill – which means they will definitely carry the prey back home. All you have to do is watch their movements: as a result, you will definitely find the desired “treasure”.

Important! Ants are quite timid – do not kill individuals during surveillance, otherwise the survivors will simply run away in different directions.

Most likely, you will not see open access to the anthill – ant houses are usually located in closed places. Therefore, do not use physical methods to get rid of them – by hitting the surface, you will simply stir up the nest, the insects will run away, complicating an already difficult task. Instead, choose an effective remedy (read the review below), carry out thorough treatment.

How to get rid of them?

It’s high time to learn the basic methods of dealing with ants. To get rid of unwanted guests, you can use folk remedies or resort to heavy artillery – poisonous insecticides.

Look at other ways to fight insects in the kitchen.

Folk methods

Boric acid

This remedy for ants literally destroys the colony from the inside: boric acid destroys the digestive system of insects. And you will not have to do almost anything to “feed” all the inhabitants of the nest with it.

Take some water, sugar (honey, jam – any sweet), add boric acid. Place containers with the mixture around the apartment, just wait – the worker ants will take the “treat” to the queen with larvae, soon all the inhabitants will die.

Advice! Instead of sugar water, yolk or puree will do – ants also love these treats. And boric acid can be replaced with borax or yeast.

Vinegar

Probably, you won’t find a more inexpensive and multifunctional remedy at home. The essence of using vinegar essence is in its pungent smell, which interrupts any other aromas. Including the elusive smell of pheromones, which ants mark paths with.

What you need to do: dilute vinegar in water, pour the solution into a spray bottle. Spray all the paths – this will throw the ants off the trail.

Unfortunately, the effectiveness of this measure is not high – because vinegar only confuses the insects, but does not destroy them.

Ammonia

A product that works on the same principle as vinegar. The application is the same: you need to dilute it with water, treat all the surfaces on which the ants walk.

Essential oil

As you already understand, insects do not like strong smells. Peppermint, lavender, cinnamon, pine, and clove oils will come to the rescue. All you need is to drop a few drops of oil on cotton balls or pads, place them in the ants’ favorite places. An insect repellent without chemicals is ready!

Advice! You can also lay out dried or fresh branches of plants: lavender, wormwood, spruce.

Garlic

Another product known for its bright aroma. The rules are the same – ants cannot stand such strong smells, so they will not go on a path smeared with a head of garlic.

In addition to using it for grating, garlic can be grown in a pot or kept in a braid of several heads in the open kitchen. But this method is not suitable for those who do not like the aroma of this vegetable.

Important! The garlic smell is strong, but it disappears quickly, so apply its juice regularly (up to 2-3 times a day).

Professional

Most folk remedies will simply scare away insects, but to get rid of them for sure, you need something more reliable. For example, chemicals. In the wide range of release options, the most suitable is an aerosol: unlike the same pencil or powder, microparticles of the spray can penetrate into the most secluded corners, affecting hidden individuals, inhabitants of secret nests.

TOP-3 aerosols:

1. Raptor. Shake the can, spray on the ants’ favorite places, closed anthills. Carefully go over the baseboards, corners, joints. Also available in the form of a gel, which can be used to “feed” the voracious insects.
2. Raid. Another insecticide based on cypermethrin. Acts instantly. The manufacturer recommends spraying in hard-to-reach places, in areas of accumulation: for example, near a trash can or in a cabinet with supplies.
3. Clean House. A universal product for crawling, flying inhabitants of houses. In addition to universal access, it has another important advantage – it is absolutely odorless, so it is suitable for allergy sufferers or people prone to reactions to odors.

Important! When using professional products, including odorless ones, the surfaces inside and outside, dishes, objects after the end of the treatment will have to be thoroughly washed. And dispose of any products that the aerosol has come into contact with.

Don’t want to do a thorough wet cleaning after the procedure? Use other means to combat ants. For example, traps, gels, baits. The listed variations work on the same principle: poison is added to the “edible” treat for insects, after which the ants die within 12-24 hours.

Advice! In houses with children and animals, it is better to use hidden traps, in which the poison is securely hidden under a special grate.

Have you studied all the open materials, tried all the methods, but nothing helps, and you no longer have the strength to endure the dominance of ants? Contact a special service that provides pest control services. Professionals will effectively destroy all visible and invisible insects.

Prevention

Prevention is always better than cure – so to prevent ants from settling in your apartment or returning after difficult disposal, follow these simple rules:

• Wash dishes immediately after cooking or eating. Or, at a minimum, put it in a tightly closed dishwasher.
• Do not store leftovers or supplies in the open – use special containers with tight lids, put plates with food in the refrigerator.
• Regularly carry out wet cleaning, washing all the corners, the insides of the cabinets. Ants do not start in a clean kitchen.
• Take out the trash daily, wash the trash can more often so that the insects have nothing to feast on.
• Place traps in boxes with food supplies, loved by ants living in the apartment.
• Wipe the floors with ammonia or scented store-bought products.
• If you know that red pests live in your neighbors or in the basement of the house, treat the ventilation holes with crayons or pencils.

Getting rid of small red ants is not easy, but when you finally find the pests in your home, don’t hesitate: choose one of the above methods and get to work.