Tips For Keeping Ants Out Of Your Home

Ants and other insects can be a problem in your home during the warmer months of the year. Keeping them out is not as hard as you might think. Here are a few things to consider when it comes to keeping the ant on the outside of your home. 

Keep Food Put Away

One of the most important things you can do to keep ants at bay is to make sure you are putting away food items and sweeping up crumbs from areas as soon as you notice them. The ant is attracted to the food and if a few scouts find food accessible, they will return to the colony and bring back many more ants to try and carry back as much food as they can. If there is nothing for them to find, they will move on and find food somewhere else.

Dry Up Moist Areas

Many homes have areas in them that have moisture problems. The moisture draws the ants to the home and they make colonies or sub-colonies in them. Look for areas in the bathroom around drains, sinks, showers, and fixtures that do not dry completely and get those leaks stopped so that you don't have areas for the nats to nest. You may need to hire a plumber to come and replaces seals or leaking pipes to get rid of the moisture and you may find that some of the wood that is wet needs replacing as well. 

Provide Food Outside

One option to keeping the ants outside of your home is to provide them with other options. Some plants offer natural food sources and others are home to aphids, which produce honeydew as a waste product. The ants are drawn to this sweet by-product of the aphids and will stop at the plant the honeydew is on. They don't have a reason to come into the house because they have all the food they need available without having to find a way into the home to search.

Ant Baits

If the ants do get into the home and you are having trouble getting rid of them, placing ant removal bait out will attract more ants, but they will take the bait back to the colony where it will be fed to the rest of the colony, killing all of the ants. Even the larvae eat food with the bait in it, so the bait is a good way to kill all the ants if you can deal with the volume of ants coming to the bait for a few days or until the bait kills them all.