When your home is not maintained properly, be prepared for ants in your home. It can be either a simple visit or a real ant infestation; in any case, the various ants do not threaten your health but their presence remains very annoying.
How do you know that your house is prone to an ant infestation? How to avoid them? How to eradicate them? We will discuss these issues in this article.
Recognize an ant infestation:
The season
The presence of these insects in your home in winter indicates an ant infestation, since they are supposed to be hidden under the ground… On the other hand, if it is summer, they are probably just passing through.
The number
It is difficult to count them. Just try to kill the few you find; if you see others afterwards, suspect an invasion.
Type of ants
If they are winged ants, the infestation is very likely.
Where to look for ants?
Ants (especially pavement ants) are small insects constantly in search of food. Search every corner of your kitchen and watch out for contaminated food.
There is a particular type of ant: these are the carpenter ants which are a bit larger in size than other types. Carpenter ants inhabit damp wood and damage it over time. So it is also worth looking in the cracks of your doors and walls to find them: they help you to know that your house needs maintenance!
Avoid an ant infestation
Prevention is the easiest and least expensive way to avoid the mess of a possible ant infestation. Here’s what you can do:
What to do in the face of an ant infestation?
Once you are sure of an ant infestation, search the nest to eradicate it once and for all. There are two possibilities:
Either the nest is outside
You can try to drown it in soapy water daily, or attack it with an ant-specific insecticide.
Either the nid is inside
Here it is more difficult to find as well as to eradicate, but you can place traps around the nest and let the ants die as you go, as you can use liquid or powdered poisonous substances purchased from Hardware stores. We do not recommend the use of these substances, as they can harm your health.
On the other hand, it is imperative to renew the material infested by ants (it is often wood). It is also advisable to treat all humidity problems in your home, as these will soon attract other infestations.
Finally, if you find that the ant infestation is too large or if your methods are not working, especially for carpenter ants, it is absolutely necessary to contact a company specialized in the eradication of ants.
Our professional exterminators offer guaranteed service!