How to Get Rid of Ants Inside Home

Ants are one of the most common backyard pests. The best tactic of getting rid of the ants is getting rid of their homes. Finding the home of ants is pretty easy, and you should not take long before you spot that ant hill or nest. Once the queen is mated, an ant hill will start sprouting. The "expectant" queen needs to find a new home, settle down as fast as possible and concentrate on raising her "kids." The queen ends up digging and digging and digging until she creates a safe and subterranean chamber safe for laying eggs and living out her life. Check out our best ways of destroying that ant hill that interferes with the beauty of your backyard.

Table of Contents

• Why do I have ants in my house?
• The top 2 reasons why you have ants manifestation
  • Where do ants come from?
  • Why do I have ants in my bathroom?
  • How to get rid of ants from your bathroom
• The top 9 tips for preventing/removing ants from your house
  • The Best Products to Eliminate Ants Quickly

Why do I have ants in my house?

One of the reasons why you have ants in your house may be the existence of the queen ant in your house. Every chamber of ants has one queen whose job is to eat and reproduce.

The Ant Queen never leaves the ant nest.

The rest of the ant population is composed of few male ants to facilitate the reproduction process, and the majorities are female ant workers. The queen ant attracts the male ants and the female workers.

The top 2 reasons why you have ants manifestation

There are several reasons why your house is experiencing a surge of an ant infestation:

• Food Supply

  Some of the foods that entice ants to your home include the different types of sweet food, pet food and crumbs. When you leave these foods lying around your house they become great targets for ants. Some of the ants are extremely effective when it comes to detecting sweet foods. Always keep your food in tightly closed containers. You can keep the foods in refrigerators with high cabinets and good seal. Make a point of sealing all the cracks and openings on your wall.

  Ants pose a health risk.

• The Existence of an Ant Nest
  Another reason why your house is infested by ants is the presence of ant nests in your house or the immediate surroundings of your home. The existences of wooden fixtures that are saturated by water from different leaking points in the home are targets for ants.

Where do ants come from?

The most common type of ants that dwell in your home includes carpenter ants, pavement ants, thief ants and odorous house ants.

Let us have a look at the point of origin of each of the ants:

• Pavements ants tend to come in from under concrete slabs or your porches. If they invade your house, they will most likely end up in your pantry. The pavement ants take residence in wall cracks and under floor boards.
• Odorous house ants invade most homes during the rainy season. They travel in trails looking for grease, sweets, and meat. They tend to release a rotten odor whenever they are smashed.
• The thief ants are commonly referred to as grease ants. They raid your house in search of high-protein foods such as meat.

Why do I have ants in my bathroom?

Your bathroom is a common habitat for ants. They are usually attracted to the chemical odors and different scents coming from your drains. If you have not used your drain for quite some time, it will contain stagnant water and traces of fermented human hair.

Moisture attract Ants to your Bathroom
Moist areas attract ants and the freestanding water in your bathroom provides the moist environment. The ants may be attracted to your bathroom on their way to finding food.

Whenever the ants find food they ferry it back to their colony in a line comprising of thousands of ants. If you follow the line of the ants keenly, you will discover the indoor nest or the pathway they are using to gain access to your house.

If the ants are migrating from the outside, caulk up the cracks that they are using to gain access to your house. Then wash the ants away with soap and water. By washing them away, you disrupt the chemical trail that the ants follow to food and water sources. Alternatively, you may purchase the best ant killer and spray the ants.

How to get rid of ants from your bathroom

So what measure should you take to eliminate the ants from your bathroom?

• Fix all your plumbing issues
  Stagnating water mostly occur as a result of dripping pipes and faucet. Keep in mind that ants also have the ability to drink directly from a leaking water pipe.
• Dehumidify Your Bathroom
  You can choose to install an exhaust in your bathroom or be sure to open the bathroom window when you take a shower. By doing so, you release all the steam as you shower hence keeping the bathroom dryer. Do this often.
• Get rid of stagnant water
  Freestanding water moistures your bathroom further. Secondly, you sink, and tub and sink can accumulate water. You should make a point of draining the sink after use. Check the drains frequently make an effort of keeping the bathroom floor dry either using a washable rag or through any other means.
• Replace all loose or cracked tiles
  When tiles become loose or crack, they end up creating a space between the concrete and the porcelain. This is a good place where ants can linger.

If your bathroom has already been infested by ants, you can use TERRO T300 ant killer to get rid of them.

The top 9 tips for preventing/removing ants from your house

The ants you notice trailing your kitchen or bathroom are worker ants looking for food to take back to the ant queen sitting somewhere in a nest. Once they find the food, they carry it back to the nest, and they make sure that they have left behind a trail for other worker ants to follow to the food source.

Do not bother about the worker ants, go for the queen
The queen never leaves the nest, and it produces baby ants continuously. It is the responsibility of the worker bees to feed the queen ant. Killing the worker ants will not help in solving the problem.

The most efficient way of getting rid of the ants is by locating their nest and destroying the queen. You may use a homemade ant killer to get rid of the ant queen.

Below are some great tips that you can follow to get rid of ants from your home:

1. Begin by watching the trailing ants
   Although it may sound ridiculous, the first step towards controlling ants is through watching them to discover their point of origin and where they are headed to. An ant will look for food, and once it finds it, it returns to the nest with the crumb leaving behind a trail for fellow worker ants to help in gathering the food for the queen.
2. Make sure that you comprehend everything about the ant colony and its queen
   As noted above, destroying the worker ants will not help you anything. To get rid of the problem, you need to start by eliminating the ones you can't see before destroying the ants that you see. The queen never leaves the ant nest. Her work is to lay eggs and look after the young ants. Spraying the ants that you see is not a solution to your problem.
3. Do not spray the ants that you see
   As discussed above, whatever you are seeing are worker ants. The queen is sitting somewhere with young ants waiting for the worker ants to bring in food. The worker ants should serve as guidance to the ant colony. If you spray and kill the worker ants, the queen shall simply send out others making it a game. If you spray the worker ants, you will never reach the queen.
4. Set out an ant bait
   Instead of killing the worker ants, use them find the queen. Following all the directions you identified from tip one, place ant bait along the trail you identified.
   
5. Avoid cleaning the kitchen for sometime
   Although cleanliness is a great way of preventing ants, once they invade your kitchen, you can use the food sources to destroy them. Do not mop the ant's odor trail away. The trail should lead the ants to your bait. This way you will effectively eliminate these ants.
6. Remain calm and be patient
   Once the worker ants have carried the insecticide to the nest, it may take several days before the whole colony is destroyed. In some cases, it may take several weeks if the colony had several queens. Additionally, you should consider replacing the bait station if the ants empty the food or liquid bait.
7. Cleanliness is fundamental
   Keeping your house clean is critical for the prevention and control of ants. The ants need water, food, and shelter for survival. The worker ants will always leave the colony to seek for food. Keep the food sealed and the floor well swept. All the surfaces in your kitchen should remain clean all the time.
8. Seal the gaps around your windows and doors
   Ants are minute creatures. They can find their way into your house through unexpected points. Ants can enter your house through minute cracks and crevices. Seal around doors and windows to deny them entry.
9. Know when to spray
   You should only spray if the ant trailing has led you to an outdoor below-the-ground nest. You should drench the nest with an appropriate insecticide spray following all the label instructions effectively. Performing an ant spray is a great way of destroying the ant colony.

The Best Products to Eliminate Ants Quickly

Ants are resilient in nature. Finding an efficient and less costly solution to the problem of ants in your homestead may be difficult.

Below is an interesting list of the best ant killers in 2017 that you can use to eliminate the ants from your house:

Now that you know what attracts ants to your house and how you can get rid of them, take suitable measures to prevent your house from ant-infestation and enjoy staying in a house which is ant-free.

You can find further details of Ants Control here.

How to Get Rid of Ants Inside Home

Source: https://pestkill.org/ants/house/

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