The bad thing about ants is that they show up in your house when it’s rained a lot and their colonies get flooded. The other bad thing about ants is that when it hasn’t rained in a long time, they show up in your house looking for water.
Yes, ants are everywhere, and while they don’t really hurt anything (unless they’re fire ants, or army ants – those are a whole different story…) they’re a big, fat nuisance. They march around like they own everything, and nobody wants that in the kitchen when the guests come over for a barbecue! Never mind that they’re relatively harmless, that they are some of the most efficient and social creatures on earth – they’re still creepy crawlies!
So what can you do? Well, you could call us and have us come out and get rid of them before your barbecue. OR, you could take a few preventive measures first and see if that will keep them at bay.
Don’t leave food out. This is kind of a no-brainer, but all your food should be in the fridge or in something airtight.
Don’t leave dirty dishes in the sink. It’s always best to clean up everything after a meal. Any pots and pans or other utensils that don’t go into the dishwasher should be washed and dried so that you don’t have wet stuff sitting in the sink. And wipe down the counters. A drop of watermelon juice is very enticing to an ant!
Dog food should be kept inside or in airtight containers. Ants love dog and cat food. Don’t leave bowls of it out in the yard.
Seal all openings to the areas where you see them. Use caulk or other sealant to permanently seal any cracks or small places where they could be coming in.
Be sure you don’t have any leaky pipes, drains, A/C condenser lines, etc., which will not only attract ants, but termites as well.
Keep shrubbery and plants away from your house. Keep trees and shrubs trimmed so they don’t touch your house, because if they are against your house, all insects have better access. Try to keep flowerbeds clean, without leaves and debris behind them. Ivy and ground covers in flowerbeds are the worst for hiding ants. While ants don’t eat leaves, they carry them back to their nests for other uses. Insects (like aphids) in shrubs close to your house may attract ants, also.
Keep your property as clean as possible. If you have ants in your house, the actual ant colony may not be right by your house – it may be out in the yard in mulch beds, around trees or rocks. Any place that is protected – between garden edging and rocks, in cracks in the concrete, someplace where leaves piles up – makes a good place for ants to raise their young. Guttering should be cleaned on a regular basis.
If you’ve done all of the above and still have a problem, you will need to call a professional to set bait and try to locate the nests and destroy the queen. It’s helpful if you note the places you see them on a regular basis. Ants actually send scouts out to forage for food and water, and the scouts leave scent trails that other ants can follow. That’s why you see them marching in a little line across the sidewalk.
If you are going to try to control ants yourself, you must understand something of the nature of ants and you must have some patience. Ants are really smart. Ants can actually teach each other, and some farm and raise their own food, and each member of the colony has a specific job. Spraying something on them rarely (if ever) takes care of the problem. You will need to use bait that they think is food so they will take it and carry it home to the queen and the colony. You can’t use bait and then also spray, because then they won’t take the bait.
Ant Trivia:
Some birds intentionally put ants in their feathers, because ants spray formic acid which gets rid of parasites.
Ants’ jaws open and shut sideways, like scissors.
Each colony of ants has a distinctive smell so that they can quickly recognize intruders.
In Africa and South America, large army ants are actually used as sutures. Rather than stitching up a wound, it’s pressed together and ants are applied. The ants bite the edges of the wound and lock their strong mandibles shut. Then their bodies are cut off, leaving the heads to hold the wound together. (My, that’s clever, but…yuck!)
Throughout literature and films, ants are considered to be smart and hard-working. Consider Atom Ant! And what about the movie Them! Or Empire of the Ants? Although, in those, the ants were sort of trying to take over the world…