If your ant problem has got out of hand, contact a pest control professional rather than attempting to deploy a bug bomb or similar insect spray yourself. DIY methods rarely work because ants mostly live in protected spaces such as underground or in walls.
If you or a professional do use insecticides, avoid using them outdoors and look for ones specifically designed for ants. Most insecticides are broad spectrum chemicals that can kill other types of insects. This includes insects beneficial in your home and garden, such as ladybirds, mantises and parasitoid wasps.
It may take a while for the ant colony to die, especially if it is large. Some species distribute themselves among several nests which makes them much harder to eradicate. In most ant species, the queen is the only individual who can produce new workers. So to destroy the colony, you need to kill the queen. But some species, such as the rock ant Temnothorax albipennis , have evolved an ingenious way to protect the queen and her larvae from poisoned food.
Read more: These ants have evolved a complex system of battlefield triage and rescue. Some worker ants stay in the colony and receive new food from forager ants — storing the food in their abdomen and regurgitating it when their nestmates are hungry.
Ant control that can be purchased at your local hardware store comes in many forms. It's important to remember that these substances may be harmful if the product label directions are not followed. Unfortunately, they usually won't solve an ant infestation. Sprays are meant to kill the ants you see and act as a deterrent. Most over-the-counter products have no residual or lasting effect. If the ants are still able to enter your home, they will simply find a way around the spray.
Plus, their colony will still be intact, producing more and more ants, all of which will be hungry and headed for you. Additionally, some colonies are nearly impossible to reach without special equipment. If a colony or nest is located within your walls, a simple spray that anyone can buy will not be sufficient to properly treat the colony.
Similarly, outdoor colonies can extend far below the surface, which is where most over-the-counter treatments stop working. In addition to inadequate delivery of treatment, colonies can continue to thrive for one other simple reason: the queen ant survives. Ant problems don't start in your home, they start in the nest.
You only recognize the problem once the ants have invaded your living space. And while you might think that the more ants you see, the more chance they'll be breeding, this is not the case. The one sole ant in charge of populating the entire nest is the queen. As long as she is unharmed, she can produce more ants to enter your home. The more she makes, the more they need to eat.
Complicating the matter is that the queen ant never leaves the nest after she has established her colony, so there's no chance you'll get to her when you kill those ants in your kitchen. She creates worker ants to feed the young inside the nest, which she is continually populating. The worker ants are the ones you see in your house. So even if you learn how to get rid of ants in the kitchen, they'll soon be replaced with new workers by the queen.
The only way to get rid of an ant colony that's causing problems in your home is to get rid of the queen. While it's nice to imagine a world without pests, the truth is there are more of them than there are of us. The fight against ants and other bugs or insects is ongoing.
Some of the problems with ant control rest within the ant's capabilities. Ants are certainly a nuisance , but are they dangerous in any way? To help determine if your unwelcome guests are just a nuisance or if they pose a real threat, Merchant recommends checking with your county or regional Extension Service office.
If you've got kids at home , you probably don't like spraying chemical ant repellent all over your house. For starters, cleaning with vinegar and various essential oils peppermint, tea tree and lemon can help repel ants in a more natural way. Sprinkling cayenne pepper around cracks can also discourage ants from entering the house. Some people also claim to have success using lemon juice, coffee grounds, baby powder or orange peels in the area ants are invading.
As with anything, though, results will vary based on the type of ants in your home. Liquid ant baits can be quite effective at temporarily reducing foraging ants in the house.
Dry baits, Boric acid dust, diatomaceous earth and most volatile plant compounds are generally less effective," said Merchant. The next thing you know, two ants become 12 and then 20 and so on. To get rid of ants initially, especially when there are quite a few of them, a professional can start with a contact insecticide to knock down the initial population.
Once ants find a food source they enjoy your kitchen happens to be tops on their list , they keep coming back. But they also keep returning to their colony. So another strategy that works for killing ants is using a non-repelling insecticide hidden in a protein or sugar source that ants think is food.
These many times come in bait form. This can kill the queen and knock out the colony, eliminating the bigger problem. Barrier treatments can be done a quarterly basis around the foundation of your home to keep ants out and happiness in. No two ant infestations are the same. Not only are there different types of ants—Carpenter Ants and Pharaoh Ants are common ant species in Southern and Central Maryland—but there is also the size of the problem to consider.
Also, certain types of weather conditions can spike ant populations.
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