Pests, in general, can cause a lot of nuisance and damage in homes and ants are a prime example of that. Ant infestation is quite common and generally happens massively. The most striking part is that ant infestation is not limited to particular geographical territories!
Ants can invade your home for any reason and if left unchecked, it can become a problem of an intolerable magnitude! In fact, how to get rid of ants is one of the most asked questions for which we try to get some answers in this article.
How to find if it is an ant problem?
There can be many identification problem between ants and termites, both of which are dangerous when they attack your house. Mentioned are points with which they can be distinguished.
| Ants | Termites |
| Have thin waists | Have thick waists |
| Have long legs | Have short legs |
| Have bent antennae | Have straight antennae |
| In winged ants, front wings are longer than back wings | In winged termites, front wings and back wings are of same length |
How to identify ant infestation?
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- Ants are always looking for creating colonies and nests near sources of water, food and warmth. They make holes and burrows inside walls, furniture and even digging up your garden to create mounds of the earth!
- Start with spotting ant colonies and ant activities before they multiply.
- If you see huge colonies of ants in the house, employ powerful chemicals to flush them out or even take the help of home remedies to deal with the ant infestation. If the level of infestation is exceptionally high, it is always recommended to take professional service.
- Note that once you have placed repellents, don’t kill the ants. They may get warned and shift the toxic lure to the hive.
See also: How to get rid of lizards?
Impact of ants on health and hygiene
- Ants pick up disease-causing microbes and can spread organisms in our food.
- They can contaminate food more effectively than any other type of insects.
- Having a large colony of red ants in house can be a breeding ground for diseases like e.coli, salmonella, shigella, streptococcus, etc.
Destruction of property
- Carpenter ants are one of the largest species of ants worldwide and just like termites, they can cause immeasurable damage to wooden structures in your home. The signs of their infestation can be subtle and difficult to notice at first. But if measures are not taken to get rid of ants they can devour the wooden structures like furniture from within, consume the wood pulp and demolish them by making them papery and stripping them of their rigidity and resilience.
- Undoing all these impacts will require a lot of expertise and financial assistance.
- They are visually unattractive and create nuisance.
What is the fastest way to get rid of ants in the house?
There are several ways to get rid of ants in your house. Some of the most effective methods include:
Cleaning: This is perhaps the easiest method, but it can be time-consuming. You should scrub all surfaces where the ants are coming from. You can also use a vacuum cleaner to suck up any dead ants or eggs that may have been left behind by the colony.
Ant bait: Ant baits are another way to remove ants from your home. They will attract and kill them on contact, so you don’t have to use chemicals or sprays around food or pets. There are several types available depending on how quickly you want results, so make sure you choose one that works well for you!
Carpet deodorising paste:You can buy deodorising paste at most hardware stores and apply it directly onto any areas where there might be an ant infestation. This should take care of any lingering issues quickly!
How to get rid of black ants?
Black ants are one of the most common ants, often found in gardens. They can live for almost 15 years and deliver excruciatingly painful stings due to the high content of formic acid in their mouths.
- Make sure not to leave any food crumbs or sugary snacks outside. One way to get rid of ants is to keep it thoroughly clean, especially in your pantry, kitchen, food storage sections, utensils, and dining tables. Ensure that the jars’ lid where you store food is closed tightly and opt for airtight containers to ensure additional safety.
- Clean kitchen utilities like microwave, toaster, fridge etc.
- Dispose off rotten fruit or food left open for a long time.
- Also pet foods if kept in the open unattended and not maintained properly may lead to ant infestation. Clean the pet food bowl properly after feeding your pet and keep the area clean.
- Ensure that dustbins in your house- wet and dry are covered and inspect them for left over that may have attracted ants even after the garbage has been taken.
- Fix any place in the house that has leaky pipes as ants look out for water especially in the summers.
- Remember not to leave any damp spots in your home, especially in the summer. Ants often gravitate towards cool and moist areas, including your sweaty clothes, to get away from the summer stench. So, if you have humidity and temperature control in your home covered, you won’t have to worry about how to get rid of ants permanently.
Top 7 things from your kitchen useful to get rid of ants
Controlling an ant invasion doesn’t mean you have to expose your family to harmful chemicals. There are numerous non-toxic ways available to get rid of ants. This includes natural repellents, homemade sprays, and even certain types of food.
- Cornflour is a natural ingredient to destroy any colonies. Cornflour attracts ants as a food but the down point for ants is that they cannot digest these. This is why it acts as an effective pesticide. Spray cornflour or apply paste of cornflour and water and apply in affected areas.
- Eucalyptus or peppermint oil smells highly repel ants. Spraying these on all the entry points and the corners of your home can help get rid of ants.
- Cinnamon chokes ants. You can opt to sprinkle the cinnamon directly on them or even spray cinnamon oil and water on the anthill to prevent red ants in the house or get a water concoction of peppermint, garlic, lavender or cinnamon oil that works wonders by destroying probable entry points. The above trick is similarly effective with black pepper powder readily available in the market.
- Baby powder usage in infested areas are an easy way to get rid of ants. They don’t like the talcum powder and also hate crossing the talcum powder as the powder may get on to their bodies.
- Turmeric helps in getting rid of ants. A line made of turmeric is places where ants generally frequent will ensure they never return. The oil in turmeric is believed to be an ant-repellent.
- Neem and manure paste can solve problems of ants in your home garden or balcony.
- Ammonia/ bleach scents can be used to get rid of ants.
How to get rid of sugar ants?
Ants that attack sweets are known as sugar ants.
- Clean the trail that the ants are seen in your kitchen with soapy water. These will stop them from attacking the kitchen.
- Bay leaves are strong deterrents of sugar ants. These stored in the pantry and storage areas will stop the attack of ants. Also, you can place cucumber peels around ant infested areas.
How to get rid of red ants permanently?
- The vinegar and water ant killer mixture works excellent when getting rid of red ants for good. If you have red ants in the house, mix vinegar and water in a 1:1 ratio and spray it over all the possible entry points. If you see any red ants in the house, you can spray the mixture directly. This method also works effectively for destroying anthills occupied by red ants.
- One of the most popular tricks here is making a lemon and water mixture in a 3:1 ratio and using it just as the vinegar and water mixture. Spray the solution on the ants, their entry points and the anthills whenever you spot them in the house.
- In a disposable container, make a mixture of half a spoon of borax, 10 spoons of sugar and a cup of lukewarm water. Dip old rags of clothes or cotton in this mixture and place them in areas of ants to permanently get rid of ants. Once done, dispose the container.
How to eliminate carpenter ants?
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- The first thing to do here is to find wood damage in the house to bait these carpenter ants and reach their anthill.
- Carpenter ants, just like other ants, are drawn to sugary foods. So, one of the best ways to pull them out of their hiding spots is by leaving sugary crumbs at suspected places and waiting to see if it works or not. You can also mix baking soda and sugar in a 1:1 mixture, as the carpenter ants will be drawn to the sugar but will die consuming the baking soda.
- Another great way to deal with the hitch of how to get rid of ants permanently is by pouring boric acid in places you think these ants have infested – mostly mouldy, damp, and wooden furniture are their favourite spots. Make sure to check your attic if it hasn’t been cleaned in quite a while and houses moist, discarded furniture.
- Pheromone are scented trails that ants leave back whenever they walk and these act as maps for the ants. With these trails ants enter your houses and spaces and cause havoc. You can easily remove the pheromone trail by mixing glass cleaning spray and dishing washing liquid and spraying all over wherever ants are found to be entering or being present. Wipe out the excess liquid and repeat often to get desired results.
- You can also clean your house with soap and water to get rid of the trail of pheromones left by carpenter ants to find food. You can also use strong-smelling essential oils, water, and vinegar mixture to get rid of the pheromones completely.
- Another effective way is to mix 10 drops of tea tree oil with water and spray it in all the places where ants are infested. You can also put this mixture in cotton balls and place it in areas where ants are present. Note that keep the tea tree oil away from your pets as they can cause harm to them.
- Ants do not like brewed coffee grounds. Sprinkle freshly brewed coffee grounds on the ground where ants are found and they may avoid coming that day. However, note that the coffee grounds need to be changed regularly so that they are effective.
- If you have indoor plants, it’s a good idea to see if these plants are infested with ants. If the plant has too many ants, it’s a good idea to treat the plan also as the ants may damage the growth of the plant and also infest the house. Keeping rinds of citrus fruits like lemon and orange will prevent ants from attacking plants.
- Trim the grass and shrubs in your garden.
- Dealing with carpenter ants can be trickier than other ant species, so you should call a professional ant exterminator to help you if the infestation has gone out of hand and you are already emptying your coffers, paying for the damages.
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How to get rid of fire ants?
Fire ants are among the most dangerous ants and are known to attack aggressively if their mounds are disturbed. If you find these ants anywhere near your vicinity, immediately take steps to remove them permanently. Although seeking help from trusted pest control professionals would be the right way to go about it, you can also employ specific DIY hacks.
- One of the first things you can do is find and destroy their mound/anthill. You need to kill the ants deep inside their colony and add insecticide on top of the mound to eradicate unhatched eggs or immature offspring.
- You can also use granular insecticides to target their mounds individually to destroy them.
- Natural items like boiling water, vinegar, and baking soda to get rid of these ants and Diatomaceous Earth are effective in dealing with fire ants. Diatomaceous Earth is made from remains of diatoms. Basically, by sprinkling them, ants dry and die. While it’s a natural effective and safe method, its dust can make the house messy and would need reapplication.
- Chalk can also be used to get rid of ants. With the main ingredient being calcium carbonate, if a thick chalk line is drawn, it can confuse an ant’s scent trail and confuse them. They will be incapable of picking up scent trails of other ants and eventually die off. While it’s easy and a cheap method, it’s not long lasting and will require frequent reapplication.
- The bite of fire ants can be excruciatingly painful and can even trigger allergic reactions for some people. So, it is best to seek professional help when you encounter one of those painful bites from a venomous critter!
How to get rid of ant hills?
It would help if you also looked for the entry point of the ants. They generally creep inside our homes through holes in the doors or cracks in our walls. By following their trail, you can identify their entry points and reach the anthill.
Fire ants are known to build ant hills and if you have fire ants in your backyard, then you are in for some unwanted stinging guests who will capture the place. Ant hill appears in any place once the queen has mated and the ant hill is made to safeguard the area, so that the ants can thrive there. As the colony grows, the area of the ant hill expands with many tunnels and entries and exits. It is an extremely difficult task to get rid of fire ants once the anthill is made.
While you can see ant hills clearly, many times they are also hidden. To find the existence of an ant hill in your backyard, follow the trail of ants as they may lead you to the ant hill.
You can clear an ant hill by using boiling water. Pour a bucket of boiling water on the ant hill. This will destroy the ant hill and also the temperature of the water will kill the ants. However, what can also happen is there may be some ants which may be deep buried and not die because of the hot water. They get back to make the ant hill. Look out for ants after two to three days of this exercise and repeat if you find them.
Why is a professional pest control service better than DIY methods to eliminate ants?
- They are experienced. If you have not exterminated ants before, getting rid of them can be a reasonably tricky ordeal. With experienced professionals, things can get a lot easier.
- Getting professional help can be the safest option. The bites of some of these ants can be extremely painful. When you get professional service, you won’t have to worry about getting bitten as these professionals are always equipped with safety apparatus.
- Some DIY methods include dangerous chemicals bought from the market, so getting professional help can be the right choice as ant exterminators generally use non-toxic, eco-friendly, exterminating agents that safeguard the health of your family members. They do not create any pungent smell as well.
- Professional ant control experts can do a thorough clean-up job. Getting rid of ants permanently is a common question, and the methods can be extensive and complex. Their job starts with surveying the level of infestation, the typical entry points of ants, their habitat within your premises, the reasons why the infestation is occurring, and finally employing all the relevant solutions to end the entire ant population in your house.
- Finding the hiding spots of these ants and destroying them permanently is a job best left to these experts, as they are generally locals and have extensive knowledge about multiple species of ants – their habits and their habitats. They also revisit the site from time to time to assess the nature and extent of their solutions.
It could take a lot of time, effort and experience to get rid of ants from your home, and not many people have all of that. So, if you have an ant infestation in your home, make sure to contact professional ant exterminators to get a thorough job done.
How long does it take to get rid of an ant infestation?
Ants are mostly active during the day and night. If you wait until their population grows too large, then it will become impossible for you to get rid of them. For this reason, it is very important to take care of an ant infestation as soon as possible.
The exterminator may need to come back more than once to completely eradicate your ant infestation. The improvement should be noticeable quickly, but complete elimination can take several weeks to a few months.
Do killing ants attract more ants into your house?
Smells are used by ants to communicate. Different signals are passed on using the different smells and thus ants act based on them. When ants die, they release oleic acid once their body starts to decay and this is how other ants come to know.
FAQs
Why ants are considered pests?
There are over 12,000 species of ants. Although certain ants are harmless, certain species of ants can be considered pests because they are carriers of diseases or infection.
How do I permanently get rid of an ant infestation?
You can get rid of ants by using solutions like vinegar or peppermint and lavender oil.
What keeps ants away permanently?
Borax and diatomaceous earth are very effective to get rid of ants permanently.
How do I get rid of ants once and for all?
White vinegar is a solution that ants hate absolutely. Spraying the source where ants enter with white vinegar will get them out once and for all.
What home remedy gets rid of ants permanently?
Home remedies such as use of pepper oil, clove oil, mint spray, turmeric, talcum powder etc. helps keep ants at bay.
What powder kills ants?
The diatomaceous earth is an inexpensive and effective way to get rid of ants.
What are the commercial ant baits that will help eliminate the ants. ?
One
What attracts ants inside the house?
Sugary sweets and food crumbs can attractants in your house, along with damp spots.
Why are ants considered dangerous?
Ants can contaminate your food, give you painful bites, and be a general nuisance in your home. They are pretty dangerous, especially certain species like black ants, carpenter ants, and fire ants. Some of them even cause property loss and result in your financial burden.
| Got any questions or point of view on our article? We would love to hear from you.Write to our Editor-in-Chief Jhumur Ghosh at jhumur.ghosh1@housing.com |