Like all animals, ants need three things: food, water and shelter. They may come inside to escape heavy rain and saturated ground and to avoid extreme heat and cold. During a drought, ants may enter to find water. Most often, though, ants come indoors because they smell food.
Ants have odour receptors on their antennae, and this helps them locate food from far away. Ants seek out different foods at different times of the year, but generally they are attracted to sugars (carbohydrates), fat, and protein. Outdoors, such foods may be sweet honeydew (made from plant sap by aphid, mealybug and scale insects), seeds, and live or dead bugs. Indoors, these foods may be anything from spilled juice or pop to cooking grease to pet food.
- Keep your home tidy by cleaning up spilled food and crumbs from floors, cupboard, pantries, in corners and along the baseboards.
- Seal all cracks and crevices using caulk.
- Fix any leaks and keep an eye out for high moisture areas.
- Protect all pantry food by using sealed containers.
DIY or do-it-yourself ant killers can help prevent future ant problems. These include:
- Ant stations – Put these stations where the ants were active before. preferably out-of-the-way like under the sink or in the pet-food cupboard. Any foraging ants that return will take the bait in the trap back to the colony, killing it.
- Diatomaceous Earth (DE) – Apply DE ant power or DE ant dust where ants entered from the outside or where they trailed, like along baseboards. It is a natural desiccant that kills ants after they walk through it by drying them out.
- Repellents – Apply repellent to the cracks, gaps and spots where ants entered the building. This will create a defensive barrier that the ants will not cross.
- Monitors – put out monitors such as a glue trap where ants were founded (e.g., under a sink or bathtub) or where they trailed, like along the baseboard behind the sofa. Check traps to monitor for ant activity. This way, if needed, you can employ other control measures before an ant problem grows and becomes and more difficult to control.
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