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How to Control Ants in Your Home
by Gray Rollins
Description: Tips for getting control of ants that invade your home.
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For many people, summer means preparing for an invasion. Armies
of troops come in lines barreling for their houses, ready to
attack. No, these people aren’t oppressed people in third world
countries; they’re regular people like you facing the smallest
of invaders: ants. Ants are great creatures to have outdoors.
They are good for the environment and help break down old,
smelly rotting stuff so you don’t worry about it, but inside,
it’s a different story. Inside they contaminate your food, and
can harm you and your children. But don’t fear, there are lots
of simple ways to send these tiny invaders back outside and
keep them there.
If you find a few ants in your house, you should actually take
this as a good sign. This means that these are just scout ants
and you can stop them before they can go back to the colony and
start the full invasion. These ants go out and find food,
leaving a scent trail as they go. They then follow the scent
trail back to the colony and tell others to follow and come get
food. The best way to stop this from happening is to destroy the
scent trail. This way, these ants won’t be able to make it back
to the colony to tell others of their find. There are lots of
products you can sprinkle on the trail to make it impossible to
find. Some suggestions are black pepper, talcum powder,
cinnamon, or vinegar (just put it in a spray bottle). Just
sprinkle or spray one of these substances on the ants and their
track. You can watch them for a minute before you apply while
they walk so you know their previous path. Make sure to get the
path they have come from.
While it is important to get them out of the house, it’s just
as important to keep the ants from coming back into the house.
If you can find where they got into the house, apply whatever
you’re using (pepper, talcum, etc) on their entrances as well.
This will keep other ants from following the trail into your
house. When they panic and try to get away, watch where they
go; you may be able to find where they got in the house. There
are other products you can apply at the entrances to keep the
ants from coming in again, including the crushed bay leaves and
cayenne pepper. You can also sprinkle these products, or the
ones mentioned earlier, in cabinets and near food. This will
keep the ants away from the food. Another idea to keep them out
is to draw a line along the inside barrier of the house where
ants come in. Ants generally won’t want to cross the line.
These tactics will keep the ants from coming into the house or
at least finding the food. If they don’t think food is
available, they will stop looking there.
Along with these tactics you should try to seal your food as
well as you can. Ants can sometimes get them into closed jars,
so keep those in the fridge if need be. If these tactics don’t
get rid of your ants, you can always buy ant poison. Just be
sure to buy the right kind for the ants you have. If the
correct taste isn’t used, the ants won’t eat it.
Gray Rollins is a featured writer for
http://www.pestcontrolzone.com/. To learn more about how to
keep ants out of your house, visit
http://www.pestcontrolzone.com/pestcontrolants/.
