Keeping Bugs Where They Belong

Tips For Keeping Ants Out Of Your Family's Home This Spring

28 March 2018

Judy Lute

While most people love the flowers and warmer weather that come with the spring season, most people are not quite as thrilled about the ants who invade their home's kitchens and bathrooms. Starting in the early spring, ant colonies start to reproduce and grow, and this growth means the colony needs more sources of food and water. This is where your house comes in; the ants outside can smell the food and water inside of your home and will try to get inside to get some for themselves. To avoid this fate, here are some important pest control tips you can use:

Tip: Be Extra Mindful of Food Particles and Water in Sinks and on Kitchen Surfaces

You may have noticed that the ants who enter your home always tend to do so around your kitchen and bathrooms. There is a reason for this. Ants require both food and water to sustain their colonies, so they enter your house searching for whichever one they are lacking. For example, if the colony is eating well but suffering a drought, then the ants will be found in your bathroom, kitchen sink, and your pet's water bowls. However, if the colony is lacking a readily available food source, then the ants will invade your kitchen because they are attracted to the small food particles on the counters and floor.

To keep the ants from being attracted to your kitchen and bathrooms, make sure you frequently:

• sweep floors
• vacuum carpets 
• wash area rugs
• wash countertops

In addition, you should also take out your kitchen and bathroom trash each day to eliminate it as an attractant.

Tip: Keep Outdoor Areas Dry and Clear of Dead Vegetation

In order to control the ant colonies that take hold in your yard, make sure you keep excess water and dead vegetation from sitting on the ground. Ants will take advantage of areas with easy food and water sources and by eliminating standing water and overgrown or dead vegetation you can encourage them to live elsewhere.

Tip: Have a Professional Pest Control Company Treat the Outdoor Colonies

Finally, since all of the ants invading your home are coming from exterior colonies that are hard for you to eradicate, it is important you have them professionally dealt with by an exterminator. By treating the source of the problem and killing the whole colony all at one time, you will nearly eliminate ants from invading your family's indoor living space.

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