Getting Rid Of Ants In Your Roseville Home For Good!

Ant problems have a way of causing some Roseville residents to feel overwhelmed. Ants can enter homes in large numbers. When you find them crawling on walls, surfaces, and dishes, it may send you racing to the hardware store for ant control products. But control products can also cause you to feel overwhelmed. It is difficult to apply effective ant pest control because ants have behavior patterns that help them avoid elimination. When ant control fails, it can leave you feeling defeated and tired. We hope to help you avoid those feelings by equipping you with information to help you with your ant control. We'll look at ant habits and behaviors that relate to ant management. We'll tell you how ants can cause trouble in your home and explain the warning signs of trouble. Then we'll look at how to get rid of an ant infestation. If you want immediate assistance and don't want to read an article about ant control while ants scale the side of your computer screen or crawl across your keyboard, you can reach out to us by phone or through our contact page. Neighborly Pest Management provides solutions for ant pest control in Roseville. We can identify the ants that are causing problems for you and guide you toward a solution that works best for you. 

The Habits And Behaviors Of Common Ants

Bait is often the solution for ant control. Unfortunately, ants have habits and behaviors that allow them to avoid bait. In fact, misapplied bait often leads to bait aversion, which can make an ant problem more difficult to correct. Another corrective measure people use is liquid applications. These are applied to surfaces to eliminate ants that pass over them. Unfortunately, they have little or no impact on ants. Mound treatments are also a common solution, but applying a treatment to a mound can cause an ant problem to get worse. Here are a few ways ants outsmart ant control. 

• Some ant species have workers that only recruit a small number to collect a food source. Since a large number is required to collect enough bait for colony elimination, the bait can fail.
• Some ants eat protein. Some prefer sugar. Baits can fail when an incorrect bait is used.
• Ants are always checking each other out. When one worker detects a foreign substance on another, the danger is communicated to the rest of the colony, and the workers will avoid treated surfaces.
• Some people attempt to treat ants directly. While you can get a few ants by doing this, the method is entirely topical and will not eliminate a colony. The ants are too smart to bring their tainted dead back to the nest. Many ant species have undertakers that bury their dead. The undertakers take ants to a dumping area. The process of dumping off their downed comrades allows ants to keep harmful substances out of their nests.
• Mound treatments have the potential to work on certain ant species, but a mound treatment that fails and does not get deep enough will send an alarm to the colony and may cause budding. Budding is when one colony breaks apart and turns into two or more colonies. 
• Some people crush ants when they see them. Not only is this entirely ineffective ant control, but it can also attract ants. Crushing an ant releases a pheromone scent. Pheromones are how ants communicate. The death stench pheromone, which is oleic acid, brings workers running to collect and deposit their dead, so instead of getting rid of ants, you'll see more of them.

It is tricky to apply ant control in your house or yard. You need to know what ant species you are attempting to control and what methods work to outsmart their natural tendency to avoid treatments.   

Why You Don't Want Ants Crawling Around Your Home

Ants make terrible houseguests. They crawl on your counters, dishes, and food. They crawl on your couch. Worst of all, they crawl on your trash receptacles. They are unsightly and disturbing pests. But there are more reasons not to want ants crawling around in your home. Here are a few of them:

• After ants crawl on or inside your trash, they can crawl on food, dishes, and food-prep surfaces. When they do this, they can cause you to get sick with a stomach ailment. There are microorganisms in your trash that need to stay in your trash.
• Some ants that invade your home will get the bright idea that living in your home permanently is the right thing to do. They may create an indoor nest and settle in. If they do, you will see ants appearing more often in your home.
• Ant colonies replicate. It is bad to have one colony in your home, but eventually, you'll have more than one if you don't get rid of those ants. When a nest matures, winged reproductives are created. These winged ants are the queens and kings of new nests. They emerge, mate quickly, and get busy making new nests—and a lot more worker ants. Poor ant control often fails because it can't keep up with ant reproduction.
• Some ants are destructive, particularly black carpenter ants. The last thing you need is black carpenter ants in your home. They tunnel in wood and can do a surprising amount of damage if conditions are conducive.
• Some ants get into electronics, powerboxes, or outlets. In these places, they accidentally sever wires or cause circuits to short when the current from electronic components passes through the ants.

It is not good to have ants in your home, so effective ant control is necessary. It is also best to get rid of ants for good rather than apply a temporary fix. That leads us to the primary reason for this blog post.   

The Most Effective Way To Get Rid Of Ants In Your House

Ant control products are best applied by trained and experienced technicians. Specialized knowledge is required. Your technician has the foundation of knowledge required to avoid the pitfalls associated with ant control.

• Training is needed for bait selection, bait placement, and evaluation of treatment efficacy.
• Training is needed for selecting liquid barrier treatments and the safe application of these materials.
• Training is needed for identifying ant species, selecting mound treatments, and applying treatments.

Along with the effective application of control products, your technician is trained in the sciences of entomology and pest management. They leverage these two disciplines to get the best results.

• Conducive conditions are considered, and certain conditions are corrected.
• Routes are tracked, and suggestions are made to help limit the ability for ants to enter your home.
• Entry points are considered, and patches are made to keep ants out.

Your technician doesn't just arrest an ant infestation but provides ongoing and sustainable ant control if you want it. There are also things you can do to prevent future infestations. Let's take a look at five easy tips to stop ants from coming indoors. 

Five Easy Tips To Prevent Future Ant Infestations In Your Home

Whether you get year-round pest control or want to take care of your own ant prevention, these tips will help. These are five easy-to-understand ant management strategies every Roseville resident can implement.

1. Manage trash to reduce odors that attract ants, and keep ants out of your trash. It is critical to get your receptacles to the curb each week. Wash your receptacles if they start to smell. Get receptacles that have tight-fitting lids. Avoid overflowing your trash which can cause the seal on your trash lids to break.
2. Address lawn weeds. Ants eat nectar. When you have little flowers all over your yard, ants will move in, create mounds, and encroach upon your exterior walls.
3. Honeydew is a desirable food source for many ants. When aphids, scale insects, or whiteflies attract the plants around your home, they will produce a sticky, sweet food substance called honeydew. Carpenter ants are particularly fond of honeydew and are known to guard aphids as they make this food source.
4. Get rid of all the gaps and holes. There are few deterrents as effective as applying exclusion work. Fill voids in with expanding foam. Fill gaps with a caulking material. Replace weatherstripping. Install door sweeps. Repair screens. 
5. Rake leaves and pick up sticks. Organic debris is attractive to ants because they hide in the moist habitat underneath and feed on insects, both alive and dead.

Use these steps to reduce ant activity and seal ants out of your home. For more protection, keep Neighborly Pest Management in mind. Our residential pest control plans provide layers of protection that work to keep ants and other pests out of your home. If you live in Roseville, contact us today to learn more or to schedule a service visit. We'll send one of our friendly pest management professionals out to take a look at your property and evaluate your pest pressures. Life is better without pests. Start living a pest-free life today!