When pests invade your home, it can be a true headache. Flies can zip around the rooms of your house and contaminate food left unattended. For example, termites can destroy your house from the inside out. Meanwhile, rats carry the risk of disease, not to mention, they steal your food. But ants will probably top the list of the most annoying house pests because they come in swarms and they’re so difficult to eliminate.
Ants are a common house pest in any area of the world. With over 10 000 subspecies, it’s no wonder how ants can infiltrate any household. They’re small, they’re fast, and they’re strong. And as if they’re not evil enough, some ants know how to swim. Although most ants don’t pose any major risk, they’re annoying and often bite. Ants also degrade the wooden structure of your house over time especially if they’ve nested in it.
The best and fastest way to get rid of the ant invasion would be to hire a home pest control in Riverside. But if you’re facing problems with ants and would like a quick fix, here are four ways you can try.
Investigate and Bait
Resist the temptation to sweep up groups of worker ants in a single file and try to determine where they’re going or where they came from. If you just go berserk and spray the ants with pesticides or stomp on them, chances are they’ll be back in a few hours with even more companions. If you follow where their nest is, then you can use ant baits.
Ant baits are less harmful for humans than your usual pesticide and are much more effective at getting rid of ants for good.
Secure All Sweet Stuff
Don’t worry, you don’t have to cut sweets out of your life for good. A good way to keep ants away from your sweets stash is to keep them somewhere inaccessible to ants. This means keeping them in tightly sealed containers in cabinets. One mistake that we usually make is not closing the lids on jars or not wiping the container containing a sweet liquid or syrup.
When closing containers containing substances like honey or maple syrup, wipe the sides of the opening after closing it with a cap.
Apply Baby Powder
Sprinkling baby powder or talc around the spots where ants usually gather is a way to kill them without introducing harmful pesticides inside your home. Baby powder or talc acts as an irritant to ants because ants don’t have a respiratory system and breathe through their skin. Once they get powder on their bodies, it clogs up their airways.
Don’t Be A Slob
One of the most important things you can do to prevent ants, or any pest, from entering your home is to maintain cleanliness. Sweeping away crumbs, wiping off tables and countertops, and eating only in the dining room might seem insignificant. But doing these small routine tasks will maintain the cleanliness of your home, making it unappealing for ants and other pests.
Pest control might be the best way to get rid of pests like ants, especially if the problem is growing out of hand. Before it gets to that point, there are ways to solve the problem yourself.