Tips on Keeping Ants Out

Ants are small, tenacious, and don’t need much to survive, which unfortunately means that getting rid of them often requires a professional exterminator. However, the good news is it’s easy to prevent ants – much easier than to eliminate an active infestation. It boils down to this. Ants want food, water, and a safe place for shelter. Just like humans look for certain amenities when choosing a place to live, so do ants. All of our tips on keeping ants out boil down to eliminating access to these resources.

If you can deprive ants of food, water, and shelter, they’ll realize your home isn’t a good location to build a colony, and they’ll go somewhere else. It’s as simple as that. Ready to dig into some strategies for ant prevention at home? Let’s get started.

Ant Prevention Tips for Your Home

What’s the top cause of ants in the home? Easy: leaving out food and water. When you do this, you’re giving ants exactly what they need on a silver platter. Ants will find it and decide, “This is great! Let’s stick around here.”

That means the number one tip for preventing ants in your home is to avoid leaving out food and water. Yes, it really does make a huge difference. However, that’s not the only tip for ant prevention we recommend. We also recommend doing the following:

• Seal up entryways: Take a walk around the exterior of your house and look for cracks, crevices, or holes in the walls or foundation. If you see any, seal them up with caulk. Ants are tiny – they can fit through even the smallest of cracks. Be sure to also pay attention to gaps in windows, doors, and screens. Replace loose and damaged weather-stripping.
• Keep your home clean: Vacuum your carpets, sweep up floors, and wipe down surfaces. Also, be sure to wipe down your pantry, fridge, and stove.
• Control aphids: Aphids produce “honeydew,” which ants will gladly eat. Make sure you don’t have aphids on your indoor plants or landscaping plants near your home or you might be unknowingly attracting ants. Some ants even have systems to “farm” honeydew from aphids.
• Eliminate moisture: Be sure to check pipes and faucets for leaks. If any moisture is escaping, no matter how small, fix the leak. Also, be sure to check moisture-prone parts of the house like the attic or crawlspace where moisture may gather without you realizing.
• Don’t leave food out: Store your food in airtight containers and clean up spills immediately. Even food or beverage residues are enough for ants. Use vinegar or lemon juice as a cleaning agent. This also disrupts ant trails left behind by scouts. Avoid throwing food away in your trash bin unless you take it outside the same day. Don’t leave dirty dishes out or in the sink. Finally, avoid leaving pet food and water dishes out all day.
• Separate your home from your yard: Create an invisible barrier between “nature” and your yard. Trim back shrubs away from the home. Also, ensure gutters and downspouts drain away from your home’s foundation.
• Work with a pest control company: Sometimes even the best efforts can lead to an ant infestation. If you are dealing with ants in the home, contact your local ant control professionals at Eden Advanced Pest Technologies. Our ant exterminators have extensive knowledge and experience dealing with all species in the area. We canidentify the full extent of the problem and recommend the best course of action.

Looking for Professional Ant Control Services?

For homeowners in our region, ants can be a familiar sight, but luckily, they don’t have to be. By following through with some simple ant prevention tips, you’ll significantly lower your risk of infestation. Of course, because ants are practically everywhere, sometimes ants will still show up even when you’ve done everything you can.

When that happens, give us a call. When you need ant control services in the Spokane WA and Coeur d’Alene ID area, turn to Eden Advanced Pest Technologies. We’ve been providing effective and environmentally conscious pest management since 1986. Contact us today for your personalized quote!