Expert Ant Control in The Dalles

If you had to have one kind of bug in your home what would it be? Most people would probably say ants. Yet these seemingly innocuous creatures can do quite a bit of damage if left unmanaged. Once ants have found a food source in your home, they leave a trail for other ants to follow. Other ants will follow the pheromone trail to the food source, and you’ll have an entire procession on your hands. On your end, you want to be sure that you’re not leaving anything out for the ants to snack on!

Let’s face it, as tiny creatures ants will find a way to get into your house. The question then becomes: Why do these ants want to be in my house? Making sure your cereal boxes are closed tight, keeping up on dirty dishes, and taking out the trash proactively can go a long way toward reducing your ant problem. But what you do if all that fails? You probably buy ant traps. This isn’t a bad idea, but many homeowners express frustration with ant traps when they don’t work. There’s a reason why they’re not working. We’ll talk about that below. In the meantime, the pest control professionals at Pointe Pest Control can get rid of ants safely and efficiently and our methods always work. Give us a call and we can begin the process of dealing with your ant problem.

Why Didn’t My Ant Traps Work?

Ant trap is a bit of a misnomer. What are sold as ant traps are actual ant baits. In other words, they trick ants into thinking that the stuff inside them is scrumptious food when in fact it’s a horrible poison. Ideally, an unlucky ant will bring the contents of the bait back to the ant colony where all the ants will gorge themselves on the poison and die. When the ant colony is somewhere inside your house, you will notice a huge reduction in the amount of ants. However, if the ants are coming from your yard, then all you’re doing is luring them into your house which is not what you want. Additionally, you have done nothing to address how the ants go into your house in the first place.

Even if the ants have set up a colony somewhere inside your home, different species of ants have different nutritional needs and tastes. Not every bait will work on every kind of ant. Ants also have different nutritional needs throughout the season which can further complicate the issue. Ant control is complicated!

Can Ants Really Damage My Home?

Yes! Ants can do much more damage to a home than most people think. But different ants will do different kinds of damage. For instance:

• Acrobat ants set up in abandoned ant colonies in your home. Even after you’ve eradicated a colony, you’re not out of the woods. They expand already existing colonies and do serious damage to your wood. Acrobat ants also bite and their bites can be painful.
• Carpenter ants are so named because of their affinity for wood. They will dig into wood and create passageways for other ants. The passageways can become colonies if left untreated doing serious damage to the wood in your home.
• Pavement ants are the tiny ants that seem as if they’re omnipresent. They can chew through your insulation, enlarge cracks in your floor, and damage your wood.
• Odorous house ants (which are nearly indistinguishable from pavement ants) can be a major nuisance and draw other insects (like spiders) into your home.