Living in a dry area of Australia, I'm actually happy to see all the ants coming within the house as this suggests we are in for lots of rain. Difficulty is, leave any trace of food around and it's covered in ants in seconds. The dog/cat dishes need to be emptied and cleaned right after feeding and make sure the children don\’t leave the honey or cordial out!
The difficulty lies when the ant problem becomes an infestation and they start taking over the house. Then we must do something to sort the problem.
There is not any point in just slaughtering the ants you can see, this is actually only about 1% of the entire colony and when they don't come home to the nest more ants are immediately sent out.
The perfect situation is to find the primary nest where the queens and all the other ants are and exterminate the whole colony with liquid bait.
You can try following the ant trail back to the primary colony but this is near impossible as the trail may go behind skirting boards, along the interior of the walls and out somewhere at the other end of the house
The most effective treatment for house owners is to bait the ants that are within the home. An advantage of using Baits is the ants will take the poison back to the nest, the queen and the remainder of the colony will feed on the bait and the whole colony will be destroyed.
Place the bait at different points along the trail the ants have been using. You should see tons of ants dashing to the bait. Do not kill them, just let them feed and you'll see them leaving to go back to the nest, this is good!
The ant activity should decline within a few days. Keep topping up the bait till no more ants are seen.
Okay, you have put down bait but the ants are paying no attention to it! Would you believe that ants are fussy eaters and can change their dieting habits at different times of the year? It does not mean the bait is no good, just the ants are searching for another sort of food source, so try bait like liquid bait.
The above baiting treatment will provide solutions to your indoor problem but if you have lots of ants outside they'll ultimately come back indoor trying to find food or water.
So you should be treating both the home and yard for ants.
Foundation – For effective ant control, you should spray the outside foundation of the home with a Pesticide repellent. A guide for spraying would be 2 foot up by 1 foot out, all of the way round the foundation. Also treat the Windowsills, Door trims, Pipes, Cables and Pathways.
This is going to be done frequently, likely each quarter.
Yard – Treating the yard. The best solution for treating the yard is by using both Granules and liquid bait. Granules will last roughly 2-3 months. Liquid baits disperse and must be topped up frequently, especially if you live in a hot dry climate. Check often to be certain they haven't dried up..
To sum up, Gel Bait for Inside, Sprays for the Foundation, Granules and Liquid Bait for outside. This may solve all of your ant problems if repeated constantly.
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Joan Bass is a writer with an interest in a wide selection of subjects. Ant Repellent You can visit her site for helpful tips. Ant Trap