Keeping ants out of your Dallas home may seem overwhelming. But ant control is manageable, as long as you know what you’re doing. To protect your property from these nuisance pests, check out this step-by-step guide to local ant prevention and elimination.
Know The Local Ants
If you don’t know anything about an invader, you won’t know how to keep it out. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the first step in ant control is to know about the local ant species. Before you get started on your ant prevention, you should learn a bit about these common invaders:
Fire Ants
As one of the most dangerous ants in our area, fire ants are notorious. They have painful stings and large colonies that extend for miles. Although fire ants rarely come indoors, they’re a serious problem outside.
Acrobat Ants
Named for the bizarre behavior they display when they’re bothered, acrobat ants don’t cause people much harm. However, they can be a nuisance.
Carpenter Ants
As far as damage to your property goes, carpenter ants are one of the worst ants to have around. They tunnel through the wood in your walls and furniture.
Odorous House Ants
What makes these ants so annoying is their foul smell. When you crush an odorous house ant, it emits an odor that is similar to rotten coconut.
Ant Prevention Tips
Although each type of ant affects you differently, they all can affect you negatively. Ants reproduce quickly and seemingly invade out of nowhere. If you don’t want to be surrounded by ants, prevention is essential. Follow these tips to keep ants away from your Dallas home:
Deep Clean Your Home
One of your first steps should be to do a deep clean of your home. Regardless of the type of ant on your property, there’s one thing that it’s seeking – food. By doing a deep clean of your home, you can take away that abundance of food. Crumbs under your refrigerator and oven can feed a colony of ants for months.
As you do your deep clean, pull out major appliances. Wipe out your cupboard and pantry shelves. After you’re done with your deep clean, maintain it with frequent surface cleanings.
Take Away Water
Just like other pests, ants need water to survive. When you take away their access to water, you make your home more inhospitable to ants. You can accomplish this by addressing moisture issues. Check for leaks in your plumbing system, and ensure that you fix any broken pipes or loose fixtures.
If certain areas of your home have too much humidity, consider how you can reduce the moisture. This could mean installing a vent or using a dehumidifier. Outside your home, check for broken gutters and stagnant puddles that could also attract ants.
Store Food And Trash Carefully
Your pantry and garbage contain plenty of food for ants. To keep your home safe, store pantry food in sealed containers. Because ants are so small, they can get into cardboard boxes and folded chip bags. Ergo, seal your trash with an airtight lid so ants have no way of coming in.
Seal Up Openings
If you look for and seal potential ant entry points, you can keep ants outside. Check your screens for rips and tears, and look around your windows and doors for gaps. It’s equally important to keep an eye out for cracks in your home’s foundation.
Call A Professional
If you truly want 100% effective ant control for your home, it’s time to enlist the help of a Dallas pest control company. Here at Cantu Pest & Termite, we offer you a way to protect your home from ants and other invaders. To learn more, give us a call.