The Dos And Don'ts Of Ant Control: An Extensive Guide For Lewisville Homeowners

Ants are simple organisms that handle complex tasks. A colony of ants can do remarkable things. Unfortunately, when they come into your Lewisville yards, they use their amazing skills to get into your home in remarkable ways. The worst part is that you can spend hours on the internet searching for how to keep ants away, only to find suggestions that lead you down a long and exhausting road of frustration and only end up making your problem worse. When it comes to ant removal, prevention, and control, there are definitely some dos and don't you should know. That's why we've put together this quick (but extensive) guide to ant control in Lewisville. We're going to cover all the bases so that ants don't take you by surprise. Let's start with how you can tell that ants have infiltrated your property. As always, contact us at any time if you need advice or to learn about our pest control services in Lewisville. Your Adams Exterminating team is looking forward to helping. With that said, here are your dos and don'ts for ant control.

Do Know The Warning Signs Of An Ant Infestation 

If you have an ant problem, you're going to want to know it. We have many types of ants in our Lewisville service area, and they present a range of problems. The secret to detecting ants is knowing what signs point to their presence.

• Scouts: The first sign of an ant infestation is typically the appearance of a scout ant every so often. If you see an ant in your home, keep in mind that it can raise an army in a matter of minutes if it finds a food source. But that little scout ant doesn't tell you much about your infestation. It won't lead you to its nest, and you have no way of knowing if the nest is indoors or outdoors. All you know for sure is that you could have a large number of ants infesting your home at any time.
• Mounds: Most ant colonies create mounds out of dirt. These look like tiny volcanoes on the surface of the ground. If you walk around the exterior of your home and look for these mounds, you may find the source of an interior ant problem. Ants are likely to come in through the closest exterior wall. If you're seeing ants in your kitchen, check the exterior wall just outside your kitchen. You may find the evidence you need.
• Trails: Ants create an invisible trail of pheromones. While you can't smell those pheromones and track them like an ant, you may see ants following the trails. If you have ants in your kitchen, see if you can follow the trail of ants all the way to the entry point they're using to get into your kitchen. You can also check your exterior. Look for ants climbing on your foundation, check around your window sills, and examine any plants that touch your exterior. These are the places you are likely to find ant trails.
• Frass: If you have carpenter ants in your home, you'll have trouble knowing it. They are nocturnal insects by nature and spend a lot of time hiding inside the wood cavities where their nests are hidden. One way to detect them is to look for frass. The frass created by carpenter ants will look like tiny wood shavings, though it also contains ant droppings. Look for frass leaking out of gaps and cracks or holes that have appeared in the wood of your home.
• Stings: If you have fire ants, you may not need any other warning sign but to have them sting you or someone else in your yard. But it is nice to catch them early. Look for their mounds in the sunny areas of your lawn. If you find mounds in this location with red ants on them, you've likely found fire ants.

If you detect ants in your home, you're going to want to know what you're up against and how those ants can harm you. That leads us to our next tip.

Don't Underestimate The Risks Of Ants In The House

The last thing you should do is underestimate an ant problem. There are many ways ants can create trouble. You're going to want to know the facts. Let's take a look at a few of the most important ways ants can impact your life. We'll work from bad to worse.

• All ants are a nuisance. They can enter homes by the hundreds of thousands.
• Ants are difficult to control.
• Odorous house ants are a species of ant that creates an unpleasant smell when crushed underfoot. The scent created by odorous house ants is usually compared to rotten coconut.
• Ants are prone to spread bacteria from unsanitary places to food storage, dishes, counters, and more. The bacteria they spread can cause stomach illness.
• Certain ants get into electronics and cause things to short or chew on wires and cause electrical problems.
• Carpenter ants are a unique kind of ant that tunnels in wood in order to make a space to house their nests. If they get into your home, they can damage your property over time.
• Fire ants leave irritating stings on the skin and are a threat to individuals with an allergy, children, and some seniors.

In light of all of the many ways ants can make life miserable, what is the best course of action? How should you deal with them? In a moment, we will give you some effective ant preventiontips that can help you prevent an ant infestation or prevent future infestations, but first, let's look at one more thing you'll want to do.

Do Call The Professionals At The First Sign Of Ants

Why call the professionals as soon as you see ants? There are many reasons to let a trained and experienced pest management professional locate and eliminate ant colonies for you. Some of them are likely to surprise you.

• An ant problem is the kind of problem that sneaks up on you. What often happens is ants suddenly appear in scary numbers all at once. If you contact a professional when you see one little scout ant, you can prevent this alarming event.
• If the ants infesting your home are carpenter ants, they can damage your property over time, right under your nose. Contacting a professional as soon as you see large black or red and black ants in your home can help you mitigate the damage.
• DIY ant control can make the problem worse. Some ant species are prone to splitting their colonies when threatened because they have multiple queens. When colonies split and spread, they can infest multiple locations and make the ants harder to treat.
• Some ant species are particularly good at evaluating food sources and may start to avoid bait after improper baiting is applied. Therefore, DIY ant control can make ants resistant to control products and end up increasing the cost of your professional ant control.

When you need to get rid of ants, it pays to hire a technician with specialized knowledge and experience with ant pests. If you're in Lewisville, contact Adams Exterminating for assistance. We'll apply systematic and strategic ant control to make your home ant-free.

Don't Forget These Ant Prevention Tips

If you want to keep your home free of ants (whether before or after professional treatment), you're going to want to keep these tips close at hand and commit many of them to memory. Ants never stop, so ongoing pest maintenance is the key to keeping them out of your home.

Here are our best suggestions:

• Remove trash routinely and keep containers free of strong decaying odors.
• Reduce insects on your property by taking out white lights and installing yellow lights to illuminate your exterior.
• Remove outdoor ant habitats, such as leaves and brush piles.
• Trim vegetation in the landscape next to your home to reduce moisture and remove routes that would allow ants to easily get to higher points on your exterior.
• Remove bird feeds, which drop seeds on the ground for ants to collect.
• Address aphid issues quickly as they produce honeydew, and honeydew is a treat for many ants.
• Address lawn weeds to reduce the number of flowers on your property. Many ants eat nectar.
• Apply pest-proofing to create a physical barrier to block ants from entering your home.
• No matter how hard you try, you aren't able to seal every potential entry point ants may use to enter your home. On top of pest-proofing, it is essential to apply a barrier treatment. For this, contact Adams Exterminating. We routinely apply liquid applications to keep ants out of cracks and crevices in your exterior walls. We also apply general pest maintenance to reduce the sources of protein ants look for in your yard, namely bugs.

If you're diligent, you can successfully prevent ants from infesting your home. But, should they ever get past your defenses, remember that Adams Exterminating provides advanced ant control in Lewisville. We can target the mounds, trails, and colonies and get those ants under control. Contact us today to schedule a visit or to learn more about our residential and commercial pest control services in Lewisville. We're here to help.