OWINGS, MD–Are you suffering from a sugar ant problem? Wondering how you can successfully get rid of sugar ants?
When you own a home, you may find yourself having to deal with pests of various kinds. While sugar ants are less aggressive or destructive than termites or rodents, they can still cause damage and can be an irritating presence in your home if left unchecked.
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Below Planet Friendly Pest Control tell you how you can get rid of sugar ants.
Understanding the Needs of Sugar Ants
It’s important that you learn a little bit about sugar ants and how they operate.
Several different kinds of ants are known as sugar ants. This includes carpenter ants, acrobat ants, cornfield ants, little black ants, and many more. As their name suggests, sugar ants are attracted to sugary, sweet foods. However, they also eat fats and proteins as well. If you leave food out in your home, you may find that they start to appear.
While sugar ants are unlikely to bite you, they can be an annoying pest. Carpenter ants can be troublesome because they create nests and tunnels within moist wood. This can wreak havoc on your home.
Steps to Getting Rid of Sugar Ants
Once you understand sugar ants, it’s easier to get rid of them. Here are the steps you should take.
- Eliminate Openings
When trying to get rid of sugar ants, you need to reduce the number of ways that they can get in. You should follow their trail to find out where they’re coming in, and then seal any entryways that you can.
Little holes, cracks, and crevices can serve as an entryway into your home, so you’ll want to use some caulk, glue, plaster, or putty to seal these up. Vinegar, chalk, coffee grounds, and diatomaceous earth can also serve as natural deterrents and can help stop them in their tracks.
- Put Your Food Away
Another step to getting rid of sugar ants is to cut off access to food in your home. Keep your home as clean as possible, especially in the kitchen and dining room. Ants can detect crumbs on your floor, so you need to make sure you’re not leaving any around.
It’s important to sweep the floors regularly, wash dishes immediately after use, wipe down counters, and avoid leaving food out. Sugar ants are attracted to food sources, so if you can eliminate these, the ants will be less likely to stick around.
- Use Ant Killer Products
While the above steps can help, you’ll still likely need to use a natural chemical to get rid of sugar ants completely.
One of the best ways to do this is by baiting them. When baiting, you’ll need to mix something sweet such as maple syrup with a natural chemical compound such as diatomaceous earth or boric acid. The ants will be attracted to the maple syrup but will end up taking the ant killer back to their colony as well.
To fully eliminate an ant problem, however, you may need to hire a green pest control professional. A professional will have access to various chemicals that they can use and will be able to get the job done in an efficient way.
Using These Strategies to Get Rid of Sugar Ants
If you want to get rid of sugar ants in the easiest way possible, it’s important that you follow the tips above. By taking the right approach sooner rather than later you’ll be able to get rid of sugar ants and have your home to yourself once again.
Ready for professional pest control services? Contact Planet Friendly Pest Control today to learn more about how we can help.
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