5 Tips for Avoiding Ants This Summer

5 Tips for Avoiding Ants This Summer

Ants are particularly active during the summer months and are one of the most common problems that lead to people needing pest control.

1. Seal Sources of Food

Ants are avid foragers that are infamous for raiding our kitchens. In order to help avoid this, it is crucial to keep the sources of food within your home well sealed and stored away. This includes not leaving any food on your counters, making sure your garbage is sealed with a lid, not leaving dirty dishes on the counter or in the sink, ensuring that food is properly stored in cabinets/cupboards and kept in sealed containers, and that crumbs are not left strewn about the floor. By taking these simple steps you are at far less risk of scavenging ants continually finding their way into your home.

2. Remove Potential Nesting Sights

There are a variety of different places that ants can find around your home to nest, including: logs, trees with voids where branches used to be, planters on a deck, or even rain gutters. These types of places can harbor thousands of ants and supply a never-ending stream of ants marching their way into your lives. In cases like this, by examining your yard and eliminating these areas of refuge (or in the case of planters/gutters, cleaning them out), you greatly reduce the likelihood that you will run into future ant problems this summer.

Wood boring ant peering into hole in wood. Carpenter aka Wood ant. Camponotus sp.

3. Repair Leaky Faucets and Pipes

Ants, along with most pests, need moisture to survive and thrive. As such, they are drawn to areas with humidity or pooling water. This can include basements, laundry rooms, and any areas where there may be leaky pipes/faucets and even blocked drains. Pooling water not only leads to more pests but can sometimes cause expensive damage to your residence. By patching up any leaky pipes and installing dehumidifiers in high moisture areas, you can reduce the likelihood of ant problems.

4. Fix Any Cracks and Crevices to Your Home

Ants are exceedingly small pests that can squeeze through the tiniest cracks and crevices in order to access your home. While it may be difficult to find all these small voids around your home, sealing larger gaps and cracks can be a very effective ant deterrent. Check all of your walls (especially where the wall meets the floor), all windows, windowsills, window screens, screen doors, and door sweeps and replace/fix anything that is not keeping your home sealed. You can also check the utilities around your home, such as hose taps, electrical boxes, and dryer vents, for gaps as these are common areas for pests to find access to homes.

5. Clean Up Possible Ant Attractants

Along with being attracted to the food in our kitchens, ants can be drawn to a variety of other things both in and around our homes. Garbage is often a major attractant, and it is recommended that you regularly take out overfilled or particularly smelly garbage in order to avoid a variety of pests. However, what is often overlooked are the trash cans themselves. Some garbage cans do not have liners, and even ones that do, sometimes the bags/liners tear or leak, causing a collection of potentially sticky, smelly, and rotting residue. Unclean garbage cans like this attract not only ants, but other pests as well. Due to this, it is important to occasionally clean out garbage bins, especially those that contained food in order to avoid rancid buildups and, thereby, avoiding the potential of an ant infestation. There can also be other external attractants in your yard including moss (which is a food source for ants), garbage cans nearby your home, open compost collections, and piles of wood. Wood piles are like a haven for pests. The pile provides shelter and warmth, inviting pests to come gather and build nests or homes, so it is important to take the proper precautions to prevent these pests from finding their way into your home. Wood piles, along with garbage and compost should be moved to a location at least 30 feet from your home if possible. This will deter ants from targeting your yard and therefore your home.