the key to getting rid of an ant infestation in your home

How To Tell If You Have An Ant Problem In Your Home

If you're seeing ants in your home, it's a good indication that you have an infestation. But ants in San Diego can be elusive, and you might not see them crawling around. Here are a few other signs to look out for that may indicate an indoor ant infestation, and some places you can check for ant activity and warning signs.

Ant trails: Hunt for ants marching around in your home. Inspect your cabinets, behind and under your appliances, and around objects that sit on the floor. If you see a trail of ants, it is likely that they entered your home because they found a desirable food source. Track the trail and see if you can detect where the ants came in. Then, remove the food source and seal the entry point if possible.

Evidence Of A Nest: Ants typically build their nests in quiet dark areas of a home, such as in walls, under flooring, or in the ground outside. It is hard to detect indoor nests, but you may look for soil leaking out of cracks. Outdoors, look for the mounds ants create in the ground. An ant mound looks a bit like a tiny volcano of soil.

Frass: If you have carpenter ants in your home, you may see this material. Frass is a mixture of wood shaving, insect parts, and droppings. You'll find the material piled on a floor or leaking out of a gap.

Ant Noises: Some ants make noise when they're climbing around inside your walls. Their tiny feet make subtle clicking noises as they grip hard surfaces. If you have many ants moving about inside a wall, you may hear them.

Ant detection is sometimes tricky, even if you know where to look and what to look (or listen) for around and inside your home. If you need assistance, contact HomeShield Pest Control for effective ant control in San Diego. Our technicians are here to help you.

How Little Ants Can Become A Big Problem

How bad can tiny ants be? Don't let the small size fool you; ants can create big problems when they enter your home. The problems they create differ depending on the species. Here are a few facts to consider:

• All ants find food and grow their populations. Over time, they appear more often and cause more frustration. As the population grows, so does the complexity of your ant control. Multiple colonies can present unique challenges.
• Attempting to control an ant problem can make it worse. Some colonies have multiple queens and are prone to budding. If you're not familiar with the term, budding is when the queens part ways and establish their own unique colonies, which results in a widespread problem.
• All ants come in contact with unsanitary environments. As they move about in your home, they can contaminate packaged foods, surfaces, dishes, and more. More ants create more health concerns.
• Carpenter ants are unique in that they damage wood as they grow their populations and spread. When left untreated, these ants can do extensive damage over time.
• Some ants sting. If these ants get into your home, they can present a stinging hazard which, for some, is a serious concern.
• Some ants are attracted to power boxes and outlets. They also chew on wire coating and get into electronic devices. As they grow a population, or quickly invade your home by the thousands, they can cause outages and malfunctions.

Ants are tiny, but they are not a tiny problem. They also present a kind of problem that will grow if food and water are available. Residents often turn to ant control products or home remedies for a solution. Let's look at the challenges of DIY ant control.

The Hassles With Trying To Get Rid Of An Ant Infestation On Your Own

Ant control often seems straightforward. All you have to do is buy some bait and place it down, right? Unfortunately, this is rarely a solution. If you don't properly identify your pest ants and place down the wrong kind of bait, they may not take it. If you place too much bait, you can cause budding to occur as the queens will notice that workers are dying off quickly. Too little bait is also ineffective, as the ants can develop bait aversion as they slowly recognize the food source as harmful.

While bait is an effective solution when applied properly, it isn't a complete solution. Ant control is a process that requires many control options. If you only target one colony or fail to consider how ants are growing a population and how they're entering your home, you can continue to have ant problems, even if you successfully address the one colony that is presenting trouble.

Attempting to get rid of an ant infestation on your own can be a hassle and may not always lead to successful control. You can avoid frustration and wasted finances by contacting a licensed professional. Let's take a look at why this is the case.

The Best Way To Get Rid Of An Ant Infestation

Ants are amazing insects that work together as a colony to find and collect food, evaluate hazards in the environment around their nests, and create new colonies as needed. A pest professional is trained to identify pest ant species and select appropriate materials and products to address colonies without causing unwanted results, such as budding and bait aversion. Methods used by a professional are multi-faceted and outsmart ants—rather than allowing ants to outsmart them. Most of all, a professional is able to evaluate the ant control treatment, monitor ant activity, and detect subtle signs of continued infestation so that the treatments are successful. It is a scientific process that requires training and experience to achieve the best results every time.  

In addition to eliminating the existing colony causing trouble in or around your home, a professional can also provide preventative measures to prevent future infestations after your ant problem is addressed. These extra measures may include sealing off entry points, applying crack and crevice treatments, and managing other insects around your home. Pest-proofing provides a physical barrier for long-lasting ant deterrence. Crack and crevice treatments knock down ants and other pests that attempt to enter your home or live near your exterior walls. Spot treatments address key areas around your home to reduce insects, which are a food source for certain ants.

Are you dealing with ants in San Diego County? HomeShield Pest Control can help you find the right control solution. We use trusted products and strategies developed by industry experts. We can identify the ants on (or inside) your property, develop a treatment plan, and eliminate all the ants in your home. Once the ants are gone, we can continue to help you keep ants out. A year-round home pest control service plan offers protection against ant infestation in a few key ways.

• It controls general insect pests, which are a food source for ants that prefer protein.
• It controls plant-damaging insects, which create honeydew, a delicious food source for ants that prefer sweets.
• It directly manages ant colonies and mounds near your exterior walls and in your landscaping. 
• It provides a crack and crevice treatment that keeps ants and other general pests out of your home.
• It gives you ongoing monitoring of warning signs, such as the frass created by carpenter ants.

Would you like to learn more about our services or schedule to have a technician visit your home? We can set that up for you. Connect with us by phone, text, or e-mail. HomeShield Pest Control offers treatments for indoor ant infestations and lawn ant control in San Diego County. We're here to help you get answers to all your ant control questions, and help you get the results you want.