Early Spring in Wichita, Kansas, brings small, blackish-brown ants that show up on the kitchen counter, in the bathroom, or other places in the home that you just want to get rid of! You may also see them trailing into your house through windows and cracks around doors. If they locate something sweet inside, these little invaders will alert the others can set up a trail of ants leading from the food source to some mysterious nesting site inside walls or window casings. Even if you spray for them, these ants can be particularly persistent. They will continue to forage while avoiding the treated areas.
Material Matters
The trick to get rid of ants is to use the right materials in the right places. You need to kill the colony and all the egg-bearing females. Older pesticides are often “repellent” poisons which kill the ones you spray, but drive away or repel the ones you don’t contact. Ants are very sensitive to odors and pheromones so they will avoid the places you treated. Thus, you need to use something they will interact with, such as baits.
Baits are often sweet syrups with non-repellent insecticides in them. They are attractive as a food source like what, the ants are finding in your kitchen, and are designed to have a delayed killing action. When the worker ants pick up the materials, they take it back to the nest and feed it to the colony and slowly kill the entire clan. You just have to keep enough bait out and give the ants time to take back enough to knock out the nest.
If you have very large colonies of ants, and the problem persists, you may need to treat around the outside of the home. In this situation, you can use baits designed for exterior use or sprays. However, you do not want to use the older, repellent pesticides, because they will just move the ants around. Rather, you want to use the newer types that are non-repellent and transferable.
Let a Professional Take Care of Your Ants
The products you use to treat for ants and where you put them matter a great deal. The products available over-the-counter are not the same products that a professional will use. So, you may be successful at killing some of the ants. However, you will want to contact a professional exterminator who will know how to eliminate the entire ant colony. With the warmer weather on the way, ant season is coming! Give us a call
at 316-773-3825 to solve your ant problem or to get ahead of them!
We can also stay ahead of your ants and get rid of them as part of our residential maintenance program!
