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Think you saw a swarm of ants with wings and are you wondering what they are and why they fly?

Normally, we think of ants as wingless creatures. They get around by walking, and are usually encountered at ground level or crawling up walls.

But ants are closely related to wasps, and this is rarely more obvious than in the case of flying ants. Some ants do indeed have wings, at least at certain times of the year. So if you think you’ve seen a winged ant, you’re probably right. Some ant species can grow wings and use them to fly.

Often, flying ants emerge in large numbers and take to the sky en masse. This is part of the reproductive cycle of the colony. Flying ants are the reproductive members of the colony, responsible for creating new nests. While worker ants stay on the ground taking care of the nest, the flying ant is part of the reproductive cycle of an ant colony.

It’s important to note that not all species of ant engage in this behavior. Some types create new nests by a process known as budding instead. This is when a queen leaves the nest with a group of workers and sets out to find a new territory of her own. Usually, this behavior takes place in species that have multiple queens per colony, such as Pharaoh ants.

But for other ant species, usually those with a single queen, ants swarm as part of typical reproductive behavior. And in areas with a high population of ants, these swarms can be a spectacular sight. On a clear and windless day, thousands of female and male winged ants can take to the sky.

Sometimes, ant swarms are so big that they can be detected by weather radar.

How to Get Rid of Flying Ants

When it comes to getting rid of flying ants, you can combat obvious swarms of these winged insects with a vacuum cleaner, but the most effective method is by tackling them with a multi product Combination Ant Control Kit. This kit includes a spray for direct control but it also allows you to provide multiple baiting options for more structural control. The kit works well for controlling both sugar-loving ants as well as grease eating ants, including winged ants. It is the best remedy against all of the most common ant types that live in the USA. The kit includes baiting stations as well to allow for the easy application of the baits indoors as well as outdoors without making a mess or damaging your home. It can also be used against foraging worker ants as well as swarming ants seeking a new place for a nest.

Why Ants Fly

Ants have a fascinating lifecycle and colonies operate under a rigid caste system in which each individual has a clearly defined role. The vast majority of these insects are sterile females. Incapable of reproduction, these sisters perform most of the tasks needed to keep the colony going, such as foraging for food and tending to the queen and the juvenile ants.

Winged ants are seeking to breed and reproduce. Flying ants may be male (the drone) or female (the queen).

The queen is the only member of the colony capable of reproducing – at least for most of the year. Once a queen establishes a colony, she rarely leaves again. She’ll spend the rest of her life producing eggs to help the colony grow.

Most of these eggs will hatch into sterile females. However, the queen is also capable of laying unfertilized eggs, which will develop into male ants.  Fertilized eggs will usually develop into sterile female ants, but if the larvae are fed a particularly rich diet, they can develop into reproductive females, destined to become queens themselves.

When weather conditions are just right, these winged reproductive ants emerge from the colony and take to the sky in swarms. The females release a pheromone trail that the males follow, while the females attempt to escape the males. This ensures that only the strongest and fittest males reach the females and reproduce. It also allows ants to mate with individuals from other colonies which would normally fight one another.

The life of a male ant is brief. After swarming, called the nuptial flight, the male ants die. They perform no role in the life of the colony beyond fertilizing the females. The females, on the other hand, will fly off and start nests of their own. They chew their wings off and find somewhere safe to hide, where they begin producing eggs. The queens survive by re-absorbing the muscles that powered their wings for food while they wait for their first batch of eggs to hatch. The eggs hatch as workers, and a new colony begins.

If ant larvae are fed a particularly rich diet, they can develop into reproductive females

Species That Swarm

Ants are a very diverse group of insects, and behavior can vary a lot between different species. As mentioned above, some ant species don’t reproduce via swarming, and therefore don’t produce flying ants. But some of the most commonly encountered types of ant reproduce in this way. Moisture, carpenter ants, odorous house ants, pavement ants, and fire ants all produce winged reproductives.

Moisture Ants with wings

Also known as the little black ant, garden ants, and many other names, this extremely common group of ants is often responsible for large swarms capable of interrupting major sports events and showing up on weather reports. Black ants with wings exist in the colony from the middle of summer into the fall, and mating often occurs inside the nest before the swarm even begins.

Swarms typically occur from July through to September. After swarming, mated queens burrow into soil or rotten wood and spend the winter alone, not laying eggs until the following spring.

Flying Carpenter Ants

Carpenter ants already are the largest species in North America. While carpenter ant workers can be over half an inch in length, winged reproductives can be closer to an inch. This makes the emergence of these ants a striking sight.

To produce winged reproductives, nests must be fully mature. In the eastern part of the continent, this means a minimum of around four years old. In the West, it’s closer to 6 to 10 years. This may seem like a long time in the life of an insect, but queens of this species can live for over 20 years.

Winged carpenter ants can be close to an inch in size

Winged members of the colony don’t emerge as soon as they are born. Instead, they stay in the colony through the winter and are released the following year. This period allows the ovaries of the females to mature and become ready to reproduce. The eastern subspecies usually begin swarming around May, whereas the Western subspecies can start as early as February. It’s the male ants that determine whether conditions are right to swarm. They will emerge from the nest to check the weather, and if it seems right, they will release a pheromone that stimulates the females to emerge too. Often, the males will need to check multiple days before finding one that is right for swarming. And when people have a nest of these ants in their home, it’s often the emergence of males like this that is the first sign of the presence of these bugs.

Like other ants, the males die off after the nuptial flight. The newly mated queens will seek out a nest site, often in damp and water damaged wood that is easy for them to chew through. The queen’s first batch of eggs will contain 10 to 16 eggs, which she will feed by metabolizing her flight muscles. It takes between 6 to 12 weeks for these first few eggs to emerge as adults, and the queen will tend to them herself, even helping them emerge from their cocoons to become adults. Only once this first generation of workers is active can the queen concentrate on her primary purpose of laying more eggs.

Odorous House Ants

The Odorous house ant is also a very common species. Found both indoors and outdoors, these ants will often nest in soil underneath objects such as lumber and woodpiles. Indoors, they usually stay close to sources of moisture such as heat and water pipes.

These ants can have multiple queens to a colony, and a single colony can contain up to 100,000 individual ants. Odorous house ants are unusual in that the colonies reproduce by both budding and swarming. Because they have multiple queens, an individual queen can split off from the colony at any time to find a territory of her own.

But they also swarm, with reproductive’s usually appearing from May to mid-July. Interestingly, different colonies of these ants are not hostile to one another and do not battle for territory in the same way as some other species do.

Pavement Ants

Pavement ants are another species with multiple queens. Winged Pavement ants typically emerge outdoors in June and July, where they will take flight and mate like other species. However, these ants can also be found indoors. They prefer to nest under pavement and concrete, and often enter homes through cracks in the foundation. In fact, homeowners are often unaware of the presence of these ants until the winged reproductives emerge. And if the nest is indoors, the heat of the home can lead to swarmers appearing at almost any time of year.

Winged Pavement ants typically emerge outdoors in June and July, where they will take flight and mate.

Fire Ants

This notorious species gets its name from its ability to inflict a painful burning sting when it feels threatened. Colonies can have a single queen or multiple queens, but in either case, they reproduce by swarming.

Single queens are capable of producing up to 1500 eggs per day, and colonies can produce winged reproductives after a year or two.
Colonies can produce over 4000 swarmers per year, and 6 to 8 flights usually take place between spring and fall.

Fire ants can be quite particular in its swarming behavior. Flights typically begin around 10 AM, a day or two after the last rain in temperatures of about 75°F. The ants also like it to be sunny and with minimal wind.

Fly-in Queens

Ant swarms can be an impressive natural phenomenon. However, the swarming behavior presents a challenge from a pest control perspective.

This is especially true in the case of fire ants. Thanks to the size of the colonies, that can contain up to 500,000 individuals, and their habit of moving their nests from one location to another, these are already very difficult critters to control. But if you do manage to clear your property of fire ants and their unsightly mounds, you can never be sure that they won’t return. Any given summer, a mated queen can drop out of the sky and create a new nest on your property. These fly-in queens are one of the reasons that fire ant problems seem to recur year after year.

After all, these insects are territorial. By removing fire ants from your property, you make it more inviting for new queens looking for a territory of their own. Why go somewhere and battle with existing populations when you can establish a home where there are no competitors?

Unfortunately, there’s not very much you can do as a homeowner to prevent these fly-in queens. If you live on a property that’s susceptible to infestation by these creatures, you may find that you need to perform treatments every year to keep their numbers in check.

Can Flying Ants Bite?

The sight of thousands of swarming ants filling the air can create a lot of panic in people who encounter it. However, when treating ants, the flying variety are of little concern. It’s the workers and the queen that stay behind that need to be eradicated to destroy the colony. The reproductive ants will simply fly away, so there’s no need to try and treat these creatures.

Flying queen ants are not agressive and only have reproduction on their mind.

It’s important to remember that flying ants only have reproduction on their minds. They are not looking for food, and have no interest in your picnic or barbecue. Also, unlike their wasp cousins, they are not in the least bit aggressive. They won’t bite unless you capture one. And even then, most species can’t bite hard enough to break human skin. Carpenter and fire ants are the exceptions here, as they are capable of hurting people. However, this reproductive caste has no interest in humans, and are busy chasing one another. When they come into contact with us at all, it’s purely by accident.

Do Termites Have Wings?

As highly social insects, termites share many traits and behaviors with ants. But although they are sometimes called white ants, termites are in fact completely different creatures. They are more closely related to cockroaches than they are to true ants. Nevertheless, termites do indeed reproduce by swarming, just like ants do.

Termites indeed reproduce by swarming, just like ants do.

If you’re wondering whether the flying bugs you’re seeing are flying ants or termites, there are few ways to tell them apart. All ants have clearly defined narrow waists, whereas a termites body is more or less straight in shape with no significant waist to be seen. Also, termites have straight antenna, whereas ants have a joint in their antenna.

Finally, while both types of insect have two sets of wings, the hind wings of an ant are smaller than the front wings. In a termite, the wings will be the same size.

Conclusion

Not all ants have wings. And among the species that do, most of the individuals in the colony are wingless and incapable of flight. However, at certain points in the colony’s lifecycle, flying ants can emerge. So if you’re wondering if the creatures you see are ants with wings, you may be right.

Flying ants are part of the natural cycle of ant reproduction. By themselves, they needn’t be a cause for alarm. Although they are clumsy flyers, swarmers can travel a long way, especially if they catch a gust of wind. The presence of winged reproductives outside your home does not necessarily indicate a pest problem that needs to be dealt with.

However, reproductives are on a mission to start new colonies. If you’re trying to have an ant-free home, this could be a problem. There’s not a lot you can do about a swarm once it’s started. An aerosol spray will knock down any airborne ants it contacts, but there’ll be plenty more where they came from. In fact, part of the reason these creatures engage in swarming behavior is for the safety that numbers provide. You can kill a lot of these critters without making any difference to the swarm or the colony that produced it.

However, if you see large numbers of these bugs inside your home, it may indicate the presence of a more serious problem. After all, winged reproductives emerge from a mature colony. If large numbers of them are showing up in your home, it may be a sign that you have a nest indoors.

Winged reproductives are attracted to light. So the location you see them most often in your house may not give you a true picture of where they’re coming from.

Once they emerge, the winged bugs will often be found around windows and other light sources. But take a look around your home to see if you can determine where they’re coming from. The gap around a water pipe or crack in a wall could be the entrance to a colony that you never knew you had.

If the swarm is outside, you may not need to worry. Try to enjoy the spectacle of these ants taking to the air. After all, it’s all part of the natural cycle.

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Having ants on your property is okay as long as they live and stay outside of your home, doing the things they’ve evolved to do.

But ants don’t always stay outside. Actually some species like to come inside buildings and prefer to live in the shelter of your home.

This post will help you reduce the amount of ants on our property, and prevent ants from entering your home.

Apart from the frozen wastes of Antarctica, ants are everywhere. There’s not a country on earth that doesn’t have its own particular species of these widespread insects. The truth is, ants fulfill a vital role in the ecosystem. As omnivores that will eat almost anything, they help to keep down the population of other insects. They also help break down decomposing plants. And the nests they excavate play an important role in aerating the soil.

As social insects, ants have babies to feed. And as an insect with a highly sophisticated caste system, an ant colony has members whose entire role in life is to tirelessly fetch food and bring it back to the juvenile ants. It’s these foraging workers that most often become an issue in our homes. After all, ants will eat more or less anything you or I would. Our kitchens are a fantastic source of food for these voracious little creatures.

Even if we wanted to, we’ll never rid the world of ants. Even on your own property, it’s important for the health of your yard that you still have some of these bugs around. But any good relationship is built on boundaries.

If you want to ant proof your house, here’s how.

Following these steps will dramatically reduce the population of ants on your property, meaning you are less likely to see them inside your house in the first place. Also, blocking up holes ants can use to get inside, cleaning thoroughly, storing food in ways ants can’t get to it and using pesticides can turn your house into a fortress against these tiny invaders.

Trim Back Bushes

If you have a lot of vegetation in your garden, it may be time to get the shears out. Overgrown vegetation can become a breeding ground for all kinds of insects. And many ant species love to feed on other insects. The higher the population of insects on your property, the more likely you are to have issues with ants.

Also, trailing tree branches and bushes can act as highways for bugs to travel along. Once these creatures have found a spot they like to forage in, they tell each other through the use of pheromone trails. Where one ant has been, more are sure to follow. Ants will often use branches to reach your home and then get inside. Cutting back branches will make it harder for them to get your home.

This is also true of bushes and shrubs around the perimeter of your home. These areas provide food and shade for ants and encourage them to come closer to the house. If possible, think about implementing a dry zone for a foot or so around your home on all sides. An area with no plants and dry landscaping is far less attractive to all kinds of bugs. And if any colonies do form, you’ll see them much quicker without overgrown plants to hide them.

Keep Grass Short

You may not have considered the effect of long grass on ants. But in reality, an overgrown yard is an insect’s best friend. Just as with bushes and shrubs, long grass provides shade and retains water. This makes it a breeding ground for many invertebrates and will attract ants.

Long grass also makes it harder to see any anthills that form. By keeping your lawn clipped, you’ll make it much easier to detect the presence of insects before the population gets out of control.

Control Aphids

Aphids, also sometimes known as greenflies, are tiny soft-bodied insects that feed on the sap of plants. If your garden has the kind of plants they prefer, you could end up with a large population of these small creatures. Aphids tend to stick to the plant that provides their food, and they especially like to hide on the underside of leaves and along the stem. If the population grows large enough, they can actually start to damage the plants they feed on.

But what does this have to do with ants? Well, aphids are one of the most important food sources for several common species of ant. But not in the way you might think. Aphids produce a sweet liquid called honeydew that ants love to eat. As a result, ants don’t harm aphids. To the contrary, they will actively protect them from other bugs that would like to prey on them. Ants will guard the aphids on your plants, and tickle them with their antenna to stimulate the production of the sugary liquid they love so much. It’s a strange relationship, but one that is beneficial to both parties.

The more aphids you have in your yard, the higher the ant population your property will support, and the greater the chances that some of those ants will eventually make their way indoors. Spraying a simple solution of soap and water on your plants can help to reduce the number of aphids and keep the ant population under control. But if your aphid problem is more severe, you may need to use insecticidal soap. Or, if you want a more environmentally friendly solution, you can use ladybugs as natural pest control by releasing hundreds of ladybugs onto your property. A single ladybug can eat up to 50 aphids in a day, so it’s not hard to imagine what 1500 of them could do.

Remove Wood Piles

You’re no doubt glad of that wood-burning stove or fireplace in the winter. But in the summer, your stored word can be more of a liability than anything. Woodpiles hold onto moisture, especially when the wood is in contact with the ground. This makes them ideal habitats for all kinds of insects. Which in turn makes them ideal hunting grounds for ants.

Additionally, several ant species would be more than happy to create a nest in a woodpile. Moisture ants are capable of nesting in rotten wood, and love wood that is in contact with the soil. Carpenter ants, Crazy ants and several other species will nest in both rotten and sound wood. And since they can damage the structure of your home if they decide to make a nest inside, this is one species you really don’t want getting inside.

If you don’t want to get rid of your woodpile entirely, move it as far away from the house as you possibly can. That way, if any bugs do decide to build a colony in it, they’ll be less likely to find their way inside. It’s also a good idea to raise the wood off the soil to make it less attractive to ants. And keeping it dry will prevent it from rotting and go a long way toward making it less appealing as a nesting site.

Remove Rotting Wood

This is the same principle as dealing with the woodpile. Certain species love rotting wood, both as a nest site and as a hunting ground. Many different bugs are attracted to water damaged wood, and almost all ants are attracted to other bugs. So taking care of rotten wood is an excellent way to reduce the ant population on your property.

Check out your fence posts, garden shed, porch, planter boxes, and any other wooden items in your yard. All of these will absorb water over time and start to rot. Untreated wood is especially prone to this. Remove and replace any rotten wood you find to discourage ants from colonizing your yard.

Seal Up Cracks and Crevices

Once you’ve done your best to ant proof your yard, it’s time to turn your attention on the house. Start from the outside. Take a look around the outside of the building and look for holes. Remember that ants can be very tiny, and the smallest gap in the envelope of the building may provide them with a way in. Pay special attention around window and door frames. Be mindful too of dryer vents, air conditioners, water pipes, gas pipes, and any other conduits that enter your home. Often, these gaps are not sealed as tightly as they should be and provide easy access points for bugs and other pests.

Small holes you find can be sealed with weatherproof silicone caulk. This will keep out all kinds of bugs and should last for years. Larger holes may need more serious repair, such as concrete patches or replacement of siding. Depending on the condition of your house, this could be a lengthy process. Remember that it’s also completely environmentally friendly, and will keep out more than just ants. It can even help lower your heating bills. Besides, if done correctly, you should only need to do it once.

Clean Up + Remove Food Sources

With the garden in top shape and the entry points to the house sealed, it’s time to head indoors. Ants don’t come inside for no reason. Generally, they are in search of food, water, or shelter. Remember that ants can eat more or less anything that we can, so our kitchens are a great source of food for them. And given their tiny size, even the smallest spill or crumb can be enough to draw them inside.

Most ants are especially keen on sugary substances, so pay special attention to spills of soda, coffee, tea, melted ice cream, and other sweet foods. However, ants also eat protein and carbohydrates, so make sure no crumbs are lying around for them to access. Wipe down kitchen surfaces regularly to ensure that there is no residue left behind to attract ants.

Ants also have high water requirements, so pay attention to any areas of moisture that they might access. Check under sinks for leaking pipes and fix dripping taps. Remember to dry the area once you finish cleaning, and wring out sponges and cloths used to stop ants from finding water that way.

Store Food Properly

Ants aren’t above climbing into your kitchen cabinets and taking a bite out of whatever you have stored there. They can even chew through certain types of packaging, such as paper or thin plastic. So it’s a good idea to store all food in a way that ants and other pests can’t get to it. Hard wearing containers with an airtight seal such as Tupperware or glass are the best way to go. Not only will this keep pests away from your food, but it also helps keep your kitchen super organized.

Eradicate Trails

Insects can’t talk. Not even to each other. But that doesn’t mean they can’t communicate. For any creature with the high level of organization that ants display, communication is vital between members of the colony.

Ants communicate with one another through chemical signals called pheromones. These pheromones can produce some surprisingly sophisticated behaviors, but one of the most basic uses is to find food. Foraging workers go out looking for something to eat, and when they find it, they will carry some back to the nest in their mouth. Along the way, they will leave behind a pheromone trail that other ants will be able to follow to find the same food item the original scout found. This is part of what makes ants so successful in finding food, and the reason why large numbers of ants can appear seemingly out of nowhere overnight.

Fortunately, if these trails are broken, the ants will have a much harder time finding their way back to your food. Regular household cleaners are capable of breaking up ant trails, so this ties into the practice of cleaning your kitchen quite nicely. The more often you wipe down surfaces, the harder it will be for the ants to establish a trail, and the less reason they will have to come into your kitchen in the first place.

Do a Barrier Treatment

If the ants are coming from outside, you may want to consider performing what is known as a barrier treatment. This involves creating a barrier around the perimeter of your house that will stop ants from coming inside. Some barriers repel ants, while others kill any that cross it. The best ones do both.

The most environmentally friendly way to create a barrier is with diatomaceous earth. This naturally occurring substance contains no pesticide and instead works by scratching an ant’s body until it can no longer retain water, causing it to dehydrate and die. Because this is not a pesticide, you can use it freely indoors or outdoors, without worrying about your kids or pets getting too close to it. About the only downside is that it comes in the form of a fine white powder, and will be visible wherever you’ve applied it. Also, if using diatomaceous earth outdoors, you’ll need to reapply after rain.

For a neater solution, you could turn to a commercial pesticide such as Ortho Home Defense. This ready-to-use spray comes pre-mixed so that you can spray it around your home to keep the ants at bay. It kills bugs on contact, but it also has a residual effect that will keep killing them for weeks after the application. Even if it rains, Ortho Home Defense will remain effective for a long time and help to keep your home protected.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_rbeLoGa50

Conclusion – An Ant Free Home

With so many different species, it’s important to remember that what works for one type of ant may not work on another. For instance, not all ants that can be found inside the home come from outside. There are some tropical species, such as Pharaoh ants, that only live indoors, and come into your property either from a neighboring unit or as stowaways in groceries. For these ants, the only effective solution is a poison bait that the creatures will take back to the hidden nest so that it slowly makes its way through the entire colony.

But for most insects, it’s possible to keep them outside where they belong. Start by focusing on your garden, and make your home unattractive to ants. The less of these critters live in your area, the less likely they are to find their way inside someday. Then, move on to sealing up cracks and crevices to physically bar them from entrance. Finally, a barrier treatment, whether diatomaceous earth or a pesticide, can be a very effective way to keep these bugs from coming in to live with you.

Ants most definitely have their place in this world, and there’s no need to try and eradicate them completely. If you can keep them from coming inside, you may just be able to live in peace with these fascinating but occasionally irritating insects.

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Ants are made to live outdoors, and that’s where you’ll find most species. But some ant species will happily come inside human homes in search of water, food, and shelter.

In the USA and Canada the main offenders inside homes and buildings are Moisture, Pavement, Fire, Pharaoh, Argentine, Odorous House, Crazy, Ghost, and Carpenter ants.
All of these creatures will come inside buildings if given a chance. The best way to prevent an ant infestation is by ant proofing your house & making sure they don’t enter the building in the first place. Keeping them outside will also prevent them from creating new colonies inside your home.

Ants are fascinating creatures. They’ve been around for millions of years, and have become the most successful group of animals on the planet, with the possible exception of our own species. In fact, it’s estimated that for every human on the planet, there are over 1 million ants.

With over 12,000 species discovered, ants are also some of the most specialized creatures on earth. The range of their adaptations to different environments is staggering and leads to some of the most sophisticated behaviors in the animal kingdom. And all this from a creature with a brain around the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen.

But it’s hard to see the positive qualities of these insects once they come inside your home.

Although ants don’t spread disease, and most species are incapable of harming humans, they can become a real nuisance when they enter your home or office building.

So let’s take a closer look at these invasive creatures.

Moisture Ants

The common name of moisture ant describes a range of different creatures, most in the Lasius genus. These ants are also sometimes known as sugar ants, garden ants, and black ants. However, these ants can vary widely in color, from black all the way to a pale yellow depending on their diet.

It’s hard to see their positive qualities once ants invade your home.

In their natural habitat, these creatures nest in soil under rocks and also in rotten word. As the name implies, they require high levels of humidity to thrive and often come into homes in search of water. If you have rotten wood in your home, these ants can excavate it to make a nest. But they can also nest in the soil underneath the foundations of the building and emerge through cracks in the concrete.

Pavement Ants

This common species of ant is generally found outside, where they nest in sandy soil underneath concrete and paving slabs. Brown to black in color, they can reach up to 1/8 of an inch in length. They are territorial and will readily fight other colonies of ants to defend their nest.

These ants will feed on almost anything. Their natural diet consists of dead insects, honeydew secreted by aphids, seeds, and plants up. They will also eat meat, nuts, cheese, honey, and bread. They will forage up to 30 feet away from their nest, and this can often bring them inside human homes, where they can find plenty to eat.

This species can enter homes in search of food, but they also capable of building colonies inside your home. They can nest in insulation in walls and underneath flooring. They are often found near heat sources and usually enter buildings at ground level through cracks in the concrete.

Fire Ants

Fire ants have a bad reputation thanks to their ability to deliver a painful sting when they feel threatened. Usually, this species lives outdoors, where they excavate soil and raise large visible mounds over the colonies.

Although usually considered a ground-nesting ant, these critters are capable of creating colonies indoors. They can nest in the wood or masonry of buildings, and are typically found in areas near soil. Exposed soil within a home, such as a bath trap under the tub, can also provide a home for these bugs. Additionally, they will sometimes live in the soil of a potted plant.

Fire ants prefer to feed on food with high protein content, but they are not picky eaters and will consume almost anything. That includes human food. Fire ants are also attracted to electricity, and can often damage electronics by coming between two contacts and causing a short. The shock the ant receives can cause it to release a defensive pheromone which will attract more ants.

Because these ants are capable of stinging, having them in your home is a serious cause for concern. They have even been linked to the deaths of humans by causing anaphylactic shock through multiple stings. Fortunately, it’s relatively rare for these creatures to build a nest inside the building. If you see fire ants indoors, it’s far more likely that the foragers have wandered in from outside. Either way, it’s important to determine where they are nesting to decide on the best method of treatment.

Pharaoh Ants

Not native to the United States, this ant can nevertheless be found throughout North America. Its colonies can have hundreds of thousands of members, including hundreds of queens. As a tropical species, this ant can only live outside in warm locations such as South Florida and Hawaii. However, this is an ant that will happily live inside human homes.

Pharaohs nest in warm, humid areas, preferring temperatures above 80°F. They consume a wide range of food, including virtually anything humans will eat.

These ants are most easily identified by their tiny size, with workers around 1/16 of an inch in length. They are usually yellow or orange in color.

Pharaoh ants are one of the hardest ant species to control inside a building.

Because of their multiple queens, Pharaoh ants should never be sprayed with anything, including household cleaners. This will cause the colony to split up, and the numerous queens will separate to start multiple nests throughout the structure. The only effective way to treat pharaoh ants is by use of a slow-acting poison bait. This method of treatment will not stress the ants and so will not encourage them to split the colony. However, pharaohs can change their dietary preferences seemingly overnight, making them one of the hardest ant species to control inside a building.

Argentine Ants

Native to South America, this species is thought to have arrived in New Orleans in the late 19^th century. Since then, it has spread across the southern states. Populations can also be found in California, Arizona, Missouri, Illinois, Maryland, Indiana, Oregon, and Washington. These tiny creatures are around 1/16 of an inch in length, with bodies that range from light to dark brown.

Like many other bugs, these creatures love moisture. They like to build nests in soil with high humidity, and areas beneath plants and under rocks are very appealing to them. Indoors, they often nest near water pipes and sinks to be close to a water source.

Like pharaohs, Argentines have multiple queens. But what sets this creature apart is its intense level of cooperation. Although small, these bugs are very aggressive toward other species of ant, and will often try to wipe them out. However, they are entirely non-aggressive toward other members of the same species. As a result, colonies can merge and create supercolonies with millions of members. A colony in California is over 500 miles in size. Furthermore, this colony is linked to even more massive populations in Europe and Japan, forming a worldwide mega colony unlike anything else found in the insect world. These ants have been so successful because they can hitch a ride in the products that humans transport around the world, allowing them to spread far from their original South American home.

Odorous House Ants

This common critter gets his name from the rotten coconut smell it produces when crushed between the fingers. They are common pests in homes, where they will enter to forage for sweets and proteins. Found throughout the US, the species is native to North America. Adults are up to 1/8 of an inch in length and usually black.

OHAs like to nest near sources of water. Indoors, they can often be found in wall voids close to water pipes and heaters or in crevices under sinks. They also sometimes nest in wood damaged by termites. They can nest outdoors, and have been found living in the nests of large ants such as carpenter ants, or inside beehives. While they will forage on dead insects and other protein sources, they prefer sweets. The honeydew produced by aphids is an important source of food for them, and they often enter homes after rainy weather has washed the honeydew off the local plants. Because of their attraction to sugar, soda, honey, syrup, and other sweet substances are very inviting to them.

When alarmed, the foraging workers will run around erratically with their abdomens raised. However, these ants do not possess a stinger, and so it is unclear why they engage in this behavior.

Crazy Ants

These creatures get their unusual name from the way that they move. They tend to run around erratically and have legs that are unusually long in comparison to their body size. Adults are about 1/8 inch long and usually black. These bugs are found throughout the US, but are generally only an indoor pest in the northern states, whether harsh winters make it impossible for them to survive outside.

Colonies are usually small, with around 2000 workers and multiple queens. These crazy creatures display a high tolerance to environmental conditions, able to nest in areas ranging from very moist to very dry. They will also often abandon one nesting site and move to another. Outside, they create shallow nests in soil, where they feed on other insects, seeds, fruit, and honeydew. Periods of rain that wash the honeydew from plants can often lead to these bugs coming inside in search of other food sources. However, they are also capable of nesting indoors, in potted plants, wall voids, and underneath flooring.

Ghost Ants

This tropical species is thought to be of African origin. As a heat-loving bug, it’s found mostly in southern Florida and Hawaii, but populations also exist in Texas. They have been found throughout the US and into Canada, but can only survive in heated buildings in northern climates.

These bugs have light-colored legs and abdomens, which can make them difficult to spot and gives them their name. They are also very small, close in size to pharaohs at 1/16 of an inch in length. Like OHAs, they emit a rotten coconut smell when crushed.

Colonies contain multiple queens, and individual colonies are not territorial towards one another. They can nest in soil, inside logs, underneath firewood, and in cavities inside trees and shrubs. They often enter homes by following trails along branches that come into contact with the building. These critters have a sweet tooth, and will often enter buildings in search of sugary substances to feed on. For this reason, good hygiene is very important in keeping these ants at bay.

These creatures are also capable of nesting indoors, in potted plants, behind baseboards, and inside wall voids. Just as they do outdoors, they seek out warm, dark cavities in which to begin a colony.

In northern climates, the species is a significant pest in greenhouses. They are often brought into homes via their habit of nesting in the soil of potted plants.

Carpenter Ants

Carpenter ants are one of the most notorious invaders of human homes and buildings. Native to North America, they are the largest species of ant on the continent. Adult workers can reach half an inch in size, and queens can be almost an inch long. While this can make them relatively easy to identify, it’s important to note that workers come in a variety of sizes, and are often smaller in spring than they will be later in the year.

Carpenters get their name from the habit of nesting in wood. Typically, the species has a single queen, and she will start a colony in wood that has been softened by water damage. As a result, this nest is usually – but not always – outside. However, these bugs maintain more than one nest. As the colony grows and matures, the ants will seek out a new site and construct what’s known as a satellite nest. The ants will carry eggs from the primary nest to a satellite nest where they will mature and emerge as adults. The satellite nest requires lower humidity than the primary nest, and as a result can be either indoors or outdoors.

Carpenters have powerful jaws and are capable of boring holes in wood. Unlike termites, they don’t need the wood to be water damaged to excavate it. Also, unlike termites, they don’t eat the wood. They spit it out in the form of fine sawdust that can sometimes be found piled up under the entrance to their nest. Carpenter ants excavate galleries in which to keep their eggs protected by the wood that surrounds them.

Carpenter ants feed on honeydew, fruits, and other insects. They are quite poor foragers relative to other ants, and will venture up to 300 feet from the nest in search of food. So even if the nest is outdoors, they often come inside on a quest for something to eat.

If you’re seeing carpenters inside your home, it’s important to try and figure out where they are coming from. One or two foraging workers coming in from the garden doesn’t need to be a cause for alarm. But more regular appearances of these ants may indicate the presence of a nest. And the nest may well be inside your house. Because of their habit of carving colonies out of solid wood, these bugs are a significant cause of structural damage to buildings. It’s estimated that they cause $5 billion worth of damage each year in the US alone.

Additionally, although bait products are available for carpenters, the ant’s relatively poor foraging ability and picky food habits means that bait is rarely successful in eliminating a colony. To keep these ants out of your home, a perimeter treatment with a residual pesticide is a more effective method of control. However, if they have established a satellite nest inside your home, it’s not enough simply to keep them out. You’ll want to locate and destroy the nest directly.

This is easier said than done. This species is most active at night, and colonies are often built inside walls and other inaccessible places. Because of this, and the potential for serious structural damage to your home, carpenters are often best dealt with by a professional pest control company.

Prevent ants from entering your home

Ants in your home are not only inconvenient, they can cause serious damage to your house. The best way to prevent costly damage is to prevent the ants from entering your home in the first place. Once ants invade your building and start a colony there are several ways to get rid of them.

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Carpenter ants are striking creatures. As North America’s largest species, adults can reach close to an inch in size. Among ants, that makes them giants. And if you stumble upon a colony of these creatures, you won’t soon forget the experience.

Most insects live outdoors, and that’s the way we like it. But sometimes, these giant bugs can be found inside the house. And if that happens to you, you may be wondering why. Unfortunately, there’s no good reason for this to be happening. However, there are a couple of bad ones, and one is much worse in the other.

The Ants are Looking for Food or Water

Like all living things, these creatures need food and water to survive. Human houses can provide them with both of these things, as well as shelter from extremes of temperature or bad weather. Foraging workers can often find their way into human homes. And if there’s something there that they like, whether to eat or drink, they will certainly tell their friends. Before you know it, you’ll have plenty of insect visitors.

This is undoubtedly a bad thing. But it’s better than the alternative.

The Ants Have a Nest Inside Your Home

The name Carpenter comes from these ant’s habit of building settlements inside wood. In their natural forested environment, these creatures play an important role in breaking down dead trees and returning the nutrients to the soil. But in buildings, this can become a major problem. These bugs have jaws that are powerful enough to chew through solid wood. They don’t even need it to be rotten or water damaged, the way the termites do. If these bugs are living in your house, you can have a serious problem on your hands.

What to do About Carpenter Ants in Your Home

Foraging Workers

As social insects, ants have a high degree of organization in their colonies. Individuals perform different roles throughout their lives, and everything they do is in service of the group as a whole. To explain why these bugs have to go out foraging for food, we need to take a closer look at their biology.

Adults can’t eat solid food. While they may have fearsome pincers, or mandibles, these are only useful for breaking material down into smaller pieces. But the structure of an ant’s body, with its extremely narrow neck and waist, makes it impossible for them to eat solid food. That doesn’t mean it won’t attract them, though. Leave a piece of solid food out, and they will most certainly be interested in it.

So what are they doing? The adults carry solid food back to the group. Here, they feed it to the juveniles, the larvae. At this stage of their life cycle, the creatures have worm like bodies without the distinct segments of the adults. The larvae can eat solid food and regurgitate a nutritious liquid for the adults to swallow. For this reason, the adults are totally dependent on the survival of the colony.

The job of a larva is to digest food for the adults until it grows up to be an adult itself. Once it does, it begins to take care of the remaining larvae and the queen who lays the eggs. But as the ants age, they start to take on a bigger role in the defense and maintenance of the nest. Finally, as an ant reaches the end of its life, it becomes a foraging worker. The majority of the ants that you will see in your house are the oldest members of the colony.

By ant standards, carpenters are relatively poor foragers. They can often be found hundreds of feet from the nest. The constant quest for food sometimes brings them into our homes. As omnivores, these bugs will consume a wide range of foods, including almost anything that humans will. Also, their preferences change throughout the year according to the shifting needs of the colony. These insects will happily feed on protein such as meat and other insects. But they are also attracted to sugar and sweet substances.

So how do you keep these foraging workers out of your home?

A Nest Inside the Home

All of these tips will help reduce the presence of ants in your home. Removing food and water will give foraging workers no reason to come inside. And destroying the trails will ensure that no more insects can find their way inside.

But thanks to their ability to carve galleries inside solid wood, Carpenters are quite capable of living inside your house. If this happens, cleaning up may not be enough. You’ll need to go on the offensive against these bugs.

How Will I Know There’s a Nest?

One or two of these bugs inside your house could be no more than a few foraging workers. If you see a couple of them per day inside, it could mean nothing more than that there is a colony nearby, and these bugs are checking your home for food. But if you start to see more –six, seven, eight, or more per day – you may have to entertain the possibility that they are coming from inside the house.

A more surefire way to tell is the presence of winged ants. Carpenter colonies spread by swarming. This means that at certain times of the year, generally in spring and again in the fall, a mature colony will produce flying ants. These creatures, called alates, are the only reproductive members of the colony besides the queen. They can be either male or female, and are usually significantly larger than their flightless siblings. The alates exist to fly into the air, mate with one another, and then fly off to start new colonies of their own. The males die soon after the so-called nuptial flight, whereas the mated females go on to start colonies of their own. It can be the start of a long and productive life for these females; Carpenter ant queens can live as long as 20 years!

Alates are relatively poor flyers. Ants aren’t designed to be aerodynamic, and can often be clumsy in flight. While an alate can find your home from outside, if you see two, three, four or more, it’s more likely that they are emerging inside. And that can only mean that there’s a nest.

Alates only fly when climactic conditions are just right. So often, alates will emerge without taking flight just to check the weather conditions. Strangely, it’s only the males that do this. They check to make sure conditions are perfect before the females take flight. This can happen for many days before flight takes place, so this is often the first sign people see that there is a nest in their property.

Another way to determine where the colony is involves tracking the foraging workers. Once a worker discovers a food source, it will carry some back to the nest. You can feed a worker with a dab of diluted honey. Once it drinks up the sweet liquid, it will carry some back to the colony inside its crop, a kind of stomach that the ants use to share food with one another. Left to its own devices, the ant will head back to the colony. And you can follow it.

Of course, these insects can go places you can’t follow. You may need to feed multiple workers this way to establish a pattern of behavior. But sometimes, these workers will lead you right back to the nest they came from. If nothing else, they will help you narrow down your search area.

Because these creatures live inside wood, the colonies can be surprisingly discreet. Watch out for holes in the wall where the bugs are coming and going. Also keep an eye out for frass, a kind of fine sawdust that the ants produce and push out of the entrances to the nest. Unlike termites, carpenter ants don’t eat wood. They simply hollow it out to make galleries in which to keep their eggs and raise their larvae. Piles of this fine dust underneath holes that ants are using is a sure sign of the presence of a colony.

I Found the Nest – Now What?

Directly treating a carpenter ant nest can be a tricky task. Many people prefer to leave these kinds of jobs to the professionals, and there’s no shame in that. Every situation is slightly different, and it takes years of experience to get good at taking down colonies of these bugs. As a result, however, it can also be a very expensive service.

So if you want to take on the nest yourself, you’ll need to get hold of some good pest control products. If you can find it, a professional grade insecticide such as Demon Max is a great tool to use. This concentrated liquid needs to be diluted before use and will require the purchase of a pump sprayer. But it’s worth the hassle. It not only kills bugs on contact but also has a residual effect that will kill ants in the treated area for months after the application. It also breaks up the trails and creates a barrier that the insects won’t want to cross, so it can be very effective as a perimeter treatment around your home. Remember that Carpenters typically have more than one nest. The one in your home is likely to be a satellite colony without a queen. These satellite nests stay in contact with the primary nest where the queen lives, which is usually outdoors in a tree stump or some other area of high humidity. Breaking the pheromone trail between these two colonies ensures that the bugs won’t simply recolonize your home.

If you’re sure you’ve located the nest, a good product to treat it directly is Termidor Foam. The expanding foam will swell to fill all the cavities and tunnels of the nest, making sure it reaches each and every insect that’s inside. Like Demon, this product also provides residual protection, so that the ants won’t be able to recolonize the space once you’ve destroyed it. It’s a great product, but make sure to put some newspaper down before injecting it into the nest, because this stuff can get messy.

Once the nest has been treated, you’ll need to assess the damage the insects have caused. Bear in mind that if the colony was producing alates, it would have to be a minimum of five years old, meaning the damage could be quite extensive. By hollowing out the wood, these creatures can reduce the loadbearing capacity of wooden beams in buildings, so it’s a good idea to get an assessment of the damage. This kind of work is best performed by an expert.

Conclusion – No One’s Favorite Roommate

There’s no good reason to have these bugs in your home. But some reasons are worse than others. As much of a nuisance as foraging workers can be, especially when you find them in your kitchen, it’s preferable to having to share your home with a carpenter ant nest. And it’s essential to figure out why you’re seeing these bugs inside your home. Generally, foraging workers account for only 5 to 10% of the population of the colony. You can kill them all day and make no difference to the overall health of the population.

Carpenter ants are one of the trickiest species to get rid of, and their ability to cause damage to homes makes them a major problem to have to deal with. If you discover the presence of these creatures in your home and don’t feel confident about solving the problem yourself, don’t hesitate to contact a licensed local pest control company to take care of the problem for you.

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For most of us, ants are part of life. This highly successful species has managed to spread itself across the world, with billions of individuals on every continent except Antarctica. In that sense, they’re not unlike the insect world’s version of us. Especially when you consider their social organization. For these creatures, cooperation is key, and it’s cooperation that has allowed them to become one of the most successful animal species of all time.

But if these invaders start to appear on your property, you may be less interested in their social organization and more interested in knowing why this happened. After all, knowing the reason for something can help you to prevent it from happening again in the future. When it comes to these tiny insects, there are a few reasons why you may be seeing them in your home. These reasons boil down to:

For all their social organization, an ant colony’s needs are fairly simple. Like all animals, their only goal in life is to survive and reproduce. If your house provides a good environment for them to do that, then you can expect to be dealing with these pesky invaders.

But one by one, you can eliminate the things that attract the bugs to your property and get rid of these critters. By removing food, water, and shelter, you can return your home to its pristine, bug-free state.

Food

What do ants eat? It’s a question you may never have asked yourself before. But when these miniature monsters start to show up in your house, it’s important to figure out why it’s happening.

Food is the number one reason that people find ants inside their house. But the way these creatures feed is a little different from the eating habits of other insects.

Feeding preferences vary from one species to another, and even from one colony to the next. Furthermore, the feeding preferences of an ant nest can change throughout the year, varying according to what the colony needs at any given time. But in general, they will eat most things that you would eat. Most species seem to have a sweet tooth and are often drawn to sugary treats and drinks. Some other types prefer to feed on fats and proteins. Occasionally, some exhibit a preference for carbohydrates. But mostly, ants are drawn to sugar.

In their natural habitat, sugar feeding ants are often attracted by fruit and plant sap. Many species also obtain the sugar they need from aphids. These tiny insects secrete a sweet substance called honeydew that ants are happy to feed on. In fact, in the wild, they will actively seek out and milk aphids to obtain this substance. But in your home, sugary soda and syrup will do just as well.

Ants are what is known as eusocial. This is a fancy scientific way of saying that they cooperate with other members of their colony to raise their young, find something to eat, and defend the nest. In fact, the individuals are completely dependent on the colony. An individual ant can’t survive by itself – at least not for long. For that reason, everything they do serves the needs of the group.

This social behavior extends to the food these creatures eat. If you carefully watch while they are feeding on something, you will see them bite into it in the same way you or I would do while eating. But often, that’s not actually what’s going on at all. Adult ants – the foraging workers you’ll see wandering around your house and yard in quest of snacks – don’t eat solid food at all.

Hard to believe? It might be if you’ve seen these critters biting into a piece of fruit or some crumbs left over from lunch. But what they are actually doing is taking it back to their nest. Here, they’ll feed it to the developing larvae, or young ants. These larvae are capable of eating and digesting solid food, and when they do, they secrete liquid that the adults can feed on. Yes, it’s gross. But it ensures that the foraging workers do everything they can to keep the larvae fed.

Did you know that ants can lift and carry up to 100 times their body weight? That’s the equivalent of a 200-pound man benching a garbage truck. This weightlifting ability allows the tiny creatures to carry large amounts of food back to the nest to feed the larvae.

So what does this have to do with you? Well, anyone with kids will know how much they can eat. Now imagine having tens or hundreds of thousands of offspring to feed, and you’ll understand why these creatures are always so busy. Food is so essential to the colony that thousands of foraging workers spend their entire lives doing nothing other than gather it and bring it back home. And it’s this constant quest for sustenance that often leads these insects indoors.

For this reason, the first step to getting rid of these bugs is to make sure they can’t find anything to eat. Remove the food sources in your kitchen and other rooms, and you’ll remove one of the main reasons these creatures have to come inside. Wipe up any spills as soon as they happen. Don’t leave dirty dishes in the sink. Take garbage outside as soon as you can, before the insects can get to it. Vacuum regularly. Don’t forget that even a tiny crumb can be enough to keep them going. And don’t forget about pet food. Try to train your pets to only eat at designated times, and whatever they don’t eat gets put away again. Alternatively, you could invest in some pest-proof food bowls.

Don’t forget about the food in your kitchen cabinets. Because they are so tiny, these creatures often have no trouble getting inside cabinets and finding the food you have stored. Many types have no problem chewing through paper or thin plastic bags to reach what’s inside, so consider getting some glass storage containers to keep them out.

Water

In the tropics, ants are a year-round nuisance. But for those of us who live in more temperate climates, we usually think of them as a summertime pest. These insects prefer higher temperatures which allow their eggs to develop and their nests to expand, and many species, such as carpenter and fire ants, go dormant in the winter.

Like all animals, they need water to survive. And in the summer, this can be hard to come by. But you know where there’s a ready source of clean, fresh water, even in the driest days of summer? That’s right: your house.

Take, for example, one of the most common home-invading species in the United States, the odorous house ant. These creatures often enter buildings in search of water and are routinely found near pipes where condensation collects on the metal. Not only do the foraging workers need to drink, but they also need to bring water back to the nest to provide for the queen and her larvae.

Fact: while odorous house ants often enter buildings in search of water, many homeowners find that their numbers seem to increase after rain. This is because the rain washes the honeydew they normally feed on from the plants outdoors, and so the insects come inside in search of something to eat.

Ants will readily enter buildings in search of water, especially in hot climates. But there’s another way in which water attracts these tiny pests.

There are thousands of different kinds of ant in the world, and they all have different preferences. One species, known as the moisture ant, gets its name from its unusual attraction to water. Not only do these critters go in search of water to drink, but they also require high humidity inside their nests. Rotten wood, especially wood in contact with soil, is an ideal spot for these creatures to build a place to live. They will excavate a series of tunnels through the wood in which to lay their eggs and live quite happily in a rotten old tree stump or fence post on your property. This is bad enough, but what if the rotten wood is inside your home? If you have a leaking pipe inside a wall, you may not even know it. But these tenacious insects will find it. If the wood has decayed and gone soft, moisture ants will happily turn it into a nest.

Carpenter ants will do much the same thing. But in their case, they don’t even need the wood to be rotten. Their jaws are strong enough to chew holes in a perfectly solid wooden beam. Still, no animal likes to work more than it has to. This species will happily take advantage of the softness of water-damaged wood to create a colony.

So if you want to keep bugs out of your home, you need to think about water. Just as with food, go through your house and think about every source of water that these insects could possibly find. Dishes piled in the sink and wet cloths on kitchen surfaces will provide them with plenty of moisture. But you should also check for any leaks either inside or outside the building. Anywhere moisture collects can attract foraging workers. And once one of them has found its way into your house, you can be sure that more will soon follow.

Shelter

Eliminating food and water sources will go a long way toward making your home less attractive to these crawling critters. But don’t forget that your house can also provide them with shelter, both from the elements and from other creatures that would happily eat them. In the scorching heat of summer, an air-conditioned house can be very attractive to an overheating insect. Likewise, the warmth of a human home can keep them from freezing to death in the winter. Sometimes, they will come inside just get out of the weather.

Of course, an individual can’t survive by itself. So you needn’t worry if one or two individuals come inside. But some types of ant can set up a nest inside your home. And then you can look forward to having problems throughout the year.

Ants that nest in wood, such as the Carpenter and Moisture species, can easily colonize your property. Fixing leaking pipes and removing moisture is the best way to prevent this. But if you’re serious about keeping these creatures out of your home, you should also consider inspecting you home for anywhere they could get inside. Take a walk around outside the building and look for cracks and crevices that would allow these tiny critters inside. Any you find can be sealed up with weatherproof silicon caulk. Pay special attention around window and door frames, and anywhere that conduits pass through the exterior of your home, such as dryer vents, water and gas pipes, and air-conditioning returns. These are all great places for bugs to get inside. And if you stop them from coming inside in the first place, they’ll never be able to establish a nest in your home.

Flying Ants

Food, water, and shelter are the main reasons for these insects to come inside. But there’s another reason people sometimes find them inside the home, and it has to do with the reproductive cycle of some species.

Many types of ant reproduce through a process called swarming. At certain times of the year, usually on a warm, dry, windless day, a colony will produce winged reproductive ants. These are generally larger than the foraging workers, and they have wasp-like wings on their backs. These wings allow them to take to the air. This is called a nuptial flight, and it’s how new nests get started. The winged reproductives, which can be either male or female, mate in the air. The males die off shortly afterward, but the females fly away and become the queen of a new colony.

At least, that’s the theory. But what occasionally happens is that a colony will have an exit somewhere inside a building. Maybe the entire nest is indoors, hidden in a wooden beam or underneath the basement floor. Or perhaps the colony is outside, but the ants have dug an exit through cracks in the concrete foundation. Either way, the winged reproductives can emerge indoors. And when they do, the sheer number of them can be alarming.

One day, you may see no ants inside. The next, there are hundreds of them. And while these winged reproductives can fly, they are not particularly good at it. This means they often get trapped inside, crashing into windows and even people as they buzz around the house.

The best way to deal with a swarm like this is to get out the vacuum and start sucking up bugs. Beyond that, if you can find where they are emerging, you can treat the nest directly or else seal up the entrance they are using to get inside.

Are Ants Harmful?

Seeing these small insects inside your home can be alarming. But most are more or less harmless. That’s not to say they aren’t a big nuisance. But most species are incapable of biting humans. And while some can deliver a painful sting, such as the fire ant, they generally prefer to stay outdoors.

A greater danger is the damage the insects might do to your home. Carpenter ants can weaken the structure of the building by chewing through wooden support beams. Meanwhile, so-called crazy ants have been known to short out electronics by creating a bridge between electrical contacts with their bodies. So while the small creatures probably won’t harm you directly, they can most definitely do damage to your property.

The best way to avoid this is to make sure they never come inside in the first place. So remember the three factors that draw the bugs into your home. Food, water, and shelter. By removing each of these systematically, you will create a house that ants will have no reason to enter.

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Everything in nature has its place. Ants are no exception. Ants are actually vital to the health of the ecosystem, both in the wild and in your garden. As highly successful omnivores (which means they eat almost anything) ants help to keep down the population of other insects that can harm your plants. They also perform an essential role in breaking down decomposing matter. So a completely ant-free garden would be an unhealthy garden.

That doesn’t mean these critters are necessarily your best friends, though. When the population in your vegetable garden or yard gets too large, ants can do more harm than good. For one thing, certain species will feed on your plants and can wreak havoc in your vegetable garden. For another, ants can often encourage the presence of other harmful insects, such as aphids. Finally, some species of ant defend their nest aggressively and can bite or sting you if they feel threatened. Besides, no one wants that beautiful lawn marred by dozens of ant hills.

Fortunately, there are a few remedies you can use to get rid of ants naturally. Here are some things you can try:

Get Rid of Aphids

Aphids are small soft-bodied insects that feed on plants. Specifically, they use their needlelike mouthparts to suck the sap from plants. Also known as greenflies, aphids can cause a lot of damage to vegetation in your garden.

Aphids also attract ants. But if you were hoping that the ants might get rid of the aphids for you, you’re out of luck. Ants and aphids have an unusual and long-established relationship with one another.

Ants stroke the aphids with their antenna, which causes the aphids to secrete a sugary substance called honeydew, which the ants then eat. In return, the ants protect their aphid buddies from predators. Aphids represent a significant outdoor food source for many types of sugar feeding ants, so the fewer aphids in your garden, the fewer ants you will have.

You can treat plants that are harbouring aphids with a solution of water and dish soap. Spraying the plants with this mixture will make it impossible for the aphids to cling on to the plant. And once they are dislodged, they will be unable to find their way back to their food source. This will not only protect your plants from aphid damage but will also reduce the number of ants on your property.

You can also treat aphids with insecticidal soap. Since aphids are so tiny, with adults less than 1/4 of an inch in length, you may have to look carefully through your plants to find. Often, it’s easier to look for signs of the damage that they do to plants.  Curling or yellowing leaves are a common sign of aphid infestation, as are leaves and stems of a plant being sticky thanks to the honeydew they secrete. Remember to check the underside of plant leaves for aphids, as they often like to hide there

Use Diatomaceous Earth

When you find ants marauding through your garden, another way to deal with them is by using diatomaceous earth. This fine white powder is available in hardware stores everywhere. Although it’s a very effective ant killer, it’s not actually a pesticide. Instead, this powder is a physical control that won’t harm you or your family and can be safely used on your vegetable patch.

Diatomaceous earth is made up of tiny shards of fossilized sea creatures. When insects crawl over this powder, the jagged edges of the microscopic shells lacerate their bodies and cause them to dehydrate and die.

Spread diatomaceous earth around the base of plants, and anywhere you’ve seen ant activity. If you find a nest, sprinkle the powder liberally around the area. Diatomaceous earth is unlikely to destroy an ant colony completely, but it will dramatically reduce the number of foraging workers in your garden.

Make sure not to spread too much diatomaceous earth around, though. You should spread enough that it’s visible in the areas you’ve applied it, but don’t create big piles of it. No insect will walk through a large mound of dust, and the powder will simply end up blowing all over yours and your neighbour’s yards.

Poison Them with Borax

You may not like the idea of using poison in your garden. But don’t worry; borax is a naturally occurring mineral that has been used for generations as a laundry detergent. However, Boric Acid is also a potent stomach poison for insects. If you want a more long-term solution to your ant problems that still doesn’t involve the use of harsh chemicals, this is an excellent method of pest control.

Mix the borax with powdered sugar at a ratio of one part borax to three parts sugar. Set this mixture out in your yard, especially in areas where you have seen ants foraging.

The idea is that the foraging workers will find the sweet mixture and carry some of it back to the nest. There, they will feed it to the juveniles and the queen. Over time, the poison will spread to the colony and kill off these creatures.

It’s a good idea when using this method to place the bait in some kind of bait station, especially if you have pets. Ingesting a little bit of borax won’t harm your dog, but it’s still something you should try to avoid if possible. Old bottle caps can make handy homemade bait stations. Alternatively, you can dissolve the borax and sugar in water and use cotton balls to soak up the water. The insects will suck the sugary liquid right out of the cotton balls, but non-target animals will be safe.

Reduce Sources of Water

All animals need water. For that matter, so do the plants in your garden. So gardens can often be a good source of water for insects. One way to make your yard less attractive to ants is to reduce the sources of water they can find in it.

Check outdoor faucets and hoses for leaks. Also, check your gutters and drainpipes to see if water collects in any specific areas of your yard. Many of these creatures like to build colonies in areas of high humidity, and if your garden is getting more water than it needs, you are inviting ants to build a home on your property.

Get Rid of Rotten Wood

Is your fence showing its age? What about that woodpile that’s been sitting for years? To you, these may look like nothing more than pieces of weathered wood. But to certain ant species, they make an ideal home.

Damp wood, especially wood in contact with soil, makes an excellent nest for moisture ants. This widespread species loves to excavate galleries in which to lay its eggs through wood softened by water damage. They often found nesting at the bottom of fence posts or sheds. Additionally, wooden planter boxes or railway ties also make great locations for them to establish a territory.

The same goes for carpenter ants. This large species, with its powerful jaws, doesn’t even need the wood to be rotten. They are fully capable of carving out a nest in a solid piece of wood. But if the wood is rotten, their job is that much easier. In the wild, carpenter ants but also crazy ants play an important role in breaking down dead trees, and can often be found nesting in old tree stumps. But they don’t know the difference between a forest and your home.

The best way to ensure that you never have to deal with these creatures is to make your garden less attractive to them as a nest site. Get rid of any rotten wood you can find, and pay particular attention to areas where wood is in contact with soil. Remove old stumps and decaying fence posts. If you have a woodpile, try to keep it far away from your house to prevent these creatures from coming inside. It’s also a good idea to keep it off the ground if possible.

Herbal Remedies

The Internet is an amazing tool, but it also has its fair share of garbage. When it comes to pest control, there’s a lot of herbal remedies recommended for use against insects with very doubtful claims behind them.

However, some herbal remedies really do work to repel ants. As you can see in this study, many household ingredients will have a repellent effect on these creatures.

A bug’s life is dictated largely by chemical signals in its environment. It’s these signals that tell insects where to find food, where to find shelter, where to find one another, and how to avoid danger. So it makes sense that any chemical which disrupts these signals will have a negative effect on the bugs. They also have the advantage of being completely natural and completely harmless to humans, pets, and your plants.

The most effective way to use herbal extracts against insects is by mixing them with water and using them in a spray bottle. This way, you can spray the mixture around any plants you want to protect, creating an invisible barrier against insect infestation. Remember that these mixtures aren’t intended to kill bugs, but to repel them. This way, you can protect your vegetable garden or prize flowers from the ravages of these tenacious bugs.

Cucumber mint, lemon garlic, and garlic mint mixtures are the most effective natural ant repellents. Mixing these extracts in water at a 10% concentration achieved a 100% repellent effect on the insects in a laboratory study. Also, they all sound delicious. And they’re completely harmless to use.

Pour Boiling Water on Nests

Sometimes, the simplest solutions are the best. And while herbal repellents and borax-based baits can provide effective and long-lasting control, you may want quicker results. Pest control methods don’t get more eco-friendly and low-tech than this one, but there’s something very satisfying about taking matters into your own hands.

Some ant nests are more obvious than others. Certain species build visible hills that you will see popping up in your grass or around paving slabs. If you start to see these sandy mounds, you know there’s an ant nest beneath.

Pouring a pot of boiling water directly onto the nest can be a surprisingly effective way to battle a colony. Boiling water will kill insects on contact. It will also penetrate deep into the nest to wipe out not only foraging workers but also the eggs and larvae they depend on. Of course, colonies are built to survive occasional flooding, so there’s no guarantee that you’ll reach the queen by this method. But you will almost definitely kill a lot of bugs and severely slow their population growth.

This method works best if you perform multiple applications over a few days. In this way, you can either completely destroy a nest or damage it so much that the insects will no longer be a problem for you or your garden.

But be careful when using this method. Boiling water doesn’t need to touch you to scald you. Make sure to protect yourself, especially your arms and hands, while pouring out the water.

Also, be aware of what type of insect you’re dealing with. One creature that builds very visible and obvious mounds of soil over its nest is the fire ant. As the name suggests, these guys are capable of delivering a burning sting, and they will defend their nests aggressively. Start pouring boiling water on one of these mounds, and the creatures inside won’t hesitate to swarm you in a painful counterattack. If you have fire ants in your yard, it may be better to stay away from this method of pest control completely.

Other Pest Control Methods

If you’ve tried the natural approach and found it isn’t working for you, there are other options. Commercially available pesticides can help to get rid of bugs in your garden quickly and safely. But it’s best to try less environmentally harmful methods first. Only if these fail should you reach for something a little more toxic.

Commercially available baits are a good place to start. Just as with the borax mixture mentioned above, these products allow the insects to do most of the work in finding the food and bringing it back to the nest. The poison is designed to work slowly, but once it spreads throughout the colony, it’s game over for the ants. When baiting outside, be sure to use outdoor stations like these. They are designed to keep the bait from drying out even in hot weather, and they can be staked into the ground to make sure that no other animals carry them away.

Another option for outdoor baiting is a granular bait. These are especially useful against fire ants since you can broadcast the pesticide around their highly visible mounds. Granular baits are generally too small to be picked up by anything other than insects, so you needn’t worry about the pesticide having adverse effects on local wildlife or your pets. However, you may need to reapply granular baits after rain.

Finally, there’s always a good old-fashioned pesticide spray. There’s nothing subtle or targeted about this kind of treatment. Using a handheld or backpack sprayer, you spray the mixture around your home and garden, paying particular attention to areas where you’ve seen foraging workers or nests. Sprays like this not only kill the bugs on contact, but can also provide residual protection, meaning they continue to kill insects long after they’ve dried. When you’ve tried everything else, sometimes the nuclear option is the only thing left.

Conclusion

Insects belong in the garden. And it’s neither possible nor desirable to try and eradicate them all. The health of your plants depends on the delicate balance of insect species in the environment.

But when that balance is lost, and ants become a problem in your garden, there are plenty of methods you can use to control them. Getting rid of aphids, using diatomaceous earth or borax, reducing water sources and rotten wood, herbal remedies, and boiling water are often all you need to get rid of these creatures in the most effective and environmentally friendly way.

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Having an ant invasion in your home is annoying. Ants can cause damage to your home, and they can spread unwanted bacteria. Lets look at the things you should do to quickly get rid of these creepy crawlers.

Ants are one of the most successful species on earth. They are found almost everywhere outside of the coldest parts of the Arctic and Antarctica. Estimates suggest that there are over 12,000 different species of ants, and new ones are discovered all the time.

Unfortunately, ants don’t always stay outdoors where they’re supposed to be. Like any animal, they are constantly in search of food and shelter. And human homes can provide them with both.

So how do you get rid of ants in your home? Fortunately, there are a few steps you can take to drive these invaders back to where they came from.

The smartest way to get rid of ants in your home is to prevent the ants from entering your home in the first place. Have they already invaded you home? Then use these steps together in a combined approach. This ensures the best chance of success against these troublesome insects. So, let’s begin!

Remove Food Sources – Clean Your Home

You probably keep a clean home already. But think about how tiny ants can be, and how big a food source a single crumb can be to them. Foraging ants spend virtually their entire lives in search of food to sustain the colony they belong to, and your home is a potential source of food.

Most ant species aren’t overly picky eaters. However, the food preferences of a colony can change throughout the year. Sugars and other sweet substances are almost universally attractive to ants, so watch out for soda spills and syrup drips in your kitchen. But several ant species are also hungry for protein and carbs.

Wipe up any spills the moment they happen. Don’t leave food sitting out on kitchen surfaces where ants can find it. Store food in ant proof containers, made of glass or quality Tupperware.

And don’t forget about your pets. Protein-feeding ants will happily consume dog and cat food, especially the wet variety. If possible, set down your pet’s food at designated feeding times and put it away when the animal isn’t eating. Alternatively, you could use an insect-proof pet food dish to keep the ants away.

Eliminate Water Sources

Like all living things, ants need water. Without it, they risk dehydration and death. So water can be a major attractant for ants, especially during the dry days of summer when it can be hard to find in their natural habitat.

Check your home for leaking water pipes. Pay special attention under sinks in kitchens and bathrooms. Even the smallest drip can quench an ant’s thirst. The same goes for water sources such as dishes in the sink or even damp sponges on kitchen countertops. Ants will often congregate around these areas to take a drink. So once you’ve thoroughly cleaned your kitchen to remove all food sources, don’t forget to dry up all the areas you’ve washed to make sure that you aren’t offering the ants a watering hole.

Don’t forget about your pet’s water bowls or other water sources you may have overlooked, such as the drip tray behind the fridge. Be aware also that condensation on the outside of water pipes can give ants all the moisture they need. To combat this, foam insulation around water pipes would be a good idea.

Look For Points Of Entry

Once you’ve eliminated some of the main reasons for ants to come into your home, it’s time to ask yourself how you can prevent them from entering your home in the first place. Of course, ants are often very small, and they don’t need a lot of space to get into a home. Sometimes, they can walk right in through an open door. Or even through a closed one if there’s enough of a gap to let them through. But it’s worthwhile to take a walk around the outside of your home and try to figure out where the ants may have entered. Pay special attention to the foundations of your home, looking for any cracks. Many ant species live in soil and often find their way into homes through cracks in the concrete footprint of a house.

Once an ant gets inside your home, it’s only a matter of time before it’s joined by more of its siblings.

Also be aware of pipes, vents, and any other conduits that enter your home from outside. Water pipes, dryer vents, air conditioning returns, gas pipes —any and all of these can give ants all the space they need to sneak into your home. And once an ant gets inside, it’s only a matter of time before it’s joined by more of its siblings.

Any holes you find in the outside of your home should be sealed up with weatherproof silicone caulking. This will help to protect your home against not only ants, but also many other pest species that might enter the home if given a chance. It might seem like a lot of work, but if it keeps bugs out of your house in the height of summer, it’s well worth it.

Landscaping

While you’re outside looking for entry points, try taking a look at your home and yard from an ant’s point of view. Every yard is going to have ants, and trying to get rid of them all would be a bad idea, even if it was possible. But there’s a lot you can do to make sure that the ants stay outside and don’t venture into your home uninvited.

Keep your grass cut short. Overgrown grass holds moisture and allows other insect species to thrive, which in turn can become a significant food source for ants. Also, it provides cover and allows the ants to get closer to your home without being spotted.

Trim bushes and shrubs, especially those that come close to or touch the house. These can easily become highways for ants to gain access to your home.

Since ants love moisture so much, try to establish an area of low humidity as a perimeter around your home. Cut back any plants. Remove mulch. Make sure any water faucets aren’t leaking. Remove woodpiles, as these can provide shelter and even nesting material for certain species of ants.

Keep trash as far away from the house as possible. Garbage is a great food source for ants, and if they get into your bins, they’ll find a feast waiting for them. If your bins are all the way at the other end of the driveway from your home, having ants inside them may not be an issue. But if they’re against a wall of the house, it’s all too easy for ants to find their way inside.

Depending on the species, you may find visible ant nests while you’re out in your yard. An effective and extremely environmentally friendly way to treat these nests is to simply boil some water. Pouring boiling water on a nest will kill hundreds of ants and critically damage the structure of the nest. You may need to do it multiple times over several days. But it’s cheap, eco-friendly, and somehow satisfying to strike back at the ants that are using your home as a buffet.

Natural Home Remedies for Ants

Okay, let’s imagine you’ve done all that. Your kitchen is spotless, your house is sealed up, and your yard has become an ant proof fortress. But still, they keep coming. Ants are tenacious creatures, and getting rid of ants in your home often requires multiple approaches.

One highly effective way to kill ants is to use a poison bait. The reason these baits are so effective is because of the way an ant colony works.

Ant colonies contain a queen – in fact, some species have more than one. This queen is responsible for all the reproduction that goes on in the colony. In most species, the queen rarely or never leaves the nest. Instead, she stays where the other ants can protect her and produces eggs which grow into new ants.

The ants that you see in your yard and, if you’re unlucky, in your home are foraging workers or scouts. Their role in life is to find food and bring it back to the colony. They feed the queen and the juvenile ants, known as the brood. This is why you often see ants carrying items of food with them as they head back towards the nest.

Ant baits take advantage of this quirk of ant behavior by offering foraging workers a tempting food source that conceals an ant-killing poison. The idea is that the foraging workers will take the food back to the nest and feed it to the queen and the brood, thereby killing the entire colony.

For this reason, while it may be satisfying to kill individual ants that you see crawling around in your home, it’s not a very effective way to solve the problem. Depending on the ant species involved and the scale of the colony, the foraging ants you see may be as little as 5 to 10% of the entire colony. You could kill hundreds of foraging ants in a single day, and the queen will simply produce the same number again tomorrow. If you want to take down the entire ant colony, you need to target the queen.

By design, ant baits work slowly. It takes time for the ants to find food, establish a trail, and bring it back to the colony. The more of the bait the ants consume, the more of them it will kill. If used correctly, baits will significantly reduce the number of ants in a given colony, and can even kill the colony completely. And you don’t even need to find the nest yourself. The ants do all the work for you.

It’s possible to make ant bait yourself. You may even have the ingredients already in your home. Borax is mostly used as a detergent, but it is an effective stomach poison for ants. By mixing one measure of Borax with three parts of powdered sugar, you can make a bait that is both attractive and lethal to foraging ants. You could put this powdered mixture in small dishes or bottle caps and place them throughout the house, wherever ants are seen foraging.

If you’re worried about kids or pets sampling the ant mix you’ve made, you can mix the Borax and sugar with water and soak cotton balls in the mixture. The ants will be able to suck the moisture out of the cotton balls and bring it back to the nest.

When baiting for ants, it’s important to remember that you want the ants to take the food back to the colony. So no matter how tempting it is, try not to kill ants that you see going to and from your bait. Let them do their job. The results won’t be instant, but within a few days, you should start to see fewer and fewer ants.

Remember that ants find food by following pheromone trails. So once the ants have found your bait, try not to wipe their trails away with any household cleaner. Let them keep carrying the bait back to the nest until either it, or the ants, are all gone.

Diatomaceous Earth

If you’re looking for a product to help keep the ants from ever getting inside your home, diatomaceous earth is a good option. This white powder looks harmless, but on a microscopic level, it’s nothing but jagged edges and sharp shards. It feels soft to a human hand, but to an ant, it’s the insect equivalent of barbed wire.

Best of all, diatomaceous earth isn’t harmful to humans or pets. If you use food grade diatomaceous earth, you can even use it in your kitchen without worrying about harming your family.

The best way to use diatomaceous earth is as a barrier both inside and outside your home. Ants will be reluctant to cross it, and any that do will suffer multiple lacerations to their exoskeleton. This will lead to dehydration and, ultimately, death.

Don’t use too much, though. A thin layer of diatomaceous earth, just enough so that you can see it, is plenty. Leaving big piles of the powder lying around will only cause the ants to avoid it. Alternatively, you can mix diatomaceous earth with water in a pump sprayer and apply it as a liquid. Once the mixture dries, it will form an even coat of powder that will keep ants away.

Diatomaceous earth can be used both outside and inside the home. Bear in mind, though, that if used outside, you’ll need to reapply after it rains.

Professional Ant Bait

If you’ve tried mixing your own ant bait without results, or if you don’t have time to become an amateur exterminator, or hire a professional exterminator you can buy commercial ant baits. These come in a couple of different forms.

The easiest to use are ant bait stations, which are small plastic boxes that contain the bait. Although these are sometimes called ant traps, they don’t actually trap ants, but allow them to come and go, carrying the bait back to the nest. As well as being easy to use, these bait stations help to keep the bait away from children or pets. Often, these bait stations use a derivative of Borax, but some use other pesticides to achieve similar results.

Other baits come in the form of a liquid or gel that you can apply yourself wherever ants are seen. These have the advantage of flexibility. And liquid food is especially attractive to most species of ants. However, these can be messy to work with. And you’ll need to apply them in places where the ants can find them, but your kids won’t.

Some ant baits come in the form of granules. These are most commonly used outdoors, intended to be spread around your home and directly on any ant nests you find. But some can also work indoors. Granules are easy to use and easy to clean up once the ants have been eliminated. But not all granule baits work on all species of ants.

When using any pesticide, make sure you always read the label and directions before using.

Ant Spray

Spraying for ants should always be your last option. It’s not that it doesn’t work; far from it. When used correctly, insecticide sprays for ants can be a powerful weapon against ants and other insects. But the chemicals they contain, while formulated to be as safe as possible for use, can be damaging to the environment. And when misused, they can harm your health and the health of your family.

With that said, if you follow the manufacturer’s directions carefully, commercially available sprays should be perfectly safe to use. And they can be extremely effective.

Always look for sprays that have a residual effect. This means that even once the spray has dried, any ants that cross the areas you sprayed will still be killed. These kind of sprays are great for creating a barrier, both inside and outside your home, that ants won’t want to cross. And those that do won’t live to tell the tale.

Additionally, some sprays can be used directly on any ant nest you find. Some species can be more difficult to bait than others, and this direct chemical treatment may be the only way to achieve control. So insecticide sprays definitely have a place when it comes to treating for ants.

Conclusion

Getting rid of ants in your home can be a challenge. Fortunately, you have a lot of different options to get rid of them. Cleaning your home thoroughly, eliminating water sources, sealing up points of entry and landscaping your property to discourage ants from settling there are all things you can do without having to use any kind of harmful pesticides.

All these small measures can have a huge effect on an ant population. In some cases, you may find that these methods are enough by themselves.

Additionally, home remedies such as ant bait and diatomaceous earth can be very effective against ants. Only if these fail will you need to start looking at commercial pesticides, such as ant traps, bait stations, and insecticide sprays.