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Ants, especially Carpenter ants are capabale of causing structural damage to your home. You can save you and your family a lot of headache by keeping the ants outside, preventing them to enter your home. Read along to learn what you can do to keep ants outside of your building.

Ants have been around for over 92 million years. This puts them well back into the era of the dinosaurs. But it wasn’t until humans came along with water pipes and air conditioning and cozy houses to live in that these creatures realized just how sweet life could be. If you’re seeing these creatures inside your home, or you just want to make sure that never happens, it is important to understand why they would come inside in the first place.

Ants are social insects, but that doesn’t mean they come inside your home to make friends. Human houses provide the ants with their basic needs: Food, water, and shelter. These are the key ingredients that all animals, including ants, need to survive. And they can all be found to one degree or another inside your house.

Human houses provide ants with food, water and shelter

So if you’re finding a nest of ants within the four walls of your home, get rid of them before they cause structural damage. In this post we focus on the things you can do to keep the ants outside of your home, preventing them to enter your house in the first place. Try the methods shown below to prevent bugs from entering your home.

All of these methods have their uses. But for the fastest and most effective results, it’s a good idea to combine several of them to make your home a fortress against these invaders. Let’s take a closer look at what you can do.

Remove Food Sources

While food preferences vary from one species to another, most ants eat a broad range of foods. Sugar is a particular favorite, which is why there is a whole group of insects called the sugar ants. But most ants will also feed on protein and carbohydrates if given a chance.

In the wild, these ants feed on sweet substances such as honeydew secreted by aphids. Fruit also provides them with a ready source of sugar. For protein, they will eat other insects and scavenge meat from dead animals. Plants are their favored source of carbohydrates.

But this all-natural diet goes out of the window when these critters find their way into somebody’s kitchen. Sugar and sugary substances are the major attractants, but they will eat virtually anything you or I would.

Sweet Liquids

However, ants don’t eat like other creatures. Adult ants are incapable of swallowing solid food, and can only drink liquids. As a result, foraging workers leave the ant colony in search of food to bring back to the nest. There, they feed it to the juveniles, the larvae, which can eat solid food. In turn, the larvae secrete liquid that the adults then eat.

An ants lifecycle is a complicated and interesting arrangement. It’s the key to the success of these creatures. Because the larvae function as the stomach of the colony, every ant is dependent for its existence on the survival of the colony. As a result, everything an individual does is to benefit the group.

Clean your house

Feed them, and they will come. Once a foraging worker discovers a food source in your house, it will take some and hurry back to the nest. Along the way, it will release a pheromone trail which lets its sisters ( all foragers are female) follow the trail to the food. In this way, one can quickly become many.

The best way to prevent this is to keep your kitchen and house ruthlessly clean. Be especially wary of spills of sugary substances such as soda, honey, syrup, or ice cream. These kind of spills are like magnets for these creatures. But be aware that ants will eat many things, and any food left exposed is fair game to them.

Worker ants will leave a pheromone trail so their sisters can follow the trail to the food right into your home.

Wipe down kitchen surfaces regularly. Also, think about what’s inside your kitchen cabinets. Store food in solid plastic or glass containers to keep bugs away. If there’s nothing to eat, the insects have far less reason to be inside your kitchen. Additionally, regular cleaning will break up the insect’s pheromone trails, so that they can’t follow one another into your home.

Remove Water Sources

Don’t forget about water. Like all living things, ants need water to survive, and plenty of it. Your home can be an excellent source of moisture for them. Once you’re done cleaning your kitchen, make sure to dry off your surfaces and wring out sponges and cloths used for cleaning. These can provide enough water for many creatures if left unattended. Also, pay attention to any dishes piled in your sink or leaking pipes in the kitchen or bathroom. All of these can provide small creatures with all the water they need.

When it comes to pest control, prevention really is better than cure. Make your property less attractive to insects, and you may never need to do anything more to enjoy a bug-free life.

Block Holes Temporarily

Okay, so you’ve tried cleaning. All of your food is stored in ant-proof containers, and your kitchen is sparkling. Yet you’re still finding black ants roaming through your home at will.

The next step is to figure out where the ants are entering your house. Many – though not all – types of ant usually live outside. From there, they come into our buildings to forage for food and water, or even to get out of the weather. So if you can find where the bugs are coming in, you can stop them.

Check both the inside and outside of your home. Gaps around doors and windows are common places to find insects entering. But they are not the only possibility. Also check around dryer vents, air-conditioning returns, water pipes, gas pipes, and any other conduit that enters or exits your home. Even the smallest space around one of these areas can be enough for the bugs to establish a trail and invade your property.

Once you’ve found these points of entry, you’ll want to block them up as soon as possible. Luckily, there are a few household items you can use to get immediate relief until you can come up with a more permanent solution.

For instance, Vaseline can work. Smear the substance all around the holes you see insects using. The slippery gel is impossible for the bugs to walk through. You can do the same with a dusting of talcum powder, which they also struggle to pass. Or, you can use double-sided tape to trap insects that try to cross it. Remember that over time, this tape will become clogged with stuck ants and lose its effectiveness. These creatures aren’t above walking over their fallen comrades to get to your kitchen.

None of these quick fixes is intended for the long term, though. For that, you’ll need to get a little bit more professional.

Seal Gaps and Cracks

When dealing with bugs, a tube of silicone caulk can be your best friend. This weatherproof sealant is ideal for closing off the kind of gaps the bugs use to enter your home. Once it has cured, this caulk can last for years. So grab a tube and a pair of gloves and start sealing up any holes you find. Remember not to leave any gaps. These insects are tiny and don’t need much space to come inside.

As well as any pipes and vents that come into your home, pay attention to the foundation of the building. Many insects like to nest in soil, and a crack in the concrete of your house can easily allow them to come inside. If you have a basement, don’t forget to check in there too. For larger holes, a concrete patch might be more appropriate than silicone caulk.

Don’t forget the possibility that the insects may be living inside your house. Carpenter ants, for instance, enter your home to build their nest inside wood in the walls of your home. If you find a nest of Carpenter ants inside one of your walls, you’ll need to treat that nest directly with a spray. Don’t just seal it up and try to pretend it’s not happening, because the bugs will chew their way out and cause more structural damage as they do so.

It’s also possible for other species to be nesting inside, at least partially. Some types that ordinarily nest in soil can create a colony that’s half in and half out of your home. Sometimes, homeowners don’t even realize that an ant nest has an exit point inside their property until it’s time for the bugs to swarm. At this point, a house can fill up with flying ants that seem to have come from nowhere. But in reality, they are merging from an unnoticed crack in the foundation or hole in the wall.

When sealing up gaps and cracks to keep ants and bugs at bay, remember to be thorough. Ants have an amazing ability to find their way inside.

Repel Ants Naturally

If you’re wary of reaching for a chemical solution to a pest problem, you’re not alone. These days, more and more people are educating themselves about the potentially harmful effects of commercial pesticides. That’s not to say that these chemical solutions don’t have their place. Often, when it comes to pest control, a toxic pesticide is the only realistic solution. However, wouldn’t it be nice if we could just politely ask the ants to leave?

Well, in a way, we can. It just turns out we’ve been speaking the wrong language.

These insects communicate predominantly through smell. It’s pheromones that guide these critters to and from their colonies, and help them to identify one another. Similar chemical signals tell these insects what the colony needs, so they know what type of food to seek out at different times of the year. So it makes sense that certain chemicals might be repellent to bugs.

Unfortunately, due to the fact they will eat most things people will, it’s rare to find an essential oil that repels ants. But this is an area that continues to be studied, and more and more substances are being discovered all the time that can have this effect. For instance, patchouli essential oil was found to be repellent to ants in a laboratory test. Similar results have been found with substances such as peppermint and cucumber.

With some natural remedies against ants, you don’t even need an essential oil. Sometimes, the substance itself is enough. For instance, cayenne pepper is repellent to lots of animals thanks to the heat of its active ingredient, capsaicin. Chilli pepper, black pepper, and cinnamon have also been discovered to have similar properties. These are ingredients you may have sitting around your kitchen already. And you can simply sprinkle them around door frames and windows and other areas pests may try to come inside.

Diatomaceous Earth

If you want to get serious about preventing ants from coming into your home, but you’re still trying to find alternatives to toxic chemicals, it’s only a matter of time before you come across Diatomaceous Earth.

Diatomaceous Earth, has long been used against ants and bugs of all kinds. It comes in the form of a fine white powder, but this is not a typical insecticide. Instead, it’s a physical control. Although the powder feels soft to the touch, on a microscopic level, it’s nothing but sharp edges and jagged points. Any bug that tries to crawl through this powder will have its outer layer of skin scratched and pierced in multiple places. This causes the insect to dehydrate and die.

But the best thing about Diatomaceous Earth is that it is a naturally occurring substance. It’s made from the ground-up shells of tiny water creatures, and is completely harmless to humans and pets. In fact, food-grade diatomaceous earth is even safe to eat ( even during pregnancy and nursing ). So you can use it around your home and garden without any concerns for the health of your family.

Of course, Diatomaceous Earth needs to come into contact with bugs to work. So it’s best to use this substance as a barrier treatment. By dusting around your home, you can create a perimeter that pests won’t want to cross. If they do, they won’t live to tell the tale. This will stop foraging workers from reporting the location of your food back to the colony, which means far fewer insects inside your house.

The trick when using Diatomaceous Earth is to not go too heavy with it. You want to use enough of the dust that you can see where you’ve applied it, but don’t leave big piles of it lying around. Otherwise, insects will just walk around it.

Chemical Barrier Treatments

Sometimes, bugs can be stubborn. If you’ve tried all the methods listed above and you still can’t seem to get these critters to stay away from your home, you may have no choice but to look into more aggressive methods. It’s time to talk about pesticides.

Most commercially available insecticides are safe to use, provided you use them correctly. That’s why it’s so important to carefully read and follow the directions on the manufacturer’s label. These directions are there for your safety, so make sure you read them closely.

When nothing else will do, chemical treatments can be highly effective ways to keep bugs out of your home. Look for a chemical that has a residual effect, which means that the active ingredient will keep killing insects that come into contact with it long after the spray has dried. Products containing ingredients such as cypermethrin have a residual effect that can continue to kill ants for months after application, so these can be powerful weapons in the battle against pests.

If you are looking for a complete package which provides all the products you need to combat ants both indoors and outdoors, then we recommend this Indoor & Outdoor Ant Kit. It has been specially designed to give you all the tools in one handy kit.

It comes with multiple chemical treatments as well as baiting stations to allow you to set up an effective strategy to get rid of the ants either inside or outside your home.

Conclusion

No one wants to get ants or other insects in their home. The truth is, no house is absolutely ant proof. Thanks to their habit of foraging over a wide area for food, these creatures often come into human houses and other buildings in search of food, water, and shelter.

Luckily, there’s a lot you can do to stop ants from entering your home. Cleaning up food spills, temporarily blocking holes, sealing up gaps and cracks, using natural repellents, using Diatomaceous Earth, and deploying commercial pesticides are all pieces of the puzzle that you can use to keep these bugs at bay.

Just remember that the ants were here long before us, and they’ll still be here long after we’re gone. It’s an ants world; we’re just living in it.

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Do you want the bad news or the bad news? In most cases, ants are what is known as a nuisance pest. Unlike some other pests, they don’t cause diseases. And most of them are so tiny, it’s hard to imagine them doing any damage to a house.

But the truth is, ants and termites can and cause serious damage to wooden building structures, including your home.

The main culprit behind this damage is the carpenter ant. These giants, the largest species in North America, build their nests in wood. And their jaws are powerful enough to carve holes even in solid, undamaged wood. The kind of wood many people’s homes are made out of.

Carpenter ants cause extensive damage by burrowing into wood to create or expand nesting sites.

It’s possible to have a problem with these creatures without knowing it, at least for a while. The signs of a carpenter ant infestation can be subtle. But these creatures work night and day, carving out tunnels in the wood of your home in which to hatch their eggs. And if left alone long enough, these ants can hollow out wooden beams to the point that they become structurally unstable. It’s estimated that the Carpenter ant causes $5 billion worth of damage every year in the United States alone.

That doesn’t mean carpenter ants are the only ants you need to worry about in the home, though. Fire ants, which generally live outside, have been known to create nests inside the walls of buildings. Moisture ants like to build nests in rotten wood, so if you have water damaged areas in your home, this species could invade. Pharaoh and Argentine species, meanwhile, like to build their nests indoors and rarely venture outside except in hot climates like that of Florida. But none of these species is considered a structure destroying pest. Only the carpenters have that dubious distinction.

Termites vs Ants

Of course, ants aren’t the only bug that can damage your home. Termites are also a significant pest of structures. And, at least on a superficial level, they seem similar to ants. Both are social insects, forming colonies of individuals that are mutually dependent on one another. Both have societies organized into separate castes with clearly defined roles in the life of the colony. Both are capable of nesting in wood.

But despite these similarities, termites and ants are quite different. In fact, termites are more closely related to cockroaches than they are to ants. From a homeowner’s perspective, the most significant difference is that termites only nest in rotten wood. So while they are most definitely a problem, they are often just as much a symptom of a larger issue.

Carpenter ants, on the other hand, can build a colony in undamaged wood. Also, unlike termites, these bugs don’t actually eat wood. Instead, they hollow it out and use it as a place to raise their young. Not that it matters very much when it’s your wooden beams they’re chewing into. But it is important to understand the difference between termites and carpenter ants, because the way to deal with these different species varies a lot.

How Do Ants Damage A House?

By chewing. Carpenters have powerful jaws that are more than capable of carving holes in timber. Once they have a mouthful, the ants will carry it to the entrance of the colony and spit it out. For this reason, one of the most characteristic signs of a carpenter nest is small piles of sawdust, known as frass, underneath holes in wood.

It’s laborious work. But ants are known for their work ethic. These creatures are relentless in their efforts, and over time, they can excavate surprisingly large nests in the wooden beams of your home.

As the ants hollow out the beams, the structure becomes weaker. If left unchecked, especially in a loadbearing joist or column, the beam could eventually break.

To put things in perspective, it probably won’t get as bad as this. It would take a lot of ants a lot of years to damage a building so much that it collapsed. But a more frequent event is that the ants weaken the structure of the home so that the next time a storm or other natural event hits, the house doesn’t stand up to the punishment as well as it should.

What To Do If You Have Carpenter Ants

Correctly identifying different species of ants isn’t easy, even for professionals. While it’s true that carpenters have a distinctive look, you can’t always rely on their size to give away their identity. After all, some individual carpenters are no bigger than regular ants, especially in the spring when a colony is just getting started on its seasonal growth.

However, if you’ve seen robust ants that are over half an inch in length, the chances are good that you have carpenter ants. And if you’ve found small piles of fine sawdust accumulating under holes in the wall, the identity of the bugs is even more certain.

So what can you do about it? Well, it depends on the nature of the problem. Are you seeing carpenters inside or outside? Do you have reason to believe they have a colony on your property, or are you simply seeing foragers wandering around?

Carpenters are relatively poor foragers, and as a result, can wander hundreds of yards from the colony in search of food. Also, these creatures have multiple nests that can be hundreds of feet apart. So if you’re seeing carpenters on your property, the nest may be located on a neighbor’s land, not yours.

In these cases, a barrier treatment is about all you can do. There are multiple products available that, once applied, will deter carpenters. One of the best, if you can get it, is Demon Max. This professional-grade pesticide not only kills ants on contact but offers a powerful residual effect. It will continue to kill ants that come into contact with sprayed areas for months following application. Or, if you want a more user-friendly and readily available solution, try Ortho Home Defense. This product comes ready to use so that you don’t have to worry about buying extra equipment or mixing pesticides yourself.

If you’re seeing carpenter ants on your property, the nest may be located on a neighbor’s land, not yours.

For a less toxic option, try Borax or Diatomaceous Earth. This naturally occurring substance is harmless to people and pets but deadly to insects. It can be used indoors or outdoors to deter carpenters from entering your property and killing any that try.

However, if you’ve located an actual carpenter colony, you’ll need to deal with the problem head-on. This is something that professional pest control companies can charge thousands of dollars for, and it can be tricky. The hardest part is finding the nest. Once you’ve done that, you can treat it directly. Demon Max and Ortho Home Defense can both be used for this purpose, but if the nest is inside a wall, roof, or other structural void, another useful product is Termidor Foam. This pesticide, injected into a carpenter nest, will expand to fill the tunnels and galleries to reach as many bugs and eggs as possible. It also has a residual effect that will continue to kill bugs long after the product has dried.

If you are looking for a complete package that provides all the products you need to combat these ants both indoors and outdoors, then we recommend this Indoor & Outdoor Ant Kit. It has been specially designed to give you all the tools in one handy kit.

Destroying a carpenter nest is not a job to take on lightly. Even professionals often get it wrong. So there’s no shame in calling in outside help to make sure you get it done right. Any reputable company should offer a warranty on their treatment so you can be confident that the problem will be solved.

Once the colony has been destroyed, you may need to replace the wood that they have damaged. If the damage is extensive, it may be necessary to talk to a structural engineer or other professional that can advise on the correct way to repair the damage the insects have caused.

Flying Ants

Did you know that carpenter ants can fly? Some of them, anyway. At certain times of the year, usually once in spring and again in fall, carpenter nests will begin to produce winged reproductive members. This is how colonies spread. While regular foraging workers are sterile and exclusively female, winged ants can be either male or female and are capable of reproduction. They do this by taking to the air and mating with one another, after which the males die. The mated females then fly off to start nests of their own.

The reason this matters is because if you start seeing flying ants inside your home in large numbers, it’s a good indication of the presence of a colony. Normally, a carpenter colony is quite discrete and can stay hidden inside a wall for a long time before you notice its presence. Often the first sign that they are there is the emergence of these winged reproductives.

Be careful, though. Carpenters aren’t the only species that reproduce in this way. Many other ant species also have winged reproductive members, and these members are often larger than the regular workers, which can lead to misidentification with the carpenter type. If in doubt, try capturing a few of the ants without damaging them too badly and taking them to a local entomologist, University department, or pest control company. They should be able to identify the ants for you.

If reproductive carpenters are emerging inside, it’s a good indication that there is a nest in your home.  Of course, a stray bug or two can fly in from outside, especially since they are clumsy flyers. But if you see more than a handful of these winged creatures, it’s time to entertain the possibility that the carpenters have made your home theirs.

Other Species

Carpenters are far and away the most destructive species out there. Along with termites, they do the vast majority of damage to buildings out of all insects. But there are some instances of structural damage that can be caused by other bugs. Pavement ants, carpenter bees, powder post beetles, and deathwatch beetles can all cause some minor damage to your home.

Pavement Ants

Much smaller than the carpenter variety, pavement ants are commonly seen on sidewalks and other paved areas in the summer. They like to build colonies in sandy soil, often underneath concrete. Sometimes, they can also enter into buildings via cracks in the foundation.

While this species may not damage the structure of a home, their nest building can undermine concrete slabs and paved driveways. Eventually, this will cause the paving to buckle and crack. So while they are not a threat to your home, they might be a threat to your driveway.

Carpenter Bees

This species of bee also likes to nest in wood. Fortunately, unlike other bee species, carpenter bees are solitary. They will bore a tunnel into a beam, lay a single egg inside and then close the hole behind them with a plug of chewed-up leaves. They prefer unvarnished and unpainted wood and are usually found on the exterior of the home. Because the holes they create are quite small, they are unlikely to do real structural damage to your home.

Powderpost Beetle

This beetle is one of the better-known members of the group of insects known as lyctids. It takes its name from the very fine sawdust it creates as it bores into the wood, almost like powder. Like carpenter ants, the presence of these beetles can often be detected by the presence of small piles of this very fine sawdust under holes in the wood.

Powderpost Beetles are solitary and seek out areas on which to lay their eggs. It’s the hatched larvae of the species that cause damage to wood, chewing into it to create a chamber to pupate in. Although they are not social, they are often found in groups.  If you have some untreated wood that is attractive to this beetle, more than one individual is likely to find and make use of it.

This insect rarely damages would enough to become a serious structural issue. However, if left untreated over a long period, the holes they create can weaken wood significantly and that’s when ants damage home.

Deathwatch Beetles

These beetles get their intimidating name from their eerie habit of tapping their mandibles against the inside of the tunnels they create. Since they are largely nocturnal, this noise was often heard by people sitting up at night with an ill friend or relative and was believed to indicate that the person’s death was near.

In reality, Deathwatch beetles bore into wood as a place to lay their eggs. As with other species, it’s the larvae that do the damage. Unlike other beetles, while these creatures are solitary, they may attack wood in significant numbers if the environment fits their needs.

Conclusion

There are plenty of insect species that are capable of causing damage to your home or other buildings. However, in most cases, the damage is slight and may never become a serious issue.

When it comes to serious structural damage, there are really only two insect species you need to worry about: termites and carpenter ants. And while termites do a tremendous amount of damage, costing homeowners billions of dollars each year, the destruction they cause is limited to wood that is already rotted.

That’s not the case with carpenter ants. Their ability to attack even solid wood makes them one of the most significant pests in the US. And their habit of creating multiple nests, coupled with their swarming behavior, means that almost any home can be at risk from these invaders.

Their ability to attack even solid wood makes carpenter ants one of the most significant pests in the US

When it comes to preventing carpenters, barrier treatments can certainly help. However, if you live in a wooded area, these bugs are simply a fact of life. The best thing you can do is keep a close eye on your home and respond immediately to any structural damage you find or any colonies that appear on your property. Remain vigilant, and address any issues as soon as they begin. It’s a lot easier to deal with carpenter ants when they first start creating a nest that is to wait a while. And the longer you leave a colony untreated, the more damage they will do.

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Ants are a fact of life in the summer. None of us are immune. These invading insects love nothing more than to set up their home on your property and start traipsing around the place, always in search of food to keep the colony sustained. But you don’t have to put up with this insect menace. If you’re trying to get rid of ants in your home in an environment-friendly way , there are many options available to you.

Once upon a time, people’s first reaction to any bug they saw was to reach for a can of chemical pesticide spray. These days, we know more about the harmful effects these chemicals can have on both people and the environment. Getting rid of bugs while still staying eco-friendly can be a challenge. But it is possible.

In a previous post we already looked into naturally occurring pesticides and other organic pest control measures you can take in your home. In this post, we look into some of the most effective organic methods to get rid of ants specifically.

Herbal Remedies

Insects such as ants live in a world dominated by chemical signals. It’s how they find food and how they communicate with one another. It’s how the foraging workers find their way back to the nest once they’ve discovered a new feeding area. So it makes sense that any substance that can disrupt those chemical signals can have an adverse effect on these critters.

A quick internet search will turn up all kinds of home remedies that are touted as being useful against ants. Some of them work well, and some of them don’t work. It can be hard to cut through the noise and know what you should use to keep these creatures out of your home. Fortunately, many herbal remedies have been studied to determine which are the most effective.

Keep in mind, though, that none of these mixtures are designed to be an ant killer. Instead, they are best used to repel these critters. For most of the remedies below, the best approach is to mix them with water in a spray bottle, generally at around 10 or 15% concentration. This makes the mixture easy to apply and invisible to you once it’s dried, but still effective against insects. It’s always a good idea to ant proof your house and make it unattractive to ants to enter your home in the first place. Also when treating Pharaoh ants you should know that the only effective treatment for Pharaoh ants is using bait.

The beauty of these mixtures is that they are totally harmless to humans and other animals.

Vinegar

Is there anything vinegar can’t do? Home remedies found online often tout vinegar as one of the most useful and versatile household products, capable of performing many cleaning and disinfecting functions around the home.

Vinegar has also been found somewhat effective against ants, both as a repellent and as an ant killer. As a general rule, the higher the concentration of vinegar, the greater the effect. You’ll want a mixture that is at least 50% vinegar to be sure of killing the insects.

Part of the efficacy of vinegar seems to come from its ability to break up the pheromone trails that these creatures use to find food. Without the colony, individuals can’t survive, and if you break the trail that lets them find their way home, they are doomed. Eradicating the trails also helps keep more of the bugs from invading your property. However, while vinegar can help, it’s not a long-lasting solution. Before too long, the ants will create new trails.

Part of the efficacy of vinegar comes from its ability to break up the pheromone trails that these creatures use to find food.

Additionally, vinegar is probably not the ideal smell to have wafting through your house. Still, if you need to kill some bugs quickly and you have nothing else to hand, vinegar will certainly do the job.

Boiling Water

If you have a kitchen sink and stove, or even better an electric kettle, you already have a relatively effective way of getting rid of all types of ants.

Now, to be clear, you can’t pour boiling water around your house to repel these invading insects. It is just water, after all. But where this method can be useful is with ant species that make visible nests. If you find ant hills in your lawn or on paved areas, you can be sure that there is a colony underneath. And pouring boiling water directly onto the colony will have an immediate and devastating effect.

Of course, this method is far from perfect. For one thing, boiling water is dangerous to handle. Don’t even attempt this without proper protection; the steam alone is enough to burn unprotected skin.

Also, boiling water kills a lot of things, not just ants. It will probably kill any surrounding vegetation too. Plus, you may find it necessary to do this more than once to ensure that you’ve reached every part of the nest. For a large nest, you should be using around 3 gallons of boiling water, and even then you can only expect to kill off about 60% of the colony. That’s why multiple applications are usually needed.

Fire ants build large visible mounds, and so it can be tempting to use this treatment method against this invasive species. But be extra careful. These aggressive creatures will defend their nest and are capable of delivering a painful burning sting when they feel under attack. Standing on a mound created by these creatures and pouring boiling water on top of it is a surefire way to get yourself bitten.

With that said, boiling water can still be a useful tool in the battle against these insects. After all, it’s hard to imagine a treatment that works well on fire ants that is both cheaper and more environmentally friendly. There are various methods to get rid of Fire ants permanently yourself. And there’s something very satisfying about taking matters into your own hands and going on the offensive against the Fire ants.

Diatomaceous Earth

Moving away from items you probably already have in your kitchen, Diatomaceous Earth is a popular and readily available method to treat insects like ants.

You could be forgiven for thinking that this mysterious white powder is a chemical pesticide. But it’s not. Diatomaceous Earth is a naturally occurring substance that is found at the bottom of oceans and lakes. Essentially, it’s the remains of long-dead fossilized creatures.

Diatomaceous Earth is naturally occurring and completely non-toxic. To us, it looks like a fine white powder, similar to talc. When looked at through a microscope, though, diatomaceous earth is made up entirely of sharp shards formed by the shells of tiny creatures. Any insect that walks through Diatomaceous Earth will sustain multiple lacerations to its exoskeleton. This is the protective outer layer of an insect’s body, and among other functions, it keeps moisture inside. Diatomaceous Earth causes insects to dehydrate and die.

Diatomaceous Earth, or DE for short, can be used indoors or out. If used outdoors, though, you may find you need to reapply after rain. It’s simple to use, too. Just shake out the powder anywhere you seen foraging workers. If you know where the nest is, even better. You can surround the area with DE to make sure the bugs can’t avoid it. Make sure when using this product to spread it relatively thinly. Insects won’t walk through giant piles of dust.

Diatomaceous Earth is a naturally occurring substance that is found at the bottom of oceans and lakes

Diatomaceous Earth can also be mixed with water and sprayed with a pump or backpack sprayer. Once the water dries, the product will revert to its powder form and still be effective against insects that cross it. This can make for an easier method of application if you have a large area to cover.

Diatomaceous Earth is best used as a barrier treatment to surround your property with a kind of fence to either turn ants away or kill any that cross it. But remember that insects live in a three-dimensional world. If they can bypass your carefully applied DE by crawling along a tree branch or bush until they reach the wall of your home, they will. And then your treatment won’t be as effective as you hoped. So when using DE, make sure to trim back any vegetation that touches the house.

Borax

While we’re on the subject of minerals, borax is another widely used method of insect control that has the advantage of being non-toxic and completely natural. Traditionally used as a cleaning agent, borax is also poison to any insects that eat it. So the trick to using it is to make it appealing to your six-legged invaders.

You can do this by mixing it with powdered sugar. One part borax to three parts powdered sugar should give you a mixture that is enticing to the bugs but also lethal. This is especially effective on sugar ants, who can’t resist the sweet taste. Once you’ve made your potion, the trick is to put it in areas where foraging workers will find it. They will carry it back to the nest and feed it to the whole colony, ensuring that it slowly poisons the entire population.

When baiting like this, patience is vital. It will take time to see results. Try to fight the urge to kill any ants you see consuming the bait. You need them to bring it back to their sisters for your diabolical plan to work. Long term, this can be a very effective method of ant control. And for quicker results, make sure you keep your home ruthlessly clean. The less other food the bugs can find to eat, the more readily they will take this bait and the quicker it will spread through the colony.

Borax is non-toxic to people and pets, but it’s still a good idea to try and keep it out of reach of anyone besides the bugs. One way to do this is to dissolve the mixture in water and soak it up with cotton balls. The insects will suck the moisture out of the cotton balls once they find them, but your dog is unlikely to eat one accidentally.

Keeping Ants Out

Not exactly a herbal remedy, but it is an effective and non-toxic way to solve the problem of having bugs inside your home. After all, there’s no need to mess around with home remedies if the creatures can’t get inside in the first place.

Take a look around the outside of your home. Pay special attention around door and window frames, but also look for cracks in the concrete foundation or holes in the walls. Anywhere a conduit enters your home, such as a dryer vent, an air-conditioning return, or a gas or water pipe, also needs to be looked at. All of these can provide ways for insects to get inside.

Any holes you do find can be sealed up with weatherproof silicone caulk. This will keep out all kinds of pests. It’s long-lasting, effective, and completely non-toxic. And if you do it right, you should only need to do it once.

What Doesn’t Work

There are plenty of effective, safe, and non-toxic home remedies to solve your bug problem. Herbal remedies, vinegar, boiling water, diatomaceous earth, and borax can all help get rid of these pesky critters. So, before you reach for the chemical pesticides, give one or more of these methods a try.

However, don’t believe everything you hear. There are several home remedies that some people swear by which you should steer clear of.

Conclusion

Herbal remedies like vinegar, boiling water, diatomaceous earth, and borax are all effective natural ways to get rid of ants.

Additionally, you can prevent your home from developing an ant problem by sealing up any entrances these tiny creatures might use to get inside. so, with so many natural and non-toxic methods available to you, you might never need to reach for anything stronger. It’s possible to get rid of ants without harming the environment, so long as you use the methods above.

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Fire ants are one of the most notorious ant species throughout the US. The life cycle of the fire ant and its colony is fascinating in its complexity. In this post we look at the different stages each ant goes trough.

There are several different species, with some being native to our shores. But others are invaders from elsewhere. The European species is one such invader, but the most famous is the red imported fire ant or RIFA. This creature was brought to the US from South America in the 1930s via cargo shipping and has since spread throughout the southern states. More aggressive and territorial than other species, it has been able to out-compete different types of ant and often comes into conflict with humans. It’s estimated that within its range, over 50% of people have been stung by this creature.

As highly social creatures, fire ants have a complicated life cycle. All species undergo complete metamorphosis. This means that the adult form of the creature looks nothing like the juveniles. And because these critters are so social, each stage of their life comes with different responsibilities and an ever-changing place within the colony.

Need to control fire ants quick & efficiently? Read our Guide How to get rid of Fire ants

Fire ants are more aggressive than other species and often comes into conflict with humans

So let’s take a look at the life cycle of the fire ant. Because understanding a pest’s biology is the best way to learn how to battle against it. In particular, we will take a look at the four stages all ants go through from birth to death.

Egg Stage

All fire ants begin their life as eggs. The eggs are laid by a queen, who is sometimes the only reproductive member of the colony. But she is not always alone. Some colonies have more than one member capable of laying eggs. Nests with a single queen tend to be more aggressive, and a single queen lays more eggs than a queen who is one of many. A single one can lay up to 1500 eggs per day, producing the equivalent of her own body weight in eggs.

A single fire ant queen can lay up to 1500 eggs per day

The development time required for the eggs varies according to temperature. As a general rule, the warmer it is, the quicker the eggs will hatch out. In the height of the southern summer, eggs can hatch in as little as six days. But in cooler temperatures, they could take a month or so to hatch.

Fire ant queens can lay both fertilized and unfertilized eggs. They do this using the store of sperm that they keep in their bodies from mating. Fertilized eggs produce females, most of which go on to become workers. Some of them, however, may become queens of their own. Meanwhile, the unfertilized eggs develop into males. Males have a very specialized role in the colony, which we’ll get into later.

Larva Stage

A larvae is effectively a baby ant. And these creatures look nothing like their parents. When they emerge, they are white, wormlike creatures with soft bodies and no limbs. Unlike the adults, these larvae are entirely defenseless. They need full-time care just to stay alive and develop into the next stage of the lifecycle. For this reason, adult workers tend to the larvae constantly, feeding them, cleaning them, and moving them to new locations inside the nest depending on environmental conditions. Without adults to take care of them and protect them, the larvae wouldn’t last long. In fact, the entire reason fire ants have developed their ability to sting is to protect the larvae and the queen.

The larvae may be helpless. But that doesn’t mean they’re useless. In fact, these juveniles perform a vital role in the colony. In many ways, these juveniles, known as the brood, function as the stomach of the nest.

Fire ants have developed their ability to sting to protect the larvae and the queen.

Fire ants are omnivores, consuming a broad range of different types of food. So it surprises many people to learn that adults, the bugs we most commonly see foraging for food, can’t eat solids at all. Inside their mouths are a series of brush-like structures which only allow liquids to pass. Solid food is useless to them.

However, larvae can and do eat solid food. So foraging workers will bring back solid food and give it to the brood. Once the larvae have fed, they secrete a highly nutritious liquid that the adults consume. In this way, the adults are entirely reliant on the young, and will unhesitatingly die in their defense. Without the brood, the whole colony is lost.

Interestingly, the destiny of an ant can be decided in this larval stage. Larvae that receive an adequate amount of food grow up to become workers, all of which are sterile females incapable of reproduction. But certain larvae are fed a much better diet. These larvae will ultimately go on to become reproductive adults, and eventually start their own colonies.

Pupa Stage

Just as in the egg stage, the amount of time an ant spends as a larva varies according to temperature. Typically, it takes anywhere from 12 to 32 days to develop into the next stage.

In the pupal stage, the creatures go dormant. They stop eating and focus all of their energy on developing. It’s in this stage that the juveniles begin to look like the adults. They grow legs and the distinctive body segments of the adults, and darken from their initial white color to the brownish-red they will appear for the rest of their lives.

Adult Stage

Finally, the insect emerges from his pupal stage as a fully formed adult. Ants are born knowing exactly what their role in life is, and they get to work immediately. But the tasks that they will perform vary according to the type of adult they’ve become.

The most common type of ant is a worker. The workers perform all of the tasks necessary for the colony’s survival, except for reproduction. Workers are incapable of reproducing. Instead, they focus their efforts on taking care of the queen and her offspring – their brothers and sisters, effectively.

The youngest workers become what’s known as nurse ants. The role of these creatures is to take care of the queen and the brood. The larvae need to be cleaned and moved from time to time, and it’s these young workers that perform these tasks. One of the reasons fire ants are so difficult to control is that they will sometimes relocate the entire colony en masse. These young workers are the ones that will carry every egg, larva, and pupa, as well as the queen herself, to a new location.

In times of flooding, RIFA workers will even create a raft out of their bodies to carry the brood to safety. This highly complex behavior is fascinating to witness, but it’s important to remember that the insects are at their most aggressive at this time. Since they have no nest to hide in, these homeless bugs will sting anything that comes close. Given that the survival of the colony rests on the survival of the queen and the brood, these workers fulfil a very important role.

When a fire ant worker grows older, her duties change. Older ants are responsible for the defense, maintenance, and expansion of the nest. These are the warriors that will emerge to sting anything they perceive as a threat when the nest is disturbed. They also hollow out tunnels and chambers for the queen and her brood to live in. It’s these girls that raise the sometimes quite large mounds of soil that give fire ant colonies such a distinctive look.

After performing this role for a while, the ant’s responsibilities change one more time. The oldest become foragers, whose task is to leave the nest and seek out food. Their job is to bring back any food they find and feed it to the larvae so that they can digest it and feed the rest of the colony. Not only the queen and the brood but also the nurse ants and the middle-aged workers are dependent on this activity. The oldest members of ant society are therefore critical to the colony. However, they also expendable. This is why killing foraging workers will never solve a problem by itself. When you have a bug that can lay 1500 eggs a day, it’s easy for the nest to produce more workers.

Adult fire ants can live for as little as 35 days in warm temperatures, so the transition from one role to the next can happen quickly. However, in cooler temperatures, their metabolism slows down, causing them to live longer. In the winter, worker ants can live for months.

Reproduction

For the vast majority of these creatures, becoming a foraging worker is the end of the line. After having taken care of the queen and her brood, then helped to maintain the nest, they will end their life by bringing food back for the others.

But some ants have a different fate in store for them. These are the reproductive ants that create new colonies of these pests.

As mentioned above, some larvae receive a better diet than others. Those that do grow up to become reproductive females. These reproductive females can be distinguished from the others by their larger size and the fact that they have wings. Ants are closely related to wasps, and it’s easy to see that fact when you look at a winged fire ant. Yes, these creatures can fly. At least, some of them can, at certain times of the year.

Reproductive females start out as regular eggs and larvae before being fed the diet that makes them reproductive. Males, on the other hand, are born different. They hatch from unfertilized eggs laid by the queen. All of the males are capable of reproduction, and just like the female reproductives, they have wings and can fly. In fact, reproduction is the only purpose of a male ant’s existence. His entire role in life is to mate and die.

On a warm day, typically between 70 and 95°F, winged individuals will emerge from the nest. This usually happens within 24 hours of rain, either before or after. The male and female reproductives, called alates, take to the air, often flying hundreds of feet up. As they do so, the females emit a mating pheromone that attracts the males. The males chase the females, and the females fly as high and as far as they can to ensure that only the fittest and strongest males can reach them. The ants mate in the air, and the males die immediately afterward.

The females live on. These alates can be carried on the wind for huge distances, but will eventually find a place to start a new colony. Because fire ants are territorial, these mated bugs will look for areas that currently have no population of other fire ants. Once they’ve found a place that fits their criteria, they will dig a small chamber in the soil and lay around 25 eggs.

While the new queen waits for these eggs to hatch, she will live by digesting the wing muscles she used for her flight. She will also regurgitate this digested muscle to feed the first generation of her new nest.  This first generation will grow into small adult workers that will then begin to take care of the queen and the subsequent eggs that she lays. As they age, they will also expand and maintain the colony and forage for food. From that point on, the queen’s only role in the nest is to lay eggs. The workers perform every other job.

Fire ant queens can live for seven years. At a rate of 1500 eggs every day, it’s easy to see how many offspring a single bug can have in her lifetime.

A Fire Ant’s Life

The lifecycle of the red imported fire ant it’s fascinating in its complexity. In many ways, it’s more complicated than that of most animals, including us. There’s no denying that humans are inherently social creatures. But we humans are not nearly as social as these fire ants are. An individual cannot survive without the colony. Helpless as a juvenile and unable to digest solid food as an adult, an ant relies on its siblings at every stage of its lifecycle.

This is part of the explanation behind the astonishing success of the species. These bugs are one of the most widespread and numerous groups of animals in the world. Despite their small size, there are so many ants in the world that they are estimated to make up a solid 20% of the mass of all living creatures on the planet. Our own species, successful as we are, doesn’t come anywhere near to those numbers. And they’ve survived and thrived despite the concerted efforts of the planet’s apex predator – humans – actively trying to eradicate them.

For an ant, nothing matters besides the colony. The life of an individual is worthless and utterly dependent on the survival of the social organization of the nest. This is why these ants are fearless in attacking creatures hundreds of times their size in defense of the nest. And it’s this aggressiveness that brings them into conflict with us over and over again.

But from a pest control perspective, it’s essential to understand how their society is structured, and the various stages of their lifecycle. This creature’s dependence on its colony can be both its greatest strength and its most significant weakness. Pest control efforts are best focused on the brood,  since this is the only way to eradicate the colony. Wiping out adults is never going to take down a nest.

If you are looking for a complete package which provides all the products you need to combat these ants both indoors and outdoors, then we recommend this Indoor & Outdoor Ant Kit. It has been specially designed to give you all the tools in one handy kit.

It comes with multiple chemical treatments as well as baiting stations to allow you to set up an effective strategy to get rid of the ants either inside or outside your home.

Fire ants have such a high level of organization that a colony is often thought of as a superorganism. In the same way as our bodies are made up of individual cells, all doing their own tasks to benefit the overall health of the organism, individual ants live their whole lives in the service of their nest. It’s often helpful to think of a colony as one single organism, with the brood functioning as a stomach and the queen as the reproductive organs.

Successful treatment requires focusing on the entire superorganism, and not the individual members.

But even as we devise and refine new strategies to use against these insects, it’s hard not to admire the level of cooperation and social organization they exhibit. When it comes to cooperation and complex social roles, ants are more like us than we may want to acknowledge.