Close contacts of ants and humans causes irritation and anger among the latter. Let it be that ants are useful in the wild, but there is no place for them within people’s dwellings. So inside the houses any pests are hardly good creatures. They don’t know anything about our ideas of hygiene and unconsciously carry numerous bacteria on their legs. They spoil products as well. Thus, if any eatable thing is left within the reach of ants, in a while it will be covered with special substance, which helps them bite off appropriate pieces and bring them to the nest. As a result, we can see the product in some kind of web. This is absolutely disgusting.
Outside the house, for example, in the kitchen garden, pavement ants perform work both in positive and in negative way (from the human’s point of view). Protecting plants from other insects, these insects at the same time eat young crops, damage flowers and plants, causing their diseases.
People seek effective measures to get rid of pavement ants in the yard and in the houses. Besides, the ants can painfully sting, which is especially dangerous for people who suffer from allergy.
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Where do pavement ants prefer to settle?
Pavement ants build their nests in the cracks of roads and sidewalks. They also like to settle under logs, blocks, boards close to the house building, under floors and in the wall hollows. Their nests aren’t very deep in the ground.
They are mostly spread in the Midwest, but can be also found throughout the country. They are native to Europe and were brought to American continent.
The ants’ castes
Like many other insects with social behaviour, this type has a complex social structure, consisting of a queen, workers, winged species and broods. A queen is a heart of the whole ant family. Without her, it can’t exist and soon stop its existence. That is why; a queen is also a major target of any effective procedure of killing ants.
Ants can feed practically on everything
Being big sweets lovers, pavement ants feed on honeydew, other carbohydrates. Another part of their menu is protein contained food. Living near us, pavement ants regularly attack kitchen seeking food – sugar, jelly, meat, fat and so on. They have their pets too, namely, different kinds of aphids, which they take care after and protect from their insect enemies. Besides, if you notice a lot of aphids on your plants, you should know that this is a sign of ants’ infestation. In other cases, these little robbers are easily seen in the house, foraging for food.
How to control pavement ants in the house?
First of all, you should identify pavement ants. They are brownish to black with a bit lighter legs. They are rather small – about 3 mm in length. Queens are twice as large as common workers. They are mostly wingless, except the alates, young males and females that are able to produce the broods. After swarm ants lose their wings and mate. Males soon die. Females become queens and start new colonies.
The next challenge is to follow ants’ trails. The pathways may lead to the nest either inside or outside your house.
- After it, seal the cracks in the walls, where the ants may enter the house. You may use silicone as well.
- Repair all leaking tubes that may cause any damages to your house.
- Now it is time to start elimination process
Read also:
- How to get rid of ants in your home, special and natural remedies, ants traps
- Home remedies for ants, how to kill ants naturally, review 14 methods!
How to get rid of pavement ants naturally
There are plenty of harmless treatments for pets and people to kill ants or destroy the mounds:
- Very hot water, poured into the nest, kills a lot of species at once. But it is better to repeat the procedure several days in a row to reach the desirable result.
- Borax baiting. Add boric acid or powder into ants’ favorite food. Then put the poisoned treat near their pathways. Boric acid irritates the skin and damages their inner organs, causing death. They also will bring much of borax treatment into the nest to feed a queen. It will be fatal for the colony. Borax is only harmful for people when it is inhaled. So be careful and store it out of the reach of children and pets.
- Ants are incapable to digest corn meal and farina. These substances get enlarged in their stomach, leading death.
- Diatomaceous earth. It will be effective to spread a thick layer of the powder on the nest.
Special remedies against pavement ants
Unlike natural methods that will take about one or two weeks to get the result, special chemical methods will help to solve the problem of pavement ants’ infestation much quicker though less safer.
- Repellent treatments will protect your house from ants’ invading. For outdoor spraying the best products are Cynoff WP or Cypermetrin.
- To control the insects inside the house, you may use dusts, for example, Delta Dust Insecticide and Hand Duster.
- The best exterminate methods are baitings with low level of poison. The important tip is to avoid using both insecticides and baits in the same area at a time.
- The highly effective treatments like baits are the following: Advance 375 Select Granular Ant Bait, Maxforce Ant Bait Gel, Niban Fine Granular Bait, Uncle Albert Ant Bait Gel and others.
Preventive methods against pavement ants
Maintain additional methods after ants’ elimination to stop future infestation.
- Leave no food on the table, countertops and the floor. Sweep and clean it daily.
- Wipe all surfaces from water drops, fix all leaking pipes.
- Caulk all cracks leading ants into the house.
- Remove all possible ants shelters, such as piled timber, dead leaves, debris further from the house
- Don’t allow trees’ branches touch the house structure.
Thanks for explaining that the ants I have in my home are pavement ants because they’re brownish to black in color. I had to move out most of my sugar jars to the fridge because they spread in my kitchen since last March, and I saw a lot of them in the jars, and it’s frustrating to get them out of the sugar whenever I have a recipe that calls for sugar. Maybe it’s time to call someone to control their population before they get to my donuts and honey.