How To Get Rid Of Sugar Ants

The key to sugar ant control longer term is removing tempting food from the reach of hungry ants. If there’s nothing to eat, there’s no reason for them to be wandering around your home. However, this is hardly a straightforward process, since ants are both small and wiley, as well as determined when they know you’re holding out on them.

Still, you should definitely do a few things to ensure they’re as unhappy shopping in your home and farming your shrubs as possible.

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1. Pack Food in Air-Tight Containers

Just like you’re going to be hesitant to reach for a product on the top shelf if there’s one easier to get to, ants go for easy marks. Breakfast cereal left in the original box and closed with a clip, for example, might as well have a glowing neon sign pointing to it. Take any food that could be easily accessed by ants and store it in air-tight containers. This includes sugary cereals, flour, sugar, drink mixes, and other similar items.

2. Clean Away Ant Trails

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If you can see where the ants are traveling, you can see the chemical trail that’s been left behind by the scouts. Trace the path by following ants that are foraging, then clean it up with soapy water or window cleaner. Although scouts will return to lay the path again, you’ll buy yourself some time to remove food sources and create some new ant hazards.

3. Seal Ant Access Points

Sometimes it’s really easy to see where ants are accessing your home. If this is the case for you, make sure to grab the caulk gun and seal up those holes. It’s going to be a battle for a while, since ants will look for alternative routes, but if you keep at it, you’ll end up plugging all their access points. Check cracks in the floor, switch plates and trim for ant-sized access points to the inside.

4. Set Up Baits

Ant baits are sometimes tricky to use, especially if you have a lot of ants or you’re not sure where they’re getting in, but they can be highly effective. The idea is to choose a poison bait that will act slowly enough for the ants to carry it back to their nest, rather than kill them on contact—otherwise more ants will just show up to replace the ones that have died. Place bait stations on ant trails so the ants will find them and rejoice in their bounty.

5. Don’t Forget the Bushes

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Although ants that are farming aphids in your bushes are less likely to be in your home, you might want those ants off your plants, too. In that case, you’ve got to treat the source of the problem: the ants’ aphid ranch.

Aphids are easy to kill if you’re persistent, just spray affected plants down frequently with jets of water from your garden hose to knock the insects off the plants. They move slowly, but reproduce rapidly, so you’ll have to keep this up until you don’t see any more aphids.

At the same time, you have to stop ants from climbing into those plants. Trim them back from climbable surfaces like siding, and apply thick stripes of double-sided tape to the trunks so ants that try to climb from the base will get stuck. This way, the ants and aphids are separated, making it easier to prevent both from accessing your plants.

Source: https://gardencourte.com
Categories: Kitchens