If you really want to improve your home, you may not need to resurface your counter tops or add a rug to your living room. These are great ways to spice up your home, but you can only really experience them if you aren’t living with ants. If you do have ants in your home, you need to get rid of them first before you can love your home the way it is. Here’s how you can do that.
Ant facts
Before getting rid of ants, you might want to know a little bit more about what types of ants you might have in your home. There are actually over 700 types of ants in the United States, which means there are a lot of different ant varieties you might see in your home.
Many of these ant varieties, including pavement ants and fire ants, are great at getting through the cracks in pavement and foundations. That means if you have cracks in your pavement or cracks in your concrete foundation, you might end up with an ant infestation because they can come through these cracks.
The most common areas for an ant infestation
Where are you most likely to end up with an ant infestation? Here are the top places.
- Kitchen : Most people who have experienced ants have experienced them in the kitchen. The reason is simple: food. Ants are always looking for food, and the kitchen is full of food. Even if you just leave a few crumbs on the counter, you can end up with a full infestation. There’s also plenty of water because of kitchen sinks and other water sources.
- Bathroom: Even though the kitchen has some water sources, they can’t compare to the bathroom. Bathrooms have plenty of water sources because water is the main intention of a bathroom. Even if you just shake your hands out after you wash them, you could be creating tiny water droplets that ants love, which can easily lead to an infestation.
- Basement: This typically happens because of cracks in your basement foundation. Ants are great at getting through tiny concrete cracks — even if they’re not pavement cracks or fire ant cracks, you may see them come through very small cracks in your home’s foundation. Because many people don’t spend a lot of time in their basements, this can quickly develop into a huge infestation.
Tips and tricks to avoid ants in your home
How can you make sure you don’t have ants in your home to begin with? Here are a few ways you can stop the problem at the source.
- Seal cracks and holes in walls, windows, and doors
- Fix leaky pipes and faucets
- Caulk around AC and heating units
- Put food in airtight containers
- Wipe down kitchen counters after using them
- Empty trash regularly
- Water indoor plants the proper amount
- Stack firewood at least 20 feet away from the home
- Repair cracked pavement and foundations around your house
These range in difficulty from very easy to very difficult to do on your own. For example, it’s easy to empty the trash on a regular basis, but you can’t repair cracked foundations on your own. If you’re looking for a permanent fix for something like cracked foundations, you should consult an expert for a more permanent fix.
Conclusion
There are plenty of things you can do to avoid ants inside, and many of them are very simple. Sure, you may need to request help from an expert for some things, like checking your foundation for cracks, but some of these tips are very easy to implement in your day-to-day life. When you’re able to implement simple ant avoidance techniques, you can more thoroughly appreciate any other home improvement tactics.