How To Keep Ants Off Your Columbus Property
Few pests are as difficult to prevent as ants. Even clean homes and businesses in Columbus, Ohio can find themselves with these little bugs crawling all over, which is why it’s important to do everything you can to prevent an ant infestation before it becomes noticeable. Only through total control methods can you hope to truly avoid ants altogether.
Ants Common To Columbus
When most people think of ants, they picture tiny black insects that are mostly harmless. While the vast majority of ant species aren’t considered dangerous, some common varieties pose larger threats to you and your property. We break these differing ant varieties into two broad categories:
Nuisance Ants
Pavement Ants: Also called sugar ants for their sweet tooth that sets them clamoring to sugary sources, pavement ants are the small black ants that probably come to mind.
Odorous Ants: They look a lot like other ants but this species has a unique and smelly feature. When stepped on, they give off a foul odor, which wards off further attacks and warns nearby ants.
Thief Ants: These guys get their name from their habit of stealing resources from existing ant colonies. Where one infestation exists, another can quickly crop up.
Dangerous Ants
Carpenter Ants: While not as destructive as termites, carpenter ants can still do serious damage to wooden materials around your property.
Fire Ants: Known for their vicious and painful stings, fire ants are incredibly territorial and difficult to remove.
Pharaoh Ants: The most dangerous pests aren’t always the ones that cause physical harm, but rather those that spread disease. Pharaoh ants are just such a pest, capable of carrying salmonella, staphylococcus, clostridium, and streptococcus.
Personal Elimination Methods Don’t Work
Even relatively harmless ant species can still pose problems around your property. And none of them are easy to eliminate. Because of their vast tunnel networks and sophisticated caste systems of organized labor, ants can’t simply be squashed underfoot or eliminated with a few traps and baits. Instead, only expert treatments are guaranteed to eliminate the reproductive queens that keep the population going. The best thing you can do is take early preventative steps to protect your property before pest populations move in.
Ant Prevention Tips & Tricks
Some of the best things you can do to protect against pests are simple things. Keep in mind, however, that even clean and well-maintained properties can still wind up with an infestation. Here are some of the best aspects to focus on:
Food Storage: Ants can detect mere traces of food inside a structure thanks to their sensitive antennae. Keeping food stored and properly cleaned up after meals will help with this attractant.
Trash Storage: Ants don’t care that food is in the trash, in fact, this is often the most accessible source of food available to them. Make sure your garbage is secure.
Crack Sealing: While those other methods reduce attractants, this one is all about keeping ants from getting inside in the first place. Regularly check your exterior walls for cracks or holes that an ant might be able to fit through. That means no crack should be treated as too small.
Our Services Can Help
As with all pest problems, it’s better to act before they become a problem. While certain steps can help improve your chances of avoiding an ant infestation, there’s only one smart course of action for when these pests are already inside: call the pros. At Mandau’s Pest Solutions, we can quickly eliminate an ant population before it poses greater dangers or grows to massive proportions. If you don’t already have a pest problem, our expert guidance can root out signs of pests or the things that attract them. It all starts with a call, so contact Mandau’s Pest Solutions to learn about our home pest control and commercial pest control services today.
Customer Review
Bret came to our home to treat our pest issues same day and was thorough and knowledgeable! Pricing was lower than 4 other companies I'd contacted. Highly recommend!
