Everything You Need To Know About Ant Control In Del Rio

Do you know why ants get into your home? Sure, they get in because they find tiny gaps that are difficult to detect. That is a given. But ants wouldn't use those tiny entry points to enter your home (in large numbers) if there were no reason to do so. The secret to effective ant control is understanding how ants behave. Today, we're going to look at how ants communicate with each other, how they make their nests, and how you can use this knowledge to keep them out of your Del Rio home. If you'd rather have a trained and experienced technician deal with your ants, jump to our contact page. We offer industry-leading ant pest control in Del Rio. We can guide you toward the perfect control solution for your specific issue. If you came here because you want to know more about ants, read on. You'll definitely find some helpful tips here.

Ants are amazing, if you're able to step back and put aside your frustration. These insects work together to do crazy things. Perhaps you've seen some crazy things. Have you ever found a mass of ants that looked like something out of a science fiction horror film? It happens. Certain ant species are able to swarm together, crawl all over each other, and make big clumps. Fire ants make living rafts! They gather into a group and hold onto each other so they can float over flood waters. The ants under the waterline may drown or get picked off by fish and other predators. Every drone in the colony works to protect the queen and the larvae and they give their lives doing so. That is the commitment they have to the colony.

When ants come into your yard, they use their self organization to create nests and find food. As they do, you can have some trouble with them. Not only will they create those ugly biomasses, but they can cause circuits to trip or can chew through wires and make your lights go out. Some ants get into the engines of automobiles and gum things up.

The most important fact to understand about ants is how they use their organization skills to enter your home by the thousands. It all has to do with something called pheromones. Workers lay a pheromone trail as they head back to the nest with the food they find in your home. Other workers smell the pheromone trail and follow it. When they find the food, they do the same thing and add to the trail. Quickly, the scent of the trail becomes so strong that workers are coming from a distance to follow it. In a matter of minutes, thousands of ants can enter your home through one tiny little gap or crack. It is amazing! But also amazingly annoying. When you find ants in your home, we recommend three simple steps to address them.

1. Follow the ant trail and figure out where they're coming in. Check indoors and outdoors.
2. Use a can of expanding foam to seal gaps around pipes or to fill in a hole the ants are using. You can do this outside as well as inside.
3. Use a vacuum to suck up the ants in your home and clean the area with soapy water. Doing this removes the ants and the pheromones.

In many cases, these three simple steps are all you'll need to stop ants. Unfortunately, you may only get temporary relief if you have ant nests near your exterior, or worse, ant nests inside your home.

What Do Ant Nests Look Like?

Ants build their nests where you can't see them, so you'll have to look for evidence of an ant nest. Near the exterior of your home, you may see mounds. These mounds may look like little volcanos, or just a hump of dirt. It depends on the ant species that made the mound. Inspect around stones, concrete, and other hard materials. Many ants make their nests next to hard objects. Fire ants create mounds in sunny areas and usually in the center of lawns. Keep this in mind as you search for ant mounds.

If ants have created a nest inside the walls of your home, there are a few ways to tell that ants are in your wall, apart from ripping your sheetrock off and looking inside.

• Some ants bring dirt in from the outside. They do this to create an appropriate habitat to create a nest in your walls. When these ants do this, you might see dirt leaking out of cracks, gaps, and crevices.
• Some ants create tunnels in wood. We call these carpenter ants. The worst of all carpenter ants are the black ones. If you find black carpenter ants in your home, you'll want to have a certified technician take a look at your problem. The good news is that carpenter ants create a material called frass, which is a mixture of wood shavings, insect parts, and droppings. You might see frass leaking out of cracks, gaps, and crevices. Keep in mind that carpenter ants can push this material out inside wall voids and other hidden places.
• Carpenter ants sometimes create damage to wood in locations that are visible. Look for changes to the wood of your home and learn how to identify carpenter ants so that, if you see them, you know it.
• Frequent ant activity is a sign of an indoor nest. If you remove ants and clean the area, only to have them appear again shortly after, you may have an indoor nest. 

Now that you know how to look for ant nests in and around your home, let's discuss how ants construct their nests. There are still a few more valuable facts to learn about outdoor ant control and how to guard against carpenter ant damage.

Ant Architects: How Do Ants Construct Their Nests?

Almost all ants create nests in the ground, even carpenter ants do this once in a while. When ants create nests in the ground, you can tell because a mound is created above the surface. The mound is made of all the tiny grains of soil that are excavated. Ants work together to move soil, food, and droplets of liquid. They are wired with behavior patterns and do all of their work without a need for a foreman. The primary form of communication is pheromones, but that is far from the only way ants communicate with each other. For example, have you ever noticed how ants are always coming up to each other and inspecting each other? There is a lot of communication going on during these encounters and entomologists don't understand all of them.

When carpenter ants construct a nest, they prefer to do so in wood rather than soil. They don't do it willy nilly in any old wood. They prefer wood that is soft or rotting. It is a good idea to repair and replace any rotted wood on your home. Not only will this deter carpenter ants but termites and other wood-damaging pests as well. If you can't replace rotting wood, consider using a caulking gun or some expanding foam to fill in holes and gaps and slap a coat of paint on the wood. These help to keep pests out.

Ant Control For Del Rio Residents

You know a lot about ants now. Let's recap and add a few more facts to help you apply pest maintenance to keep ants out.

• Ants get into your home through tiny entry points. While it is impossible to keep all the ants out of your home, sealing potential entry points works to deter ants.
• Carpenter ants are attracted to rotting wood. Remove rotting wood on your home if you can, and also remove rotting wood near your home, such as wooden landscape borders, dead branches, scrap wood, campfire wood, wood pallets, logs, stumps, etc.
• Ants are always looking for food. When you find ants inside, it is likely they found a food source. Remove the food source. Also, consider food sources near your home such as bird seed, nuts, fruit, insects, honeydew, nectar, garbage, etc. 
• Ants need water. It is a building block for life. One way homes become vulnerable to ant problems is that gutters get clogged. Clear clogs and make necessary repairs to reduce ground saturation. Also, thin out the vegetation in your landscaping so things stay as dry as possible.
• Ants love leaf litter and leaf piles. Stay on top of leaf clean up to remove ideal habitats for ants in your yard.

We hope these tips help you reduce ant problems below your threshold of comfort. If your threshold is zero, contact us for ongoing pest control service for your home. Gold Star Exterminators is the right choice for ant pest control in Del Rio. We can guide you toward a long-lasting and sustainable solution for all your pest control needs.

Gold Star has been spraying our house for a few years now and I can't express how much it has helped.  I was spraying Demon WD myself and barely made an impact on the scorpions and spiders.  after they started doing it, we have very few sightings now.  Great company.

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