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Ants in your home is always a cause for concern. Aside from the appearance of a long wriggling trail of ant soldiers just looking gross, ants can carry bacteria and mold spores into your food supplies (including pet food), so anything that ants come into contact with in your pantry needs to be thrown away. For another, not all ant species are harmless: Fire ants and crazy ants (really, that’s what they’re called) both bite, and carpenter ant will destroy your house if left unchecked.
So, when you see ants in your house, you should of course take steps to eliminate them. If store-bought baits and poisons aren’t stopping them, you very likely have a nest inside your home somewhere, and you’re going to need to find it—especially if you’re dealing with carpenter ants. Here’s how to find an ant nest.
Trail the trail
Most ants like moist, dark places for their nest, and they tend to emerge mostly at night in search of food sources. The first place you’ll see most ant invasions are bathrooms and kitchens because that’s where the moisture is going to be. If you’re seeing ants invading your home, a good first step towards finding their nest is to follow the trails they create when they locate a food source. This can be frustrating due to the tendency of ants to wait until you’re asleep before heading out for the night, so you should plan ahead and try to engineer things a bit:
- Take a jar lid or a shallow dish and put some honey and/or peanut butter on it, then place it in an area where you’ve seen the tiny critters.
- Wait. Don’t sit there staring at it like a sociopath, but check on it until you see ants forming up a conga line to feast.
- Follow the trail back to its origin.
There are a few things to keep in mind: Ant trails can be a little disorganized. Every time an ant scout heads out in search of ant resources, they put down a pheromone trail for other ants to follow. This often results in ants wandering about like drunken sailors when returning home because they keep chancing on an old trail. Eventually they find their way, but you should start with a wide view and try to observe the overall direction of the ants instead of following one individual—it might take you on a very circuitous path. That path will probably lead you to the crack, seam, or tiny hole the ants are using to enter the interior of your house, which will be located very close to their nest. Concentrating your baits and other treatments at that spot will be most effective.
Spot the signs
If you can’t seem to follow a trail of ants, you can look for the tell-tale signs of a nest. These vary slightly depending on species:
- Wood shavings (also called “frass” by those of us trying to sound impressive at cocktail parties with our hot ant knowledge) are essentially sawdust produced by our eternal enemies the carpenter ant. As they work diligently to turn your house into rubble, they push the excavated wood out through their tunnels. If you see small piles of wood “dust” on your floors, you’ve got ants nesting nearby.
- Dead ants. You might think seeing a bunch of dead ants is a sign that God favors you and is smiting your home invaders, but it’s really just a sign that the nest is nearby.
- Swarms. One sign that carpenter ants have made your home their home is discovering a bunch of winged, flying ants in your house. They are often attracted to light and appear at night as if by magic. This happens when a carpenter ant nest has hit peak population, and a bunch of drone ants grow wings and swarm out to find mates and start a new nest, so if you’re seeing them you’ve got a bigger problem than you think. It’s not easy, but if you can observe where the ants are entering the room, you’ve probably found the location of that nest—though there may be others. Other swarming ants include pharaoh ants, which won’t damage your wood but can pose a health risk due to their tendency to be disease-ridden demons.
- Sounds. Want to be horrified? If you think you have carpenter ants, listen to your walls. If the tiny monsters are burrowing into your framing, you will hear rustling and clicking. Tapping lightly on the wall as you listen will often rouse them into a flurry of activity.
- Moisture. Seeing ants in the house—especially carpenter ants, who love damp, rotting wood—is a good time to look for a leaking roof, window, toilet, or appliance. Ants love moisture, so locating places where water has been allowed to sit will probably also reveal a mighty ant civilization.
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Check your perimeter
Of course, even if you’re seeing ants inside the house, the nest might be outside the house, even if we’re talking about carpenter ants. If you’ve followed a trail to an exterior wall, door, or window, the nest is probably outside. Here’s what to look for:
- Wood. If you’ve left a pile of old wood outside after a home project—even treated wood—get rid of it. There’s a non-zero chance that when you move it you’ll find ants have chewed some of it to pieces and/or established a nest underneath it. Even if the ants don’t nest inside the wood they often find damp wood left outside an ideal place to raise their tiny ant families.
- Dirt mounds. Many species of ant nest in the dirt. As they tunnel down, they excavate the dirt, creating a tell-tale mound with a hole in the middle.
- Aphids. One of the more fascinating aspects of ant life is the fact that they often use other insects as livestock. Aphids, those tiny green or red insects that devour your plants, are often kept by ant colonies that feed off their excretions. If you have aphids in your garden and ants in your house, you’ll probably find the ant nest near the aphid herd.
When you’re dealing with an ant infestation, finding the nest is crucial. Killing ants you see won’t put a dent in their population. Baits that promise to kill the nest may work—but they take time, and aren’t guaranteed. If you’ve tried poisons and other remedies and you’re still seeing ants, finding the nest and taking the war to them is your next step.
from Lifehacker https://ift.tt/qETMRog
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