What are Ants and should you be worried about them?
Ants are one of the tiniest insects found in nature. There are so many ants all over the world that they have the distinction of being the insect with the highest population, with estimates ranging from at least 10 trillion ants up to 100,000 trillion ants that are alive at any given moment in time.
There are many different kinds of ants, with over 100 species that are known to make up the ant population of Canada. Ant sizes can vary depending on the species, with some ants that are as small as 1 millimeter (such as thief ants or black ants) to larger sized ants, such as carpenter ants that have a size of 12 to 13 millimeters.
Should you be worried about ants?
While the majority of ants that you are likely to encounter inside Canada aren’t dangerous on their own, except for some that can sting people, they can become a real headache for you if they decide to leave your garden and start living inside your house or commercial property.
Most species of ants will be content to live outdoors, often serving a valuable function in your local ecosystem (a small garden counts as an ecosystem) by eating up smaller pests and not causing any kind of damage to a garden. However, there are some other species of ants that you should be on the lookout for moving inside your home. Ants such as the aforementioned carpenter ants, and other species such as black ants, odorous house ants, thief ants & Pharaoh ants have a tendency to literally invade homes, both outdoors and indoors. They can cause damage to gardens and if they nest indoors for too long a time, they can cause structural damage and act as a general nuisance around the house. Pharaoh ants can cause turmoil inside a kitchen as they are attracted to any food item that contains sugar or proteins.
By the time an ant colony has set up shop inside a home, they can be extremely difficult to get rid of in a way that ensures they don’t return. This is why it is essential that you take all necessary steps to prevent an ant infestation from going unchecked in your home.
What should you do if you spot multiple ants inside your home?
The first step towards dealing with any type of ant infestation is to determine what type of ant they are. Generally, the invasive kinds of ants that are likely to invade Canadian households are easy to identify based on traits that are unique to that species of ant. The first identifier you should be able to tell right away is their color. This can range from tan colored ants, to red colored, to dark brown, to black. The next identifying trait is the size of the ant, with the length of ants ranging from 1.5 mm all the way up to 13 mm. You don’t need to get out measuring tape to precisely measure the size of the ants in your home. You can estimate their sizes based on the following size comparisons of the smallest and largest ants you are likely to encounter.
Dealing with the problem on your own
You can try to deal with your ant infestation problem on your own. Although it is best left to a professional exterminator, you can try to get rid of them yourself. A common and relatively simple method of getting rid of ants is to use a product known as baits, which are substances that you can leave lying around at various spots in your home and which work to attract ants and then kill them. Baits are best placed in places where you have observed a lot of ant activity, and can also be placed inside an ant colony for increased effectiveness.
You also have the option of using Traps, which is the label for a number of devices that are designed to capture ants or kill them. You can find a large variety of various types of traps in the market, with some traps being designed specifically for certain species of ants, while others are designed to capture a broad variety of ants. This is another reason why it is necessary to know what species of ant is infesting your home, as all traps are less likely to work for any and all species of ants.
When should you call a professional pest exterminator to deal with your ant problem?
The two methods mentioned above are tried and tested methods for getting rid of ant infestations, but unless done in just the right way, your ant problem will not go away. If you fail to eliminate a number of ants by neglecting to place traps or baits in every single possible place where ants might be passing through or building a new colony, you will end up where you started from. The best way to make sure of a professional level of care is taken when dealing with ants is to hire a professional company that deals with the extermination of pests.
Vanquish Pest Control is a premier pest extermination company in Canada, www.vanquishpestcontrol.com. They operate out of Brampton, Ontario, and they provide extermination services to the surrounding regions and ensure that each client is left with a pest free residence and the comfort of knowing that it will stay that way for the foreseeable future.
A professional extermination company like Vanquish Pest Control can deal with an ant problem with the help of Baits and Traps. They might also decide to use pesticides to deal with an ant infestation in a more thorough manner. Pesticides are a common method of extermination for ants. They are chemicals that are designed to kill pests. A variety of pesticides are available for the professionals. Some of these pesticides are designed to kill specific types of ants, while others are designed to kill a variety of ants and pests. The professional exterminator for Vanquish Pest Control will know just which pesticide to use for your ant problem, depending on which species it is.
Maintaining high level of cleanliness will ward off an ant infestation. This means keeping food sources clean and sealed and eliminating potential hiding places for ants.
