You may think of your home as an impenetrable fortress, but it’s far from that. In reality, your Monmouth County, NJ home is vulnerable to invading ants. Find out how these ants come inside and if there’s anything you can do to keep them out.
What Type Of Ants Should You Worry About?
Before you learn how ants get in, you need to know which ants could affect you. In Monmouth County, NJ there are a few ants that often invade homes.
- Carpenter Ants are common invaders and are identified by their dark color and large size. To build nests, they chew through the wood in your walls and your furniture. Acrobat ants also have the potential to cause damage but aren’t quite as devastating as carpenter ants.
- Odorous House Ants are more of a nuisance than anything. They invade in numbers and emit a foul odor when crushed. No matter what type of ant you have inside your property, there’s a potential for danger. Ants can contaminate your food and make you or someone else in your home sick. The only way to protect yourself is to take measures to keep ants outside.
How And Why Do They Come Inside?
All of the local ant species can survive outdoors. There’s enough food, shelter, and water for them to thrive. However, ants still manage to make their way indoors. Sometimes, they do so in search of resources.
- If you have crumbs on your floors or open bags of food in your pantry, ants could find your home appealing.
- Moisture also is attractive to the ants in Monmouth. During times of drought or low rainfall, the high humidity in your bathroom or kitchen could be particularly appealing to ants. They’ll actively look for a way inside to get to the moisture.
But how do they actually come indoors? It might surprise you to know that some ants come in through your front door, or at least underneath it. If you have a gap under your front door, ants could use that as an entrance. They could also enter via gaps around your window or through holes and rips in your screens.
Other Common Entry Points
There are a few less obvious ant entrance points. For instance, carpenter ants tunnel through moist wood. Even if there are no gaps around your windows and doors, they can chew through the wood on the exterior of your home and get indoors. Other ants, like pavement ants, are so small that they may crawl into your home through small cracks in your foundation.
If you have gaps around your plumbing fixtures, these can also welcome ants indoors. The ants could follow the plumbing system into your bathroom and kitchen. In any case, once inside your home, ants don’t take long to get comfortable. They reproduce rapidly and can seem to be everywhere.
Ant Prevention
If you don’t want ants in your Monmouth County home, you can take the following preventative measures:
- Seal Up Food: Open bags of cereal and rice are food for ants. To make your home less appealing to these Monmouth County pests, store your food in containers with air-tight lids.
- Replace Old Screens: Old, damaged screens allow ants indoors. Replace or repair broken screens.
- Seal Your Garbage Cans: Don’t leave your garbage in open containers, or ants will have a free meal. Use containers with lids inside and outside of your home.
- Use Caulk Where Necessary: You can seal up those gaps around your window or plumbing with caulk.
Work With Professionals
For the best results, contact Alliance Pest Services and work with our experienced professionals. We can provide ongoing home pest control service to keep ants outside of your home using environmentally friendly and cost-effective treatments. Call us at Alliance Pest Services today or use our online contact form to learn more.