Seeing ants around the house can be a devastating sight, and there are several DIY options to get rid of ants or you can employ the services of a pest control service in Huntersville, NC. You might be wondering “What do I need to do to prepare for a pest control service near me?” Well, this article discusses the ant elimination process and what you need to do to prepare for service. Most professional ant control services use bait insecticide to control and eliminate ants from homes and residences. This often requires the placement of small beads of gel bait mainly in areas where the ant has been seen feeding or trailing. These baits may be placed in small pieces of cardboard or contained inside an ant bait station. Bait is the preferred means of control, and to solve an ant problem, you have to eliminate both those you see and those you can't.
The ants you see are the worker ants, and their job is to find food and take it back to the queen and her young who are being groomed as the next generation of worker ants. Therefore you have to do more than just spraying, as the colony will simply send more workers in their place. You have to place baits along the trails which the ants follow this way when the workers come in contact with the baits, they carry it back to the nest, and feed the queen thereby eliminating her and future populations.
Before an Ant Control Service
Most pest control services often send a list of preparation activities in anticipation of their arrival. It doesn’t hurt to know these preparation activities. Below are the most common requests or recommendations by pest control companies- and which you should follow when using any over-the-counter pest control product yourself. You can help your exterminator rid your home of an ant problem by doing the following things:
- Wipe down counters, clean up spills, and sweep floors to reduce potential food sources
- Vacuum thoroughly to eliminate even the slightest crumbs
- Store food in pest-proof containers or refrigerators
- Empty trash regularly
- Wash dishes regularly
- Never leave pet food outside after the pet has finished eating
- If recyclables are kept at home, ensure you rinse them thoroughly
- When the pest control service arrives explain exactly where you are seeing the ants- or have seen them in the past.
After an Ant Control Service
Some common steps to follow after an ant control service has been performed are:
- Be patient: Baits don’t kill the ants immediately. They attract the ants for feeding, and then they carry the baits back to their nests to feed other ants and the entire colony. This is the surest way to eliminate the entire nest of ants.
- While the baits are taking effect, don’t spray any ants you see as they need to continue to feed to carry the poison back to the colony.
- Avoid using strong cleaners near the ant bait as it would eliminate any pheromone trail which they are using to find the bait.
- Do not disturb ants heading to or away from the bait or eating it.