Dealing with pests in your Sacramento home can be extremely frustrating. While there are many kinds of pests you might encounter, ants are one of the most common. These small insects often make their way indoors in search of food or shelter, and they can become a big problem. While they might seem like just a small issue, it’s rare to see just one ant, and dealing with an ant colony can be frustrating.
Almost all species of ants can contaminate food. The best way to keep ants from becoming an issue is to prevent them from ever getting inside. While all ants can contaminate food and be annoying to deal with, some species are more of a problem than others. Here are some of the common ant species in the Sacramento area:
- Argentine ants: These ants are a light to dark brown color and are particularly attracted to food sources in homes.
- Pharaoh ants: These are one of the most common species, and they are usually light brown or yellow.
- Pavement ants: These are the black or dark brown ants you often see outside on sidewalks. They come out at night to look for food and love sweet things.
- Carpenter ants: These ants can contaminate food, but they also chew through wood to create nests and can be destructive. They are best identified by their heart-shaped heads.
How To Prevent Ants
Because ants can get into your food and contaminate it, they can end up costing you money to replace what they’ve ruined. The carpenter ant can also do a lot of damage to the wooden structures in your home. No matter which species of ant we're talking about, they aren’t desirable to have in your home.
Overall, some of the best ways to prevent ants from getting into your Scarmanento home is through reducing the factors that attract them. Here are some prevention tips you can follow:
- Store your food properly and have trash cans that are covered and secure.
- Clean up messes and spills from food in a prompt manner.
- Reduce the moisture content in your home by fixing leaky pipes and faucets.
- Store pet food properly.
- Take out the trash often.
- Remove yard debris.
How To Keep Ants Out
Preventing ants by making your yard and home less desirable to them and removing elements that attract them is a great place to start. The other half of ant prevention is sealing off places where they can get indoors. Ants are quite small, so these steps can be a bit more difficult. However, you can still implement some of these techniques, such as:
- Checking screen doors and windows for holes or gaps.
- Putting a screen over vents.
- Looking for other entry points around doors or windows.
Getting Rid Of An Ant Infestation
While following these ant prevention steps on your own can help reduce your risk, it’s not always possible to completely prevent ants. The best way to eliminate an ant infestation is to contact the experts at Pro Active Pest Control. We can help you with prevention as well as the elimination of any species in the area. We also offer residential and commercial pest control for ants and many other species of pest.