Living in a dry area of Australia, I am actually very happy to see all the ants coming within the house as this suggests we are in for lots of rain. Trouble is, leave any trace of food around and it's covered in ants in just a few seconds. The dog/cat dishes have to be emptied and cleaned shortly after feeding and make sure the children don’t leave the honey or cordial out!

The issue lies when the ant problem becomes a plague and they begin to take over the house. Then we have to do something to solve the problem.

There is not any point in just slaughtering the ants you can see, this is essentially only about 1% of the whole colony and when they don't come home to the nest more ants are automatically sent out.

The ideal situation is to find the main nest where the queens and all of the other ants are and exterminate the whole colony with liquid bait.

You can try following the ant trail back to the primary colony but this is close to impossible as the trail may go behind skirting boards, along the interior of the walls and out somewhere at the other end of the house

The most highly efficient treatment for owners is to bait the ants that are inside the home. The advantage of using Baits is the ants will take the poison back to the nest, the queen and the rest of the colony will feed on the bait and the whole colony will be destroyed.

Place the bait at different points along the trail the ants have been using. You must see lots of ants dashing to the bait. Don't kill them, just let them feed and you'll see them leaving to go back to the nest, this is good!

The ant activity should subside within a few days. Keep topping up the bait until no more ants are seen.

OK, you have put down bait but the ants are paying little heed to it! Would you believe that ants are fussy eaters and can alter their dieting habits at various times of the year? It does not mean the bait is no good, just that the ants are looking for another type of food source, so try bait such as liquid bait.

The above baiting treatment will solve your indoor problem but if you have tons of ants outside they'll eventually come back indoor attempting to find food or water.

Thus you ought to be treating both the home and yard for ants.

Foundation - For effective ant control, you must spray the outside foundation of the home with an Insecticide repellent. A guide for spraying would be 2 foot up by 1 foot out, all of the way around the foundation. Also treat the Windowsills, Door trims, Pipes, Wires and Paths.

This should be done regularly, likely every quarter.

Yard - Treating the yard. The optimum answer for treating the yard is by utilising both Granules and liquid bait. Granules will last approximately 2-3 months. Liquid baits vaporize and need to be topped up frequently, particularly if you live in a hot dry climate. Check frequently to be sure they haven't dried up..

To recap, Gel Bait for Inside, Sprays for the Foundation, Granules and Liquid Bait for out of doors. This may solve all your ant problems if repeated constantly.

Are you on the lookout for more information like this?

Discover more about Ant Problems.

Joan Bass is a writer with an interest in a wide variety of topics.

Learn about Ant Repellent

You may visit her site for useful tips.

More about Ant Trap

Technorati Tags: , , ,