Ant Control Auckland Services
Our Pest and Ant Control Plan will effectively shut down ants and other pests. The Steam n Dry Pest Control Auckland Service advanced solutions adapt to seasonal pest activity to give you year-round ant protection.
Ant issues are among the more common complaints that pest control service specialists hear. Ants invade the house to find food or seek shelter.
We’ll Properly Get Rid of the Ants Before They Start Marching
Ants are very social creatures, so seeing one ant – likely means more are nearby. Therefore, killing some ants won’t take care of the problem. Effective ant control often requires finding and treating the entire colony properly. Throughout West Auckland, North Shore, Eastern Bays, South Auckland, and Hibiscus Coast, Steam n Dry Pest Control Auckland Service is ready to do the work.
Ant Behavior
All ants live in colonies, consisting of an egg-laying female (queen), short-lived males, and workers (sterile females). The ants you see foraging in your garden or kitchen are workers. Furthermore, workers that find food communicate with other workers by depositing a chemical message on the substrate as they crawl back to the nest. Although we cannot smell it, this “trail pheromone” sticks to the substrate for extended periods, helping other ants find the food at the trail’s end.
A good ant control service technician will find out where that trail ends.
In spring, ants develop wings and fly to recent locations, invading homes to forage food or establish a new nest. They warm during the spring and look similar to flying ants. You may need a magnifying glass to examine and features. Steam n Dry Ant Control Auckland Service guarantees quality service.
As a group, ants have a comprehensive food range, feeding on sweet foods, greasy materials, starchy substances, wood, and plant and animal materials. Ants become a nuisance in Pest Control Auckland Service homes because they often like the same food types. Thus, it is an excellent reason to apply proper ant control treatment.
Ant Control Methods
The control strategy that you should take depends on your type of infestation. Thus, seeking a pest control professional like Steam n Dry Ant Control Auckland Services is practical. We work in compliance with the standard pesticide applicator for public health and safety.
Outside Ants
Ants that live outside will travel inside the house to search for food. Some species may ultimately reside at home, discussed later in this fact sheet. To prevent both of these scenarios, follow these necessary ant control procedures:
- First, seal cracks and crevices to eliminate passages into the home. If you do not fill entry points, ants will probably find their way into your house.
- Second, clean entry points with a detergent and spray residual insecticide around entry points.
Bait treatments and insecticides can control ants. Effective baits in areas where ants frequently eat and return to the nest. Several tracks are available; you may have to do a little trial-and-error to find the appropriate bait. Because the ants must return to the nest for adequate ant control, this strategy may be incompatible with insecticide sprays, killing worker ants before returning to the nest with the bait. The successful use of an appeal may take several weeks or more.
Inside Ant Control
Some ants nest inside your home instead of merely entering to forage for food and returning outdoors. Ants in this category may be present year-round, although they will be more active in the warmer months. All ants may infest food products. Spraying a residual insecticide to control foraging workers may provide only short-term control. Even if insecticide sprays kill 99% of foraging workers, ant colonies can quickly and easily rebuild their original numbers. The nest’s location and destruction are the most direct way to eliminate any ant infestation.
Ant control baits, described above, can help eradicate inside-the-home ant nests, although tricks may not work well with carpenter ants as the other species mentioned. Again, workers must eat the bait, take it back to the nest, and feed the queen and larval ants. This type of ant control is incompatible with treatments that prevent workers from returning to the nest with the bait.
Unlike other home-inhabiting ants, carpenter ants cause structural damage to wood by tunnelling and nesting inside wood structures. However, they rarely nest in sound wood but consistently invade wet wood that has begun to decay. Carpenter ants are giant (about 3/8 to 1/2″ long) and black or red. Steam n Dry Pest Control Auckland Services provides bed bug control, ant, cockroach, flea, fly, carpet beetle, wasp, spider, dust mite, and rodent control services. Throughout West Auckland, North Shore, Eastern Bays, South Auckland, and Hibiscus Coast since 1987.
Ant Control Baits and Sprays
The best way to control carpenter ants that inhabit a dwelling is to find the nest and destroy it. Insecticide sprays inside the house will kill some of the worker ants. However, the queen produces additional colony members unless the entire ant nest is treated. Locating a nest can be difficult because nests may be within the walls or roof rafters. At this point, some homeowners may prefer to work with a professional pest control service provider. The most likely places to find carpenter ant nests are where wood is wet and weathered, such as rotting timbers about the foundation, window sills, porches, around leaky plumbing, and in rafters under a leaky roof.
Carpenter ants are most active in the evening hours, foraging for all kinds of food, both inside the house and outside. You may tell where the nest is by following the ants because carpenter ants keep the tunnelled galleries very clean and push the sawdust and dead insect parts out of small holes in the wood. A small, fresh pile of sawdust under the timber is the most common sign of an active carpenter ant nest. Once a nest is located, treatment is easy with either a cloud of insecticide dust or spray. Insecticide injection into wall voids or the nest may be necessary to ensure complete ant control.
To prevent further carpenter ant infestations, trim all trees and bushes to branches. Therefore, they do not touch the house and correct moisture problems like leaky roofs and plumbing. Paint and seal off exposed wood construction. Replace ant-infested wood with previously rotted or water-damaged wooden parts of the structure and eliminate wood/soil contacts. Remove dead stumps on the property and store firewood off the ground.
Ant Control Summary
Ants are a major annoyance to homeowners and can be challenging to control. Do not underestimate the importance of proper sanitation to eliminate food sources. However, good hygiene alone will not contain any ant infestation.
Albeit said, “We do not like sharing our homes with ants or other pests. They are beneficial organisms in the balance of nature. In nature, ants greatly reduce the amount of dead, decaying plant and animal organic matter. They also aerate the soil with their nests. Many ant species are fond of honeydew that aphids produce from feeding on plants. Large numbers of ants crawling on a plant may signify serious aphid infestation.”
Thus, controlling ants with a combination of proper sanitation, removing pheromone trails, caulking entry points, and eliminating the active nests. Also, insecticide sprays and baits kill foraging ants and destroy nests. Strategies to prevent further infestations used in conjunction with your chemical ant control treatment are recommended.
Disinfecting Pest Control Auckland Services
- Bed Bug Control
- Disinfecting Clean
- Flea Control
- Dust Mite Control
- Pest Control
- Carpet Cleaning
- Mould Cleaning
- Carpet Beetle Control
- Pet Odour Removal
- Dust Mite Disinfecting
- Couch Sanitising
- Carpet Stain Removal
- Mattress Sanitising
- Flooded Wet Carpet Drying
- Car Upholstery Disinfection
- Rug Cleaning
For your expert Ant Control Auckland Service, phone 0800 1 99 399 or email us!
Written by Graeme Stephens. An IICRC Master Restoration Technician in 2001, with over 35 years of disinfecting, carpet cleaning and pest control services experience throughout Auckland.
Updated Last: 06/06/2023