Ants In The Bay Area: A Guide To Prevention And Control For Homeowners

Coming home after a long day is always nice. That is, it is nice if there are no pests around to ruin your peace. Living with an ant infestation makes it difficult to find peace at any time. Every moment spent in your kitchen, dining room, and living areas is spent crushing these little annoyances. This is enough to drive some people mad. The question is, what should you be doing to stop these pests from causing trouble inside your home? We would like to help you with this today. Here is everything you need to know about ant pest control in The Bay Area and what methods work best to prevent and eliminate these invasive insects. Contact us at Bay Pest if you need our help dealing with an active problem you are facing. Let our team utilize advanced ant control methods to remove these insects from your home and long-term treatments to keep them away through every season.

One Ant Usually Means More

If there is one thing that is true about ants in The Bay Area, it is that these pests are never alone. If you see one of these insects crawling around inside your home, its friends are not far away. All ants live in large, social colonies. These colonies are usually underground and can exist close to the exterior of homes. To find food, ant nests send out scouts. These scouts can crawl hundreds of yards away from their homes to locate tasty treats. If a scout finds a way to get into your home, it will crawl around for hours checking every nook and cranny for things to tell its friends about. Whether it finds some crumbs or a whole pie, it will return to its colony with the good news. To make sure their friends know the way back, scouts will leave behind an invisible pheromone trail. This trail is what workers follow back indoors and is the biggest reason you see these pests crawling in long lines to gather food. All ants work together to serve a purpose. They are really good at doing this! If possible these pests will live off of scraps inside and around your home. Your goal should be to better understand these invasive insects and find some method to prevent and control active ant infestations on your property. We will talk more about your options for DIY and professional ant pest control in just a bit. Before this, we think you should know a bit more about how and why these pests get into local homes. 

Why And How Ants Find Their Way Into Our Homes

There are many different types of ants that live here in The Bay Area. Most are motivated by the same thing, food. Subterranean ants build their homes close to sources of accessible food. Often times they find ways to get into local man-made buildings and decide to build nests close to the exterior of homes and businesses in order to make their journey shorter. Due to their smaller size, ants do not need much space to squeeze their way indoors. All they really need is a tiny gap under your door, an opening around a pipe, a space between some bricks, or even a hole where a wire used to be. We have seen these pests get into homes in many unique ways. For this reason, when we talk about prevention tips later, we will discuss more than just exclusion as this is only one small facet to complete control.

Although most ants that live in our area are motivated by food, some have different reasons to invade homes. Take the carpenter ant as an example. This pest builds its nests inside water-damaged, rotting, or decaying wood. You will find carpenter ant nests outside inside fallen trees, dead stumps, untreated piles of lumber, wood piles, and other similar areas. If these pests can find wood inside your home that is suitable to build inside, they will do so. For this reason, we highly recommend thoroughly inspecting your home for areas of moisture damage. If you find anything concerning, hire a professional to repair sections of damaged wood to make sure that carpenter ants are not encouraged to invade in the future. 

Ants are simple creatures. As long as they are able to find food inside your home, they will keep coming back. This is something we would like to help you avoid, especially considering that some species of ants are dangerous and destructive. Let’s take some time now to talk more about effective ant prevention tips and break down what professional ant control solutions work best here in The Bay Area.

Four Easy And Effective Ant Prevention Tips

No one wants to find ants crawling around inside their home. If these pests are causing you trouble right now, DIY will not be the solution to your problem. As long as these invasive insects have a way to get inside and a reason to invade, they will keep trying to get indoors. Considering that they do not need much room to squeeze their way inside, getting in is not difficult for them. If you are not currently dealing with an ant infestation, there are some things you can do to reduce your chances of finding these pests indoors in the future. Here are four easy and effective tips that our experts recommend you utilize today.

1. Walk around your home’s exterior and look for gaps, holes, cracks, and other opportunities that ants might use to get indoors. Common entry points include damage to foundational blocks, space around windows and doors, gaps around pipes and wires, and unsealed ventilation. Use a caulking gun to seal smaller damage, weatherstripping, door sweeps, and screens for unsealed windows and doors, and have more significant damage addressed by a professional.
2. Keep an eye out for food messes and drink spills inside your home. Clean these messes up the moment you notice them. We also recommend thoroughly cleaning your living areas at least once a week and reducing clutter whenever possible. Sometimes little things like doing the dishes and wiping down the sink after you are done go a long way to deter ants.
3. Make sure there are no foods or beverages for ants to find when they are crawling around inside your home. This includes leftovers on countertops, pet food, accessible pantry items, and left-out beverages. Make sure that all of these things are stored away inside air-tight containers when you, your family, or your pets are not actively consuming them. 
4. Address all moisture problems inside and around your home. This might include repairing damage to pipes and fixtures, installing a dehumidifier, and wiping down moisture from sinks and bathtubs after you finish using them. It is also recommended to make sure your gutters are working properly and that they are cleaned once a year.

Keeping up with DIY ant prevention tips is not easy. It takes constant vigilance to make sure that these pests have no reason to invade your home and that they do not have access to your living areas. If you need fast, effective, and easy solutions to combat ants and make sure these insects stay out year-round, we have everything you need at Bay Pest. Our team is licensed to handle ants and other common pests in our area. The only question you have to ask yourself is, are you ready to sit back and enjoy the benefits of a pest-free home?

The Most Effective Ant Control For Homes In The Bay Area

We do not want anyone to have to deal with ants or other bothersome pests here in The Bay Area. These pests are not just annoying, they can be a real threat to your home and property. But what options do you have to stop infestations? This is a good question. We recommend trusting the company that has been in the business for over 40 years. 

There are lots of options for ant control in The Bay Area. The secret to stress-free control is finding a company that has your best interests at heart. We do our absolute best at Bay Pest to put our clients first, always. Pest freedom is something we are passionate about. Whether you are dealing with annoying ants or other common pests in our area, we would like to offer our assistance to help you handle the problems at hand. Let us pay you a visit to identify the extent of your ant infestation and offer advanced treatments to give these bugs the boot ASAP. We will make sure you are well taken care of.

Contact our team at Bay Pest if you are ready to find total freedom from pests like ants here in The Bay Area. We will find a pest control solution that will directly meet your needs and make sure these and other invasive insects stay away from your home for good.