By the end of the summer, your home may have already served thousands of unwanted pests. The two most common summer pests that linger indoors are ants and spiders. Since the summer can provide them their needed warm temperature, you may notice the increase of ants and spiders lurking and staying to where they can find their food.
Ants will usually stay in and out of the kitchen in search of sweets and proteins while spiders will hide in corners waiting for insects to get trap on their web. There is no doubt that the increase of spiders could also mean that your home has a lot of insects.
Ants
There are different types of ant species and most of them have their own unique characteristics and behaviors. For instance, the odorous house ant can emit a distinct acrid odor when they are crushed. Pharaoh ants can infest and damage food, while the carpenter ant can bring danger and destruction to a home’s structure by harboring in the wood.
These ants are also difficult to eliminate, since some are resistant to pesticides and their nests are difficult to locate. By the end of the summer, ants may have already created harborage inside a home’s structure or under it, or outdoors in the garden and yard where they can easily get in and out of the kitchen.
Ants are persistent creatures that will go continuously in your kitchen, even if you try to eliminate them. The challenge with eliminating ants, is that they live in colonies. Most of them have thousands of workers that will not mind you, crushing the other workers and will still go about their business just to get to their food source. Getting rid of the workers will not get rid of the colony since their queen will just lay hundreds of eggs in a day to replace the ones you killed.
Problems These Ants Cause
- • Ants congregating in electrical boxes, where they can cause electrical shorts
- • Ants defile food when they come indoors
- • Pets and their food can be bothered by ants
- • Ants can bite and sting
How to Control Ants
To get rid of ants, it is essential to search for the nest and kill the queen or reproductives. However, another challenge to effectively get rid of ants, is to know the type of ant that is infesting your home. Most of the time, those who are not able to control their ant issues do not know the type of ant that is infesting their kitchen. However, if a homeowner knows the ant species, it will be easier to locate the nesting site, their food preference, and the control method to use in getting rid of the colony and the queen.
Solution to Control Ants
- • Know the ant species
- • Find the nest
- • Use an insecticide for exposed nest
- • For concealed nest, you may have to drill on the suspected wall so that you can apply insecticidal dust.
- • The use of baits is also effective as the ants who take them will deliver the poison directly to the colony and to their queen or queens.
Spiders
Spiders do not enjoy the heat, which is why a large number of them find their way into your home during the summer months. They will search for nice, cool place to stay and may be seen in bathrooms and kitchens. However, most houses have spiders already, and these spiders will become noticeable as they grow bigger and when the males wander to look for a female to mate. By the end of the summer, new arrival of spiders may have already found their way into your home as they enter through an open window or door. These spiders can also be brought inside after travelling, through the clothes you wear and shopping bags.
There are also a lot of different spiders around that we should worry about. For instance, wolf spiders do not create webs, but will just hunt their prey on the ground that makes this spider a great traveler. The brown recluse and the black widow are considered dangerous because of their venom. And, yes! These spiders can all get into your home.
However, the presence of many spiders in your home should indicate that there are also a lot of insects in your home. These arachnids eat insects , so for every spiders you see, imagine the quantity of insects that they have also eaten.
Problems These Spiders Cause
- • Spiders create a lot of spider webs
- • Spiders may bite unsuspected victims
- • Spiders may produce twenty to a hundred eggs that can stay indoors. Although only a couple of them will survive through adulthood, but it is enough to make sure that the next generation lives.
How to Control Spiders
Insecticides do not work with spiders because they are not actually insects. To control the population of spiders, make sure to:
- • Control the insects that are getting indoors and in your garden or lawn.
- • Regularly vacuum the nooks and crannies of your house so that the spiders and their eggs will get trapped in the vacuum.
- • Dust every part of your house.
If you need help with your current ant or spider problem, call us today! You can also visit Spider Control or Ant Control for more information.