How to Get Rid of Teeny Tiny Ants

Ant infestations can occur both inside and outside your home.

Most ant species live and work in large colonies, which makes ant infestations sometimes overwhelming. Smaller ant species, such as sugar ants, can be especially problematic as their size allows them to fit through even the smallest spaces into your home. While ant infestations can occur near the outside or inside of your home, in both cases ants can find their way into your living space in search of food. When this occurs, there are several steps you can take to eradicate them.

Things You'll Need

• Caulk
• Weather stripping
• Dishwashing detergent
• Washcloth
• Ant repellent
• Ant baits

Instructions

1. Caulk or fill cracks and crevices throughout your house. Pay close attention to the areas around windows as well as where the walls meet the floor and ceiling on exterior walls of the home. Inspect vent holes for your dryer or furnace as well any other vents that lead to outside your home. Install weather stripping or replace worn weather stripping around your door to further seal possible entry points by ants.

2. Get rid of the chemical trails leading into your home using a mixture of water and dishwashing detergent. Soak a washcloth and run it along the floor next to each wall to remove the ant pheromone trails that ant colonies use to mark and locate food.

3. Remove or properly store items that may be attracting ants. Sweep your kitchen and dining room floor more often to keep food off the floor. Store pet food in sealable plastic containers or make sure the opening of the bag is tightly shut when not in use. Place your pet's food dish in a larger dish with a small amount of water in it to create a moat that ants will be unable to get over, suggests the Berkeley Ecology Center; or only feed your pets what they will eat immediately, so food is not lying around. Wipe down countertops and the sides of appliances to prevent buildup of sticky, sweet or food substances that may attract ants.

4. Use repellent insecticides around possible entry points on the outside of the house to deter ants from using their normal entry points. Use both sweet and greasy/protein baits to cover areas where you commonly see ants, but don't use repellent too close to a bait or the two may cancel each other out. Use ecologically friendly bait when possible, such as those with boric acid or borax, instead of poison-based baits with arsenic, sulfluramid or the nerve poison chlorpyrifos.

Tips & Warnings

• When using poison-based baits, be sure that you do not leave them somewhere where a pet or child can get into them, as the baits can be deadly if swallowed.

References

• Do Your Own Pest Patrol: Ant Control Products and How To Get Rid of Ants Argentine, Carpenter , Pharoah , Red Fire Ants, and more
• Ecology Center: Non-Toxic Ant Control
• University of Nebraska: Ant Control