Tiny Ants Invaded Your House? Here’s What You Can Do!

Tiny black ants are known to invade kitchens and bathrooms, especially in South Florida. In this post, we review how these tiny ants enter the home and what steps you can take to prevent them and stop their invasion in its tracks. Got tiny ants in your house? The few you see walking across your kitchen counters or wandering around in your bathroom are foraging for food sources for the whole colony, which could live outside in your yard, inside your kitchen or bathroom, or in the walls in your kitchen or bathroom.

Ants are Looking for Food, Water and/or Shelter

Since ants possess a high-powered sense of smell, they can smell a few waffle crumbs or a drop of spilled syrup on your countertop and follow the scent in search of food. In the summer, ants may also enter your home in search of water sources. Because kitchens and bathrooms feature water sources, ants are drawn to come inside to hydrate and possibly nest there.

What Kind of Tiny Ants Are in My Kitchen?

Those tiny black ants in your kitchen, often called sugar ants, can be several species of tiny ants. These  include:

• Ghost ants
• Argentine ants
• White footed ants
• Big headed ants
• Crazy ants

While most of these ants are nuisance ants, all of them can wreak havoc on your pantry, infesting and contaminating dried goods in paper or plastic bags and cardboard boxes. Some tiny ants can move into wall voids and build nests in inaccessible places. Some ants prefer sweet foods, hence the sugar ant name, while others prefer fatty, greasy foods, and others prefer a mixed diet. Knowing the source of food the ants in your kitchen are attracted to can help identify the species of ant you’re dealing with and how to eliminate and prevent them from entering your home.

What Kind of Ants Are in My Bathroom?

White footed ants, Ghost ants, and Pharaoh ants are the most common ants found in bathrooms. Pharaoh ants will often nest inside wall voids. Odorous ants and Argentine ants are also found in bathrooms and like to set up shop in wall voids, as well. Drawn to odors, fermented hair, and stagnant water in sink and bathtub drains, your bathroom appeals to these ants. The real problem with nesting in inaccessible areas is that this makes these ants difficult to control without the help of a professional pest control company, such as Hulett Environmental Services.

How Are These Ants Getting into Your Home?

Observing the behavior of the ants trailing across your kitchen or bathroom floor can give you clues as to how to eliminate them. Follow trails to determine where ants are getting into your home, if possible, and seal or caulk those entryways. To prevent or exclude ants and other pests from entering your home, check your foundation, as well as potential entryways around doors and windows for cracks, holes, and crevices. Sealing or caulking these openings in your home’s foundation can help exclude pests from entering your home.

Prevention is Always Better than Controlling a Pest Infestation

You can make your home unattractive to ants by taking these measures to deter ants from entering your home:

• Cleaning up all spills and crumbs in your kitchen.
• Correcting all moisture issues in your kitchen and bathroom.
• Keeping drains clear and unclogged.
• Removing food sources and storing open and leftover food in the fridge or air-tight metal, glass, or hard plastic containers. This includes dried goods in your pantry that ants can chew their way into and contaminate the contents of, such as sugar.
• Cleaning all dishes immediately after snacks or meals.
• Removing all food scraps to a sanitized outdoor receptacle every day.
• Filling pet food bowls with only as much food as your pet will eat in one feeding.

Contact a Professional Pest Control Company

Sometimes, no matter what you do to prevent ants from invading your kitchen and bathrooms, they may still find a way in. In South Florida, if you’re tired of dealing with ants, contact a reliable pest control company to tackle your ant issue, placing baits in places that eliminate ant colonies on your property. A reliable pest control company, such as Hulett Environmental Services will skillfully address ant nests in inaccessible places and create a pest barrier around your property to prevent pests from entering your home in the future. Locally owned and operated, Hulett Environmental Services has been an industry leader in South Florida for over 50 years! Got ants in your pantry, kitchen, or bathroom? Just Call Hulett!