Tips for Your House & Home: Kitchen Problems With Little Black Ants
There they are … on the counters, in the sink, even climbing up your cup of Joe! Isn’t it strange that these little black invaders only seem to invade the kitchen? Since when do they drink coffee? The reasons why little black ants stay in only the kitchen is because of the little bits and crumbs of food. The main place in the house where food is present is in the kitchen. However, if food crumbs or dirty dishes are left in another room the ants will invade there also. They come for dinner. They are hungry little ants and that’s why they come into your home.
Anyone who has an older house is likely to have a problem with black ants. Newly built houses offer few cracks or gaps for the ants to enter. Older houses are known for their gaps and cracks. Black ants live outside. The really tiny ones live under large stones and logs. The bigger ones live in that anthill outback. They come into your home in search of food for their families. The first thing you can do to keep them out is to figure out where they’re coming in. Ants are smart little creatures. Once they find a suitable path they’ll keep using it. If you look closely you’ll be able to see some of the ants traveling in a line. They’ll go towards an outer wall. They’ll use a crack or a gap to both enter and exit your home. What you can do is fill all the cracks and gaps you can find, especially the one that the ants are using. Filling them all is a good idea for many reasons. First of all it’ll keep the ants from simply choosing a new entrance/exit. Second of all it’ll lower your heating costs and electric bill! If you can block off any potential entrances you can keep ants out. Let them go over to the neighbors old home with gaps and cracks.
Having said all that the next logical thing to do is clean up any food crumbs! Leaving food out and dirty dishes in the sink calls those ants like whistling calls a dog. They won’t stop trying to enter your home until they know that there is nothing there for them to eat. The best thing s you can do to make them not want to be in your home are to keep counters and tabletops clean, along with floors. Your toddlers spilled juice will attract them. A few little granules of sugar on the counter will too. Wipe down hard surfaces in your kitchen using a cleaner. Dish soap works, but to double your cleaning power use a disinfectant. These are good to use in kitchens for a variety of reasons, not to mention that they smell and taste like poison to the ants. A disinfectant will kill and germs the ants bring in or leave behind, and it will NOT make them feel at home. The little black ants just love dirty dishes too. A sink full of dishes is a mountain of a feast to a tiny group of ants. Keeping your dishes done up during the warmer month will give these little pests one less reason to want to be in your home.
The last thing you can and should do if you have a problem with ants in your home is to get some ant poison. It is commonly used and is most likely available right where the fly stickers and rat poison is in your grocery store. Ant eliminator comes in power or liquid. It also comes in the form of an ant trap. All work just as well as the other to wipe the ants out. They all work in the same way, generally. One ant finds it and it tastes good to them. (It’s made sweet, like sugar, which is what ants love) That little ant goes and tells his friends and family. They all come to get some. They feast on that and feed their little families with it. Unfortunately for them it kills each and every one of them. End of the ants!
