Ants are an incredible species when you consider what they do for the planet. These tiny creatures effectively dispose of decaying materials throughout the world, keeping the ground clean. They effectively aerate the soil better than earthworms, and they are a food source for many other species. These little creatures live in colonies, have specific jobs within their society, and even form armies when necessary to defend their home. The only other species that does that on the planet is the human being.
However, ants can be a real bother when it comes to cohabitating with humans who often do things to attract ants without even knowing it. An invasion of ants in your home can be more than just a nuisance, it can be dangerous. Ridding your home of ants can be tricky and usually requires the assistance of a professional pest control service.
Common Solutions For the DIY-Minded
Many people try getting rid of ants in the following ways. However, they usually are unsuccessful.
- Flooding. Many people try to remove ants by flooding out the ant hill. While this may make that particular ant hill go away, the colony has not been stopped. The worker ants will open up a new passageway in another area of the yard.
- Coffee Grounds. It has been said that placing coffee grounds around the opening of an ant hill will cause the ants to take the grounds in and feed it to the queen, effectively killing her. While ants do not like the smell of used coffee grounds, they will not take it into their mound. They will simply close that opening and create another entrance.
- DIY Pesticides. Many of the pesticides found in home and garden stores are semi-effective, but they do not work as well as a professional treatment. They generally are spread on the any mound or throughout the yard. You may see a decline in ant activity for a few days, but they will rebound.
Why Are Ants So Difficult To Treat?
The main reason that ants are so hard to treat is the sheer volume of ants in each colony. In some of the larger colonies, you can have over a million ants. Some treatments are effective on a portion of the ants, and some may even reach the queen, but if you do not kill them all, they will not go away. When the queen is killed and there are still female ants left in the colony, they will change into a queen to keep the colony alive.
Why You Need To Treat Ants
Depending on the species of ant that is invading you home, you could be in for a lot of problems. For instance, carpenter ants are very destructive and will cause damage to your home. These ants love damp and dark places and will chew anything for food, including drywall and wood. Since most of the areas they first invade are out-of-sight to the home owner, significant damage can be done to the home before it is caught.
Fire ants can also cause a lot of damage to you and your pets. These ants are very aggressive and will attack people and pets. Their bites are very painful and will fester into a sore. Excessive bites from fire ants can cause someone to be hospitalized.
As you can see, an ant problem in Las Vegas is a serious problem and one that should be handled by a professional exterminator.