When it comes to ant control, you have two popular categories of products: baits and repellents. These two options are very different from each other, so it’s important to understand when and why you should pick one over the other.
How Repellents Work
Ant repellents are substances which prevent ants from going into an area. When these insects encounter a repellent, they will tend to avoid it, and start to look for food in other places. While repellents are not 100% effective (ants are stubborn and inventive insects that will try to find a way around any obstacle), it will make your home less desirable to ants.
Repellents also run into issues when you already have an ant colony set up in your home. They are not able to destroy a nest or even kill that many ants. As such, it’s best to use this solution when your home is ant free and you would like to keep it that way, or when ants are entering the home from an outside colony.
How Baits Work
Baits are the opposites of repellents. They actually attract ants. However, the baits are poisoned, and they are designed to either kill ants off quickly, or to be taken back to the nest, where they will eventually reach the queen and take out the entire colony. Baits are much more effective than repellents for this reason.
When using baits, you will have to leave the ants to crawl around the home, in order to achieve maximum results. If the ants start to feel threatened by a bait, they will avoid it, and then you have to start the whole process over.
How Baits Work
Each one of these two control methods has its uses. If you have a colony outside the home that sends in workers to forage inside every once in a while, then repellents will achieve the best results the fastest. If however, your home is already infested, you will need to use baits in order to take out the colony.
Sometimes however, neither of these two methods will work, and this can happen for any reason. You might’ve misidentified the species and used an ineffective product against it, or you may be dealing with a very large infestation. In either of these situations, you will need the help of a pro to get the infestation under control. Contact us today if you are having ant problems, and we can help you get them under control.