Ants are common pests and and are nuisances at picnics and in homes across the country. Here’s what you need to know about these pests.
Their colonies are huge
Ant hills may look tiny, but that is very misleading. Ant colonies are like icebergs in that they’re mostly hidden from sight. You might only see a small hill with a few dozen ants crawling nearby, but under the ground, there could be as many as 500,000 ants!
They can make nests anywhere
Ants are famous for the ant hills that appear in backyards and around patios, but they can live anywhere. If they enter your home, they’ll be perfectly happy making a nest inside your wall, or even inside your foundation.
You might not know you’re infested
Since the majority of the ant colony is hidden from sight, you could have an infestation without knowing it. If you see a few ants on your floor, they could have wandered in by accident, or they could be heading back to their massive colony hidden inside your wall.
One clue that you have an infestation are ant pathways. Ants make pheromone trails for other ants to follow, so if you always see ants walking in the same places in your home, the ants have moved in.
Another clue is the presence of a nest. Follow the ant trails, and if they lead to a nest inside your house, assume that you have a big problem.
They’re hard to get rid of
Ants are very hard to get rid of, and that’s because most of their colony is out of sight. It’s easy to kill the ants that you can see, but it’s nearly impossible to kill hundreds of thousands of ants that are hidden underground or inside your walls. Help from a professional exterminator is usually required, like with Paramount Exterminating Co.
They will bite you
Most ants inject venom when they bite, and if you get too close, they will bite you. Some types of ants will give you a more painful bite than others. Fire ants, for example, cause severe pain and irritation when they bite. Worse yet, some people are allergic to ant bites, and can have severe anaphylactic reactions.
Ants are very common, and very hard to get rid of. If you think you might have an infestation, call your local pest control company right away, before the colony can get any bigger.
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