Get Rid Of Carpenter Ants

How to Get Rid of Ants Using a Least Toxic Approach: Part One

Ant season is on the horizon.

As the ground warms up in the spring, ants who have been dormant in the earth during the colder weather warm up and come to the surface. Queen ants fly off to find new nesting areas…and before you know it, ants are back in our world.

While ants play an important roll in the ecosystem, it is no picnic when they become pests in our world.

But all too often, when people have a pest problem they run to the store and buy a can of toxic pesticide, come home and spray the pest.

Whoa! Let’s step back and take a look at handling ant problems using a least toxic approach.

Perhaps I should first define ‘least toxic approach.’ This term means you try to solve the insect problem with the least toxic material. If that doesn’t work, then you try something a little toxic but not as toxic as poison. You keep trying to solve the insect problem using progressively more toxic substances until you find something that works. Using this approach, the solution to your insect problem can range from doing nothing to spraying toxic insect killer, if that is the only thing that works.

Why should you bother with a least toxic approach? For one thing, studies are beginning to reveal the serious side effects of the overuse of toxic pesticides in our environment.

Did you know that evidence suggests a risk for some types of cancer and even genetic damage from exposure to pesticides? And perhaps worst of all, children are especially at risk.

Why wait until science finally makes a direct link to damaged genes and pesticides? By that time, the damage could already be done to your genes and those of your children.

You can help protect yourself, your children and our planet by doing your part to be a good steward of our environment right now. One way to do that is to adapt a least toxic approach to pest problems…and that’s what our article series on getting rid of ants is all about.

About The Author

Chris Wells is the author of How to Get Rid of Ants: 137 Non-Toxic Ways to Get Rid of Ants Using Common Household Items and Products, an 88-page book chock full of non-toxic solutions to ant and insect problems. Go to http://www.howtogetridofants.com for more information.

This article was posted on April 18, 2006

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Information About Carpenter Ant

Ants live for about two months, but in good conditions a nest can last for years.

Termites are every homeowner’s nightmare, but there’s another insect that should also achieve terror into the sympathy of the homeowner. Carpenter ants basis millions of dollars a year in injury to houses throughout the country, but they’re not as well known as termites. If you live in a region that regularly has wet or damp conditions, or if there is a damp whitehead in your home, your house could be at venture from carpenter ants.

What Is Carpenter Ants? Carpenter ants are insects that live in hives. Their life rounded is related to that of any other typeface of ant – they have queens that lay eggs. When the eggs emerge, some of the ants will be drones, some will workers and some will be queens. What makes them a menace to your house?

Despite admired belief, carpenter ants do not eat copse, but the do tunnel through it. They move through impose and form tunnels and galleries in their seek for food and to fashion nests. In the method, they agree and eventually trash the coppice in which they are nesting. If that covert happens to be a part of your house, your house is being ruined. It’s not useless of for nests of carpenter ants to spoil structural hold beams on which your house depends. The longer a carpenter ant colony remainder in your house, the worse the injury they can do to your house.

How do you tell if you have carpenter ants in your house? The most palpable intimate that you have carpenter ants, of course, is since them, but it’s not forever a reliable initial that you have nests of carpenter ants in your house. Since the damage to your house is caused in tunneling to figure nests, your principal bother is about whether there is a nest in the house. Carpenter ants nest both inside and slim a house, and they’ll travel as much as 100 yards from their nest in their hunt for food. If you’re only seeing the occasional carpenter ant in your house, particularly if it’d during the deferred Spring or Summer, there’s a good unplanned that it’s just a hand wandering far from his nest.

On the other hand, if your seeing carpenter ants inside during the chill or early Spring, it’s an almost effective bet that you have at slightest one nest within. Carpenter ants typically go hidden during the iciness. If the nest is indoors, it may be welcoming enough to stir up the ants, or thwart them from leaving into dormancy at all. Since ants are most active at night, it’s not uncommon for a homeowner to penetrate an extent, excursion on a light and see ants scurrying for shell. The most general seats to find carpenter ants places that are soggy – cabinets, sinks, rolled up towels, tubs and areas around the toilets.

How to Keep Ants Out of Your House Prevention is always better than annoying to therapy a riddle that has set in. The best conduct to keep carpenter ants from location up collect in your house are: Eliminate high humidity conditions that interest them. That means fans in bathrooms, and dehumidifiers in rooms that have a high damp share, especially in regions that are tacky to start with. Replace humidity-spoiled and rotted woodland before ants are attracted to it. If you store wood or lumber near the house or in a garage, be definite that you keep it dry. Stack firewood away from the house slight to inhibit ants from migrating from the woodpile to the house. Remove hierarchy stumps and roots.

Keep plants and bushes near the house pruned and trimmed to eliminate ‘highways’, that provoke carpenter ants into your home. Where are they nesting? Before you can eliminate a nest of carpenter ants, you have to find it. The easiest way to find the nest is to grasp an ant home. One way to make it easier to grasp the ants home is to give them food. They’re particularly fond of tuna packed in water. Set out little flakes of tuna, and then stalk for ants. The tuna would actually make it easier for you to trail the ant back to its nest. Controlling

Carpenter Ants While it’s possible for a homeowner to restrict carpenter ants on their own, it’s not a tranquil charge. It’s better to exchange a professional. A homeowner can still play a critical part in eliminating carpenter ants by providing, as much information about the infestation as possible.

By: Jeanie Smith

Want to find out about ant identification and kill carpenter ants? Get tips from the Facts About Ants website.

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Few pests are harder to get rid of than ants. Once they’ve established themselves in your home, sprays and baits don’t always work. Also, chemicals aren’t safe if you have young children, pets or chemical allergies.

This article explores how to kill ants.

The first thing you should do is follow the trail of ants to determine where they are entering the home. Once, you have discovered that, apply Diatomaceous earth, which is available at most convenience stores as baby powder, to the holes or cracks which the ants are using to enter the home.

The next step in how to kill ants is to check to see that the ants are no longer using the hole.

You will then kill the remaining ants by sprinkling the baby powder on them. Make sure you leave enough baby powder around the entrance the ants have been using so they don’t return the next day.

If you are trying to figure out how to kill ants and you don’t have baby powder around, here are a couple of solutions. Mix baking soda and icing sugar and place it in mounds around the affected areas or make a spray bottle full of water and peppermint essential oil. You can also leave a pile of borax crystals around your property.

If you have grassy areas, fill a 5 gallon bucket half full and add cup of liquid dish washing soap (Dawn is recommended). Then spread the mixture over and around the ant nest.

When you get your home ant free, you can continue to spread coffee grounds around or soak a long piece of string in peppers or cinnamon. Both of these remedies will keep ants out. That way you won’t have to go about how to kill ants again.

If you think you can’t handle the problem on your own, call a professional.

To learn more about how to kill ants go to the How Do I Get Rid of Ants website found at http://www.howdoigetridofants.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Stanley

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Ants

What part of the country are you in… there are more species of ants than I care to go into and than you care to read about. Ants are a pest we have all at one time or another had to live with.I will give you some quick tips, but realistically, these guys can be anywhere and everywhere.

From big to small… ants are a pain in most homeowners rears.We use sprays and traps and still, we have ants.

PREVENTION: As with all pests, the best prevention is home maintenance. Keeping crumbs of food off the floor is always a good habit to get into, but this will not guarantee to keep ants out of your home.Make a regular check around your home looking for ant trails going into your home. As you read some of my other articles, you will find I am very big on prevention. Regular checks around the home and a few landscaping recommendations will keep you home pest free.

A trick of the trade is boric acid.When thinly mixed with water and sprayed on the ground, not on plants, on the ground around your home, will help eliminate ant populations.Boric Acid is safe and mixing it thinly in a water solution make for ease spraying.The acid dissolves the waxy film on the ants exo-skeleton and the ant dehydrates.Don’t spray on your siding as it leaves a whitish residue, but up on the foundation works OK.

If you find the large black ants, these are bad for your home. They are carpenter ants. Bad critters. If you have a good sized infestation, you can actually hear them gnawing in your walls… eerie sound. If you find these… call your local pest control guy. The money is well worth it.

Sugar ants… the   red guys… call the Pest Control guy… they have very large colonies and, if not taken care of, can spread multiple colonies throughout your home… multiple colonies of 100,000 little red ants in each is not a good thing either.

Otherwise, use the trick above before you get an infestation and you will be ant free.

Author: Mike Brandenburg

For other informative tricks read up on my articles on bees, wasps, hornets, spiders, cockroaches, and http://www.profitableinsights.com/pestcontroltips/Mice.html

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Brandenburg

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When an ant, cockroach, or flea decides to make an appearance at a barbeque or dinner party, it is enough to ruin the entire event. Pests like these can easily be controlled with pesticides, but the chemicals that these products contain can be detrimental to the health of you, your children, or your pets. With such risks involved, many people find themselves searching for other methods like natural pest control and prevention.

One of the most common problems in the summer time is the ants. They climb onto tables and decks, and frequent the cabinets in the home. To prevent ants from entering the home, try finding where the ants enter. Once this spot has been located, create a barrier by spreading cayenne pepper, citrus oil, or coffee grounds over the area. The ants will not pass over these items. If the ants are already in the home, try placing cucumber peels, garlic cloves, or spearmint leaves in the cabinets. These products are known to repel ants, chasing them out of your home. Once ants are under control in the home, you can focus on infestations that are outdoors. Sprinkle cornmeal in and around the entrance to the ant hill. The ants will bring the cornmeal home and share it with the colony. Cornmeal cannot be digested by the ants and the colony will be killed off within a week.

Cockroaches are one of the most repulsive pests around, but natural pest control does exist for them as well. Catnip will repel cockroaches, so place it in areas that you know the roaches will frequent. To kill off an existing population, place a piece of bread that has been soaked in beer in a plastic container. Place the container where the roaches will find it. As with the cornmeal and the ants, the roaches will not be to properly digest the beer, causing them to slowly die off. Keep a bottle of soapy water handy at all times. If a roach is seen out in the open, spray it with the soapy water, and this will kill the roach within minutes by breaking down its exoskeleton.

Natural pest control also exists for mosquitoes. As a preventative measure, remove all standing water from the yard, as this is the preferred habitat for mosquitoes. When planning on spending time outdoors, rub on a solution that is at least thirty percent eucalyptus. The eucalyptus has been proven to prevent mosquitoes from biting. Planting sage, rosemary, and marigold throughout the yard will also help repel mosquitoes. These plants have a natural deterrent quality. Another effective repellent for mosquitoes is anything that creates smoke. During a barbeque or other outdoor gathering, burn incense or other smoky item to help repel the swarms that may gather and annoy your guests.

With natural pest control methods such as these, there is no need to keep harmful chemicals around the house.

Author: Wendy Pan

Wendy Pan is an accomplished niche website developer and author. To learn more about natural pest control, please visit Pesty Control for current articles and discussions.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Wendy_Pan

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