How To Prepare Your Cypress Yard For The Return Of Spring And Summer Ants
With the return of spring comes the return of ants. As spring turns to summer, ant populations will continue to grow and become more and more active around your Cypress yard. If you’d like to avoid an ant invasion this year, you have to prepare your Cypress yard for the return of spring and summer ants. Here’s how to do it.
How To Prevent Ants From Invading Your Yard
Ants thrive in the hot conditions of Cypress summers and they will find a way onto your property, no matter what prevention steps you take. However, that doesn’t mean that you should give up hope. The main reason ants will discover and stay in a certain area is because they find a good and steady food source. Although you may not be able to prevent all ants from entering your yard, you can make your yard uninviting to them which will prevent them from wanting to stick around.
The following suggestions will help prevent ants from invading your yard:
Keep garbage bins tightly covered. The main reason ants invade is for food and they’ll find plenty of it in easily accessible garbage bins.
If you compost, put the pile a safe distance from your home. It will attract ants, so keep that in mind when you decide where to place it.
Don’t leave pet food outside.
Reduce moisture around your yard. Ants are not only attracted to food, but they also need water. Keep your gutters clean, eliminate standing water in your yard and around your property, and don’t leave pet water dishes outside.
In your home, keep food stored away in impenetrable containers with tight-fitting lids.
Clean up spills and messes immediately after they happen.
Wash dirty dishes right away or put them in the dishwasher instead of leaving them on the counter.
Why You Don’t Want Ants In Your Yard
There are several reasons to want ants to stay out of your yard:
If ants invade your yard, they’ll more than likely get into your home at some point. Ants are foragers and their foraging will eventually bring them into your home. Their small size allows them access to the tiniest of holes, which makes it easy for them to get inside.
If they get into your home and don’t find any significant food sources, they won’t stick around for long. However, if they do find food inside, they’ll be much more likely to remain in your yard, while regularly foraging for food inside.
An even worse possibility is that they’ll set up a satellite colony inside your house. Some species of ants build very large colonies, making them extremely difficult to get rid of once they’ve settled into your home.
If fire ants get into your yard, you, a family member, or a pet could be in for a very painful experience. If you accidentally step on a fire ant mound, they will swarm over you, leaving you covered in burning stings. For certain people, especially the very young, very old, and those with other health problems, these stings can sometimes be serious.
Many ants that get into your home can spread bacteria as they forage for food. If they’ve recently been crawling through garbage or a similarly dirty place and have picked up pathogens on their bodies, they could then spread them to your food, causing illness to your family.
If carpenter ants get into your yard, they will find their way to the wooden structures outside and inside your home, chewing away at them and potentially causing extensive and dangerous damage to your home.
What To Do About An Ant Infestation In Your Yard
Prevention is always the best course of action to take against unwanted pests, both in your yard and in your home. By following the steps laid out above, you’ll have a good head start against the spring and summer ants that are sure to come around over the next few months. However, sometimes something more is needed to keep these pests out of your yard and home.
Whether you currently have an ant problem in your Cypress yard or you’d simply prefer to take a more thorough approach to preventative action, give Modern Pest Control a call. We offer ant control treatments that are applied by our trained and experienced pest control specialists. The time to act is now before ants reach their peak populations this summer. Give us a call to learn more!