How To Keep Your Sugar Land Home Ant-Free

Ants are a common problem homeowners must deal with all year long in Texas. These small insects are invasive and can live in colonies that contain several thousand ants. This means that if you are seeing one ant in your home, there could be thousands of its friends hiding behind your walls and other areas of your home.

If you want to keep ants out of your Fort Bend County home, you will need the help of a Sugar Land pest control specialist. This is where Modern Pest Control can help. We are experienced ant control specialists that know how to prevent ants from coming into your home and get rid of the ants that have found their way inside.

Characteristics Of Common Ants

There are several types of ants in Sugar Land. While many people think that all ants are created equal, each species has its own unique appearance and habits, and behaviors. Here is a look at the different types of ants that you will most likely see if you live in Sugar Land:

Pharaoh ants: These ants have a unique appearance that features a light-yellow body and legs with a dark-colored abdomen. They typically infest hotels, grocery stores, restaurants, and other commercial properties. However, they will also invade residential areas from time to time as well.
Argentine ants: The Argentine ants can measure anywhere between 1/16 of an inch and 1/4 of an inch long. They have dark-colored bodies that are usually black. These ants will usually have several queens living in one colony. They also become extremely aggressive towards other ant species if they get too close to their colony.
Pavement ants: As their name suggests, they are commonly found around the pavement. They are black and usually about 1/8 of an inch long. They will build small ant mounds underneath the cracks in sidewalks or any other paved surface.
Yellow crazy ants: This is possibly the most invasive species of ants found in Texas. They have golden yellow bodies with black abdomens that sometimes have yellow stripes on them. Instead of walking on a trail, crazy ants tend to walk in erratic patterns.

All of the ants in Sugar Land are social insects that will typically live in extremely large groups. If any of these ants decide to invade your home, you could have over 20,000 ants living in your house at one time.

Why And How Ants Find Their Way Into Our Homes

Ants are sneaky creatures that can quietly walk into your home without you even realizing it. Because their bodies are so small and thin, they can squeeze through some of the tiniest crevices that are only about one to two millimeters wide.

Ants like to eat almost any type of food. They will devour fresh foods, meats, rotten produce, and even dead carcasses. If they sense that you have food that is accessible inside your home, they will do their best to try to come inside. Ants can talk to each other. However, they use their pheromones to communicate. If an ant finds a viable food source, it will usually leave a trail of pheromones that lead to the food source. This way, the other ants will be able to find the food as well. If you ever see ants walking in a single-file line, it is because they are all following the same pheromone trail.

Five Naturally Effective Ant Prevention Tips

If you want to keep ants out of your home, some natural steps that you can take include:

Keep a tight lid placed on your trash cans at all times
Keep pet food and any other dry food in a sealed container
Don't let spills set for too long
Seal gaps around your home
Keep the grass in your yard cut short

Ants will be more willing to stay in your home if they have plenty of hiding spaces. Be sure to remove any unused items from your home to eliminate clutter and potential hiding spots.

Professional Pest Control Is A Great Way To Keep The Ants Away

Ants can be a challenging pest to get rid of. If you are seeing ants around your home, you should give our professional ant control team a call as soon as possible. At Modern Pest Control, we know ant control, and we can find all of the ants' hiding spots in your home and eliminate them permanently. Give us a call today to see what we can do to keep your Sugar Land home ant-free.