Why Isn't Ant-Baiting A Do-It-Yourself Job?
Many people will eventually discover ants in their home. These pests are nearly everywhere, with some scientific estimates putting their number in the quadrillions. While there are many reasons why ants may infest your home, a few ants here or there are rarely much of a concern. In many cases, a lone ant or two are simply scouts exploring their environment.
However, a larger number of ants in your home is often a good sign of an infestation. Killing a few ants or removing obvious food sources typically won't resolve the problem, especially if the nest is close to or inside your house. Baits are often an effective solution, but there are many reasons why this pest control method works better when employed by a professional.
How Do Ant Baits Work?
Bait traps are a slow but permanent solution to ant infestations. Unlike other methods of ant control, the purpose of a bait trap is to damage or kill a colony. Contact pesticides can kill individual ants but won't affect insects that don't walk across or near them. As a result, these methods may fail to root out the problem at its source.
Bait traps work by offering a tempting food source to ant scouts. This design means that you may initially see more ants near a trap, although their presence is often a good sign. Ants will enter the trap and take the bait back to their nest, where the poison can reach a much larger portion of the population and potentially destroy the colony.
Why Are Professional Traps More Effective?
The traps you can buy over-the-counter from retail stores can be effective, but they're often inferior to those used by pest control professionals. Commercial-grade bait stations can hold more bait and allow pest control experts to use targeted or more powerful poisons. These pesticides may have more killing power or be more attractive to the specific ant species invading your home.
More importantly, placement is key when using bait stations. Bait traps are precision weapons, and it's crucial to place them in areas where ants will find them. A pest control expert will inspect your home, looking for likely paths and colony locations. They will use this information to place bait stations where they will be most effective, helping to resolve your ant problem much more quickly.
When Do You Need a Professional?
If you're noticing many ants in your home over weeks or months, you likely have a problem that requires more than haphazard placement of over-the-counter retail traps. If sprays and cheap retail baits don't seem to be working, a professional will be able to get to the bottom of your problem and develop a solution that can keep ants out of your home once and for all.
For more information, contact a company like Pass Pest Control.
