Let’s talk about ants. More importantly, let’s talk about how ants can be prevented from making their home in or just outside your house in the backyard with the help of simple tips and professional ant pest control services.
As Lakewood pest control experts, Bugaboo Pest Control has substantial experience with ant control for residential properties. It’s our goal to help you keep your Lakewood home ant-free. To get started, take a look through this article for key tips on the topic of ant control and long-term ant prevention for your home.
The Life Cycle Of Ants: How Ant Colonies Develop
The life cycle of ants in Lakewood has four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. It usually takes just a few days for ants to mature into adults. From that point on, they perform a specific job for the benefit of the entire colony. Drone ants reproduce with the queen, and worker ants do different jobs around the colony and search for food to sustain the colony. Different types of ants may have slightly different approaches to building their colonies, but most often, ant colonies develop the same way.
One or more queen ants and a group of drones establish a colony by reproducing. Drones die after mating with a queen ant, but queen ants live much longer, regularly reproducing to build out the colony. Newly born ants progress through the ant life cycle up to adulthood and do their assigned jobs to keep the colony fed, protected, and strong.
So how long can ants live? It’s a very wide range, and the lifespan of a specific ant depends on both its species and its role within its particular colony. To give a general idea of ant lifespans, drones typically live the shortest, for only a handful of days. Workers have a lifespan of weeks or even months. Queen ants live the longest; ant queens can actually live for years at a stretch.
Ant Problems: Ants In The Home Can Be More Than A Nuisance
Let’s break down some of the biggest problems that ants can bring into your home. First and foremost, all types of ants can contaminate your home as they travel along different surfaces. This has to do with their chemical communication and their relative lack of hygiene habits.
Beyond this contamination, which can potentially lead to health issues, specific types of ants can cause different and unique problems. Carpenter ants can pose serious problems for your home or other structures by breaking down the wood that holds these structures together. Also, fire ants are well known for stinging humans and animals when they get in the way. These stings are typically painful, but for certain individuals, they can cause much more serious health concerns like anaphylaxis.
Ant Prevention Is Key: Effective Tips And Tricks
If you want to keep your Lakewood home ant-free, try the following ant prevention tips:
- Make sure that your food is sealed up and that you clean crumbs off the floor.
- If you notice openings that could give ants access to your home, seal them or repair them as soon as possible.
- Eliminate sources of water like leaking sinks, pet bowls, and outdoor containers that collect rainwater.
- Check kitchens and bedrooms on a routine basis to look for signs of an ant infestation.
- Create a barrier of rocks or pebbles between your yard and your home’s foundation.
- Keep firewood off the ground and don’t place it near your house.
These tips will help you learn how to keep ants away for the long term, not just for the season.
Professional Ant Control: A Great Way To Keep Ants Out For Good
Professional home pest control is the most effective way to handle an ant problem. If you’re seeing signs that ants are in your home, the sooner you call us, the better. When you partner with Bugaboo Pest Control, we provide high-skilled residential and commercial ant control services as well as offer advice and help with ant prevention for your home.
Contact us today and one of our representatives will walk you through what we do and how it helps keep your Lakewood home safe and clean.
