ANTS IN YOUR HOUSE?

You’ve got ants. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Every spring in Metro Vancouver, ants invade our homes. They are hungry and have a nest full of other ants to feed — and your home is full of food. Suddenly your home is an ant picnic and everybody is invite

1. DON’T FREAK OUT — IT IS JUST A FEW ANTS

“First thing people shouldn’t do is totally freak out. They are only ants and there are far greater things to worry about than ants,” Londry said. “But for many people who phone me there is nothing more important at that time than to get rid of the ants in their kitchen.”

Londry says soap and water is your best early defence. Locate where the ants are entering your home and spray the area with a mix of dish soap and water.

“Also be sure to spray the trail they are following so you wipe out the pheromone that is being left for other ants,” he said. “The soap and water confuses them.”

Don’t give into temptation and stomp them with your shoe.

“Ants come and collect the squashed ants if you leave them there. It ends up being a free meal and you are essentially feeding them,” he said. “Squash- ing is not preventing. Ants will rarely have five per cent of the colony outside of the colony at any time.”

2. GET SPICY

Ants hate cinnamon. Pull a jar down from your spice rack and sprinkle it around the entrances to your home.

“Cinnamon is awesome. You don’t need a wall of it but just spread it liberally around the corners of the door,” said Londry. “You want to do it right away when you first see ants, because once they are established and they understand the kitchen counter is where the food is at, cinnamon is not going to stop them.”

3. COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS

Londry says the liquid ant bait sold at hardware stores is a good solution for small ant invasions.

“Anything with borate, those are the ones you want. The positive thing about the domestic products is they usually have just a 0.025 concentration of borate which is perfect for households,” he said. “Anything higher than that concentration and you are going to get instant relief and kill any ant that comes in contact with it, and that’s not what you want. With the lower concentration, the ants will take some back to the nest for other ants to consume.”

Ants have two stomachs, one for consuming food and one for storing food so they can later share with their nest.

4. EARLY PREVENTION

If you see one or two ants in winter or early spring, Londry suggests leaving out an even more diluted mix of borate-based ant bait.

“Mix the domestic product with some sort of sweet substance like apple juice and put it out in some sort of application tool like an upside-down bottle cap,” he said. “They’ve gone all winter with no food so even the low-concentrated domestic products will be too strong and kill them. You want them to take the bait back to the nest.”

5. SEE CARPENTER ANTS? CALL THE PROS

Those little ants coming in from outside to scavenge for food are likely harmless pavement ants. Carpenter ants, which measure 6-12 mm long, are a bigger problem.

It’s a myth that carpenter ants eat wood, but their mandibles are powerful enough to turn wood into sawdust for burrowing and nesting purposes. They aren’t going to bring your house down, but they can do damage to your structure.

If you see more than 10 or 12 carpenter ants in your house, Londry recommends calling in pest control professionals.

“At the very least have someone do an inspection to see whether or not they are in the structure. It you see them in the house, however, the odds are 99 out of a 100 that there is a colony inside the house. These are not pavement ants who love spilled juice on a counter, carpenter ants are old school — they feed outside on insects and plant protein in the garden. They live in the structure and are not there exploring for food,” Londry said.

“Most pests control specialists will do a free inspection.”

If you want to do your own inspection, Londry suggests taking a slow walk — at least 15 minutes — around your home’s foundation.

“Ants like to travel on lines, we often seen them on garden hoses. They also like to travel underneath ground cover, so pull up any leaves because there might be a trail of ants underneath them. We’ve also found them travelling overhead on power lines.”