If you walked the cracked sidewalks of our neighborhoods you'll soon spot little mounds of finely ground dirt. Each grain literally put there by thousands of ants excavating their tunnels in the dirt beneath the sidewalks. I'm amazed at how industrious these creatures are.
Sometimes you'll come across the ants swarming out of the sidewalk. When you see this it either means that it is moving day or there is an epic battle going on between warring colonies.
How To Get Rid Of Ants In Your Home
I'm no ant expert, but I call sidewalk ants, sugar ants when they find their way into my home. If this happens to you there are a few things you can do.
- Spend some time watching the ants in your home. You'll soon be able to tell if they are foraging or if they've found a cache of food. You'll also find out where their nest is.
- Clean up the source of food. Be sure to put sugar, cereal, crackers in sealed containers or temporarily in the freezer until the problem goes away.
- If your pet's food is the source place their food bowl on a shallow tray or pan filled with an inch of water. The water will act as a natural barrier and your cat or dog will treat it like a watering bowl with the food bowl in the center.
- Wipe down the ant trail with a paper towel soaked in vinegar. The vinegar removes the scent trail the ants have laid down.
- If you can find the nest outside deep soak the ground around it with water. Ants can't stand flooded nests and will move to another drier location (usually under your sidewalk or foundation).
- Be very careful in choosing your ant poison. My favorite is Combat Ant Gel. It comes in a syringe and allows you to insert the gel inside the cracks in your house where pets or kids can't easily access it.
Four Fun Ant Facts
- Ants lift 20-50 times their weight using their front mandibles (same as us lifting a small car over our head). Maybe it helps that in addition to mandibles they have a pair of antennas they use to touch and communicate and six legs to stand on while carrying food, eggs & dirt.
- Ants have been around since the age of dinosaurs. Thankfully they were never the size of dinosaurs!
- 99% of ants are sterile and aren't referred to as male or female, but by their caste system.
- Male ants and queens are the unfertilized eggs and are the only ants to have wings for a short period of time.