Of all the insects that invade homes, the most common invaders are ants and spiders. Other bugs (for instance, bedbugs and house crickets) may come and go after carrying out the necessary insect control, but spiders and ants can seem impossible to get rid of!
The fact that spiders create cobwebs, and ants come in colonies, makes the situation even more annoying.
For most residents in Murrieta, the appearance of these pests is a common thing. They can take over your home to feed on food crumbs in your absence. Sometimes, you may fall victim to pest invasion because the very enjoyable weather at Murrieta makes it seem like a paradise for pests.
While it might be challenging to eliminate the number of spiders and ants in your home, there are some effective ways to control them.
10 Tips for Controlling Ants Effectively
1. Know The Species
To pick the ideal tactic that kills ants in your home, you have to, first of all, know which ant species you're dealing with. Certain species are easier to eradicate than others; while some bite, others don't.
Below are some of the most common species of ants that will most likely invade your home:
Argentine ants: These ants are considered one of the worst ant invasive species. They measure about 2 millimeters long, with a brownish color. Outdoors, they nest almost anywhere, but indoors, they nest in crevices and holes in the wall. Argentine ants give off a musty smell when stepped on.
Carpenter ants: This specie is quite destructive to structures, as they excavate wood to create nests. A carpenter ant can measure between 6 and 12 millimeters in length, and they easily sting when their nest is disturbed.
Fire ants: European fire ants measure about 4 or 5 millimeters long, and are usually reddish-brown in color. They love nesting in warm, moist areas inside the homes, but outside the home, they may nest in your garden, lawn, or shrubbery. Fire ants are generally quite aggressive and produce a painful sting when disturbed.
Pharaoh ants: These small yellow, semi-transparent ants are notorious indoor pests, found in virtually every part of the world. They measure about 2mm and are especially found in hospitals. Pharaoh ants aren't dangerous in themselves, but they carry serious pathogens and bacteria, which they spread.
Out of all these species, the most difficult to control is the pharaoh ants, as their colonies can number hundreds of thousands. However, carpenter ants pose the biggest threat to your structure. If you have them in your home, it's best to eliminate them soon as possible.
2. Remove All Food Sources
Ants, no matter the specie, are always attracted by a food source. As long as you keep having little crumbs of food or spilled liquids around, there's a high chance that you will attract these pests.
Even if you succeed in killing the entire colony of ants in your home, not keeping the environment tidy enough might lead to a reappearance of another ant species in a matter of time.
3. Seal All Crevices and Openings
Your ant problems may never be solved completely as long as you have potential nesting spots. Wall Crevices and holes are the choicest areas for ants anywhere, including Murrieta.
Aside from killing the ants in the surface areas of the home, you should also pay close attention to the walls, as there may be hundreds of them in there. The best thing to do is seal up every hole or crack you can find. That way, you'll trap them inside.
4. Find The Ant Nest
Regardless of the pest control method you use, it may never be effective if you don't target the ant nest. That's because the ant queen can lay thousands of eggs at a go. Also, she never leaves her nest, so you must locate it.
If you can kill the queen and other ants there, or at least succeed in driving them away to seek a nest outside your home, you've won.
5. Remove All Water Sources
By now, you must have known that ants can't do without water. As a fact, ants enter people's homes during the dry season to seek out water sources. This is why some ants like the odorous and argentine ants are found in bathrooms.
While looking to remove ants from your home, consider riding them out of all water sources and watch them leave on their own. You can achieve this by:
Fixing all broken or leaky pipes
Wiping off any spilled liquids or juices
Keep your kitchen and bathroom dry always. Also, make sure there's no moisture buildup in the walls.
6. Keep Garbage In Airtight Containers
All indoor garbage must be carefully stored in an airtight container. This will prevent ants from gaining smooth access into the home.
In addition, avoid using open wastebaskets; ants can think of them as a potential food source, and this makes it hard to control the situation. You should also ensure that the garbage containers stay clean, especially on the outside.
If you prefer to keep your garbage outside, then make sure that they are kept at a safe distance away from your house.
7. Hide Pet Food
The sweet smell of your pet's food can draw ants, flies, and rodents, even faster than you imagined. If you own a dog or cat, you must always watch out for the crumbs and residues they leave behind; ensure to keep the remnants out of sight.
8. Inspect Your Garden Trees
Ants can invade your home from the surrounding trees. Always check for ant-infested trees, seal off tree holes, and make sure no overhanging tree has direct contact with your home building. Your pest control measures will be futile if your ants always gain access through your garden trees.
9. Use Ant Repellers
There are some easily accessible kitchen ingredients that you can use to control ants. All you have to do is spray these items on the floor in your home, put them in ant holes, or use them as home cleaning agents and the pests will go away in no time. Some of the top picks are:
Salt
Pepper
Peppermint
Vinegar
Boiling water
Corn starch
As a plus, most of these substances also drive away other pests like spiders, silverfish, earwigs, ticks, mites, millipedes, centipedes, and mice.
10. Use Pesticides To Control Ants
Sometimes, the best solution you need is a good pesticide. With this, you need not worry about pest control. All you need to do is locate the ant nest and pour in the pesticide. You can also kill them on sight, wherever they gather.
Note, that some pesticides can be harmful to mammals, so keep food items and pets off the treated area, to avoid poisoning.
10 Tips For Effective Spider Control
As earlier mentioned, spiders are the next most common household pets in Murrieta after ants. Spiders are arachnids, not insects. They prey mostly on flying insects, though their most disturbing attribute is their webs.
The most common species of spiders you'll find in homes are the brown recluse spiders and the black widow spiders.
Brown Recluse spiders are noted for their brown color and necrotic venom. A bite from this spider can cause nausea, fever, and other complications.
Black Widow is a close relative of the brown recluse spider. It is well known for its distinctive black color and its deadly venom which is said to be 15 times stronger than that of a rattlesnake. However, regardless of the kind of spider, you're dealing with, here are 10 tips for handling them.
1. Turn Off Your Lights
Although outdoor lighting doesn't attract spiders, it attracts their prey. And so, you're likely to find spider webs around light bulbs in your yard. These spiders may migrate indoors, later on, to continue their hunt.
2. Straighten Out Your Exterior
As a homeowner, you shouldn't keep a dirty garage or a stuffed-up lawn. Else, you might get into danger of serious pest infestation.
Spiders love hiding in dark, cramped spaces, as some insects (like ants and bugs) are likely to lodge there too. To stop spiders from entering your house, you must tidy up your entire garage and yard. Doing this might also prevent other pests like millipedes and scorpions that may be a nuisance from getting into your home.
3. Set Traps
Traps are a good way to get rid of spiders and other insects without necessarily having direct contact with them.
A good spider trap option for homeowners is sticky traps; they are quite easy to set up. All you need to do is set them in virtually every corner of the home where you've noticed spiders or spider webs, and wherever you suspect they may be hiding.
4. Treat wall crevices, cracks, and corners with pesticides
Spray insect killers in cracks, cavities, and corners where you suspect spiders may be hiding. You'll need a very potent insecticide treatment for this. That's because spiders, unlike ants, have long legs and a very tough exterior that make pest control chemicals less effective, except on direct contact.
5. Call a Professional
Killing on sight with either a fly swatter or broom is one of the most effective spider control methods there is.
However, avoid touching the spider with your bare hands, dead or alive, especially when dealing with a deadly species like a black widow. But if you find one spider, most likely there are several others. It's best to call a professional pest control tech who can assess your home.
Additionally, clear off cobwebs as soon as you find them. This is the cheapest method of spider control.
6. Get Rid Of Their Food Source
Spiders tend to kill flying insects for food after trapping them in spider webs. They prey on flies, silverfish, earwigs, and months.
Implementing the necessary pest control techniques to eradicate these other pests indoors and outdoors, will mean starvation for the spiders. This can, in turn, will force them out of your house.
7. Keep Your House Neat and Tidy
Carrying out routine cleanups in your home provides an inconvenient environment for them to hide. What's more, these frequent checkups may just reveal a spider web, that leads may you to where these pests are hiding.
Vacuuming is a good way to get rid of cobwebs and dust, so it's advisable to make it a routine; always remember to target hidden corners in walls and furniture, as well as wall crevices.
8. Adopt a Pet
As gross as it may seem, pets love eating insects and spiders. So having them around can be an unlikely spider control assist you need.
To start, you can simply bring home a cat, dog, or reptile, to help control the spread and activities of spiders in your home. Keep in mind that pets like dogs can carry ticks and lice, and this may require a separate pest control altogether.
9. Use Repellers
Natural repellers can be a cheap, yet effective way for you to control spiders. Most of these repellers work generally for pest control, but a few are more fatal to spiders.
10. Examine Your Plants
If you have a garden in your home, chances are that some of the plants will possess certain features that draw spiders to them. You don't want this to happen, so it's best to take precautionary measures or better still, inform professional pest exterminators.
How We Can Help You
LOCAL Bug Guy is the number 1 Murrieta pest control service that helps you get rid of some of the peskiest pests, including spiders and ants. We will help you eliminate every form of spider infestation or ant colony in your home and surrounding.
A part of our services includes offering bimonthly ant and spider maintenance plans to our customers. Once you notice any sign of bugs in your home, quickly contact the LOCAL Bug Guy.