Ants, which are very small but very determined, like to make their homes in places they don’t belong, especially pavement ants. To get back your room and keep these six-legged invaders from making your home their permanent home, you need to know how to deal with pavement ant infestations.
These are the uninvited guests: pavement ants
The formal name for pavement ants is Tetramorium caespitum. They are small, brown to black ants that can get into homes through most small cracks and holes. What makes them special is that they like to build their nests in and around roads, sidewalks, and buildings. They build nests that are very complicated right under your feet, like tiny builders in the ant world.
The Strategy of Nesting
Pavement ants are very good at building their nests. They do it under rocks, concrete slabs, and even inside your house walls. They use even the smallest gaps to get in and make your base look like a safe place to live. It might be hard to find sidewalk ant nests because they are hidden under things. But if you see small piles of dug-up sand or dirt, that’s a clear sign that they are digging underground to build something.
Life Below Ground
To really understand sidewalk ants, we need to look into their lives underground. These hardworking bugs look for a wide range of foods, from protein materials to oils and grease. Because they eat a lot of different things, they are flexible, and they might even come into your home to find food crumbs or spills. However, they stay outside most of the time, especially if there are lots of food sources nearby.
Ants Moving Around
Not only are pavement ants happy with their own colonies, they can be very protective of them. Terrible fights between colonies happen all the time, and a lot of ants die on the battlefield. Knowing that sidewalk ants are territorial helps you understand why they might show up all of a sudden in large numbers. There’s a chance that they’re on a mission to take over and claim their piece of the ground.
The Great Ant Journey
In the spring, sidewalk ants start their long reproductive cycle. Mating flights happen high in the sky, and after they meet, the queens dig holes in the ground to lay their eggs. After a few months, a full-fledged colony will appear, ready to explore and take over. This seasonal trend is important to know if you want to know when the number of pavement ants might go up.
Tips for Keeping Ants Away
What can we do to keep sidewalk ants from using our homes as their homes now that we know how they live? First, seal up any cracks and holes in your base to make it harder for pests to get in. Keep your living areas clean and remove any food sources that these tiny invaders might find appealing. Checking your home often, especially in the spring, can help you find any possible pests early.
To sum up, to understand pavement ant invasions, you have to peel back the layers of their underground lives. Even though these clever ants are small, they can have a big effect. By taking preventative steps and keeping up with how they act during different times of the year, you can keep ants out of your home.
The team at ant control Port Perry are licensed and insured exterminators who have multiple years of experience in the pest control field and can take on any type of infestation regardless of the scope and severity of the ant infestation. We combat the ants with commercial-grade low-mammalian toxicity pesticides that have long-lasting residual effects that will impact the population soon as ants walk on the treatment.