Why You Should Call The Pros About Ants In Your Orlando Home

We have no shortage of ant pests in Orlando, do we? The sheer number of species we battle can make ant control super frustrating for Orlando residents. Fortunately, you don't have to put on your entomologist hat and learn all of those species, and you don't have to weed through hundreds of articles (many of which are confusing) to learn what really works to get control of ants. When you have a professional handle your ant control, you can sit back and relax. This is perhaps the best reason to contact a professional. But there are actually many compelling reasons to hire a professional. Some might surprise you. Let's take a look.

roof rat up close

Your Sanity

There is nothing more disheartening than to spend money on ant bait and other ant control products only to have zero impact on your ant infestation. You may also spend a lot of time and energy applying the products and taking other measures to deal with your ant problem. It's exhausting. But more than exhausting, it is demoralizing. Once you've spent all that money and wasted energy you don't have, you may end up contacting a professional anyway. Our advice is to skip the middleman. A professional can properly identify your ant pests, evaluate the conducive conditions, and select a control strategy that will work to arrest your problem.

Here is a quick example to help you put this into perspective:

If you seed your lawn to fill in areas where it is starting to thin, all of that seed is going to attract ants. You might find your yard covered in tiny little ant mounds. This can lead you to purchase an ant bait and a device to sprinkle it evenly throughout your lawn. After several applications, you may come to realize that the ants in your yard don't prefer that bait. They may prefer sweets rather than protein, or vice versa. So, you go get another bait, and take the time to sprinkle that throughout your entire lawn, only to find out that the ants don't want the new bait either. This happens far too often.

It Is Possible To Make Things Worse

When ant control is not done properly, it can result in more issues. Here are just a few of the ways you might make things worse.

Some ant colonies have more than one queen. If you use a product that kills ants quickly, it can alert the queens and cause the colony to bud. So, rather than one colony, you now have two or more colonies.
When you apply bait incorrectly, ants can get wise to your intentions and become bait averse. This can make them more difficult to control.
When you apply ant control in your home, you can cause ants to spread to other areas within your home. This may be an area that makes it even more difficult for a pest control technician to address the problem.
When you clean up ant trails, it can make it difficult for a pest control technician to follow the trails and figure out where the ant colony is—for instance, whether it is inside or outside.

Professionals Know Stuff

You may know that ant bait is effective for controlling ants, but you may not know what to use. In our example above, we discussed the common practice of residents applying baits that are not interesting to ants, and that this results in the continued presence of mounds in the yard. Well, not only does a pest professional know what bait will work best, but we also know how much to apply, where to apply it, and what season baits work best. Some baits will work just fine on an ant species in the spring but have little or no impact in the fall when the worker ants are no longer collecting food sources that are high in carbohydrates.

Some Ants Are Dangerous

In our Orlando service area, most of the ants we deal with are just a nuisance. At worst, they'll get into kitchen trash and spread harmful bacteria to stored foods. Fire ants present a unique threat in that they can be just as annoying as other ants and also present a stinging hazard. While fire ants prefer to be in the middle of your lawn where there is lots of sun, they can explore your exterior and find their way inside. They may even create an indoor colony, depending on conditions outside, such as ground saturation and flooding. When they get inside, they can pose a medical concern. This is a pest problem that is definitely worthy of professional control.

Orlando Ant Control