Ant Control Maintenance: Keeping Your Charlotte Home Ant-Free Long-Term

Most of us don't think about ants until we have an ant infestation in our homes, but let's take a closer look at these creatures. If you have cut the top off an ant mound, you will notice an array of tunnels and, in some cases, winged ants. How do ants build these elaborate homes outside in the soil or inside a house in appliances, wall voids, around water heaters, and other areas?

Ants instinctively arrange their colonies into social hierarchies. The queen is at the top of the rankings in the nest. She is the founder of the group and is responsible for creating offspring. Below the queen are sterile worker ants. Worker ants provide food for the group, build new tunnels and chambers, and nurture the offspring. Once the group grows to a self-sustaining size, the queen produces winged reproductive ants.

Known as alates or swarmers, these ants fly from the colony in the spring or early fall and coast along warm air currents. During their journey, they mate, and the females store enough sperm to last many years. The males fall to the ground and die shortly after mating, but the females continue until they find a suitable nesting location. Once they find a spot, they land, discard their wings, create an area to produce eggs, and raise the first group of worker ants.

Some ants in Charlotte create new nests through a process known as budding. In these scenarios, the reproducing ants do not fly from the nest. The males fertilize the females and die soon afterward. When the colony is disturbed, the fertilized females, and groups of sterile workers, leave the nest to start satellite colonies where they reign as the queen.

Ants communicate using chemicals knowns as pheromones. These alert the other ants to food sources, the nest location, threats, mating, and emergencies. Researchers believe that ants produce specialized pheromones depending on their social order. They surmise that ants can create "proto-sentences" to communicate commands to those on their hierarchy level. For example, if a pavement ant worker encounters fire ants, it can return to the nest and spray its pheromones to alert the colony of danger. When the ants respond, they can detect fire ant odor on the alerting worker ant.

What does this information mean for Charlotte homeowners? Since ants communicate using pheromones when they find food and water sources in your home, they use those chemicals to lead more ants to your house. When you see ants flying around outdoor lights and windows at dusk or dawn, they are searching for places to create nests inside or nearby your home.

Swarming ants may also indicate that ants already have colonies in or underneath your house.

ProForce Pest Control provides ant control in Charlotte, so you don't have to live with ants in your home. Our service professionals investigate the interior and exterior for ant hot spots. We have the tools, knowledge, and experience to remove ants from your Charlotte home.

Ants are a nuisance when they enter homes. You cannot relax when ants crawl over your arm or across your body while sitting in your easy chair. You feel disgusted when you see them crawl across the bananas on the kitchen counter. It is frustrating when you move the garbage can and see a clump of ants hiding underneath the container. Although ants are a nuisance, having an infestation is problematic.

Have you wondered how ants climb vertically up walls? They can scale surfaces due to the claws on the bottom of their six feet. Ants are not picky about where they forage for food, and when they eat in trash containers, drains, compost piles, and off the floor, bacteria in those areas stick to their claws. When they travel across foods, food packaging, countertop, and other items, the bacteria transfer and contaminates those objects.

The following types of ants are in the Charlotte area:

• Pharaoh ants

• Argentine ants

• Pavement ants

• Fire ants

All ants in this group contaminate surfaces, but the pharaoh ants can spread disease. These ants have a pale yellowish front end (head and thorax) and a dark back end (abdomen). Salmonellosis, staphylococcus, clostridium, and streptococcus are diseases that pharaoh ants distribute in homes and medical facilities as they travel over open, unprotected wounds.

Some ants do not have strong enough mandibles to break human skin, but others can pierce the flesh and produce a bee sting-like momentary sensation. However, the pain from a fire ant attack is more than temporary. When fire ants detect a threat, the workers swarm from the nest through various tunnel openings and attack the perpetrator. Once they access the predator, they bite to anchor themselves and repeatedly sting the victim with smooth stingers to inject their venom. The venom triggers a histamine response in the body producing fluid-filled, itchy, red blisters that last several days. In some cases, it causes severe anaphylaxis requiring immediate medical attention.

ProForce Pest Control provides ant control service near your home. We will stop ants from contaminating your food, give you peace of mind by ending the infestation, and keep your family safe from the painful stings of fire ants.

The best way to enjoy long-term ant control in your house is to partner with ProForce Pest Control. We will dispatch a highly-trained, licensed service professional to investigate your Charlotte home and property. We will look for entry points, attractants, hot spots, and the ant species causing the problem. 

We will treat your home using pet and family-friendly products. We will target the offending ant species using the data we gather by focusing on known hot spots for the particular type of ant inside and outside your home. We will create a barrier by treating the base of your Charlotte home. Before ants infest a house, they invade the yard, so we treat the property perimeter using granular products to keep ants off your lawn.

Unlike many pest control companies that leave a door hanger notifying you of treatment, we email our customers with details of the service and the products we used to stop the infestation. You can also use the customer portal to update information, see the upcoming service schedule, and give us feedback. 

When you allow us to provide you with a long-term solution to your ant infestation problem, you will understand why ProForce Pest Control is the best ant control service near your home.

Enjoying a home free from ants begins with pest control ant treatments from ProForce Pest Control. While no pest control company can eliminate or stop any ant from entering your property, you can do the following to deter them from staying on the property and entering your house:

• Close outdoor and indoor garbage containers
• Remove debris, junk, and dense vegetation from the property
• Provide drainage to ditches, low-lying areas, and gutters
• Seal cracks and gaps in the foundation and roofline
• Prune tree branches and shrubs away from the house
• Install exterior door sweeps
• Fix holes in the window and door screens
• Vacuum the house regularly
• Suction out cracks and corners in the home
• Repair leaking plumbing fixtures in the house

Maintaining a dry and clean interior and exterior will discourage ants from remaining on the property and invading the house during significant weather changes.

When a service professional from ProForce Pest Control surveys the situation, we can provide additional specific tips for your location. Contact us today for help with ants and to learn more about our residential and commercial pest control services in Charlotte.