How Often Should Pest Control Be Done?

How can you get rid of ants is the first thing that comes to mind when facing an infestation. If you see ants in your home, there can likely be many more you are not seeing. An ant infestation: you hate to see it and definitely want to avoid it. Taking preventative measures, in addition to using expert ant control services, will keep these pesky invaders at bay and is how to rid your home of ants.

They’re the worst possible roommate. They don’t pay rent, they make a mess of your pantry, and they seem to multiply overnight. Yep, we’re talking about ants in Oregon, and how to get rid of them. It never fails: one ant enters your home, others follow, and all of a sudden an entire colony has settled in for the long term. Whether you’re dealing with carpenter ants, odorous house ants, or another species, ants won’t just go away on their own. And if you’re using a store-bought ant solution, you may be making your ant problem worse. But don’t worry – we’ve got some steps you can take to help prevent ants from entering your home, and some tried-and-true solutions for Oregon homeowners to get rid of ants for good.

Read More: What Are The Most Common Ants In Oregon?

Home Sweet Home

Ants love Oregon’s mild, moist climate. Carpenter ants scale lush trees to access your home via the roof, while odorous house ants find cracks in your foundation and simply slip inside. And once inside your home, ants quickly acclimate to the warmth, shelter, food, water, and comfort of your home. What starts as only a few scattered scout ants can seemingly overnight morph into a steady line of ants ready to take advantage of your warm walls and stocked pantry. But before you reach for that Raid or jar of cinnamon, take a deep breath – there are some better solutions to tackling an ant invasion.

The Truth About Raid

We’ll be straight with you: using store-bought ant killers is a bad idea. A close look at the label can tell us why. Most products labeled as “ant killers” are pyrethroid-based. Products with pyrethroid often fail to eliminate ants, and can often make your infestation worse. Because while pyrethroids kill ants quickly – well, kill a few ants quickly – the product never has time to travel back to the queen and colony. Consequently, a few worker ants are killed, but these are quickly replaced by a productive queen, hidden away from the treated area. Additionally, pyrethroid products are repellents, which means they push insects away. This actually encourages ants to move or divide the colony, resulting in ants “popping up” in new rooms or previously uninfested areas – or worse, they break apart to form satellite colonies.

What About Terro And Other DIY Ant Killers?

Good question! This might seem like the logical next step after Raid or other pyrethroid-based ant killers. But in an effort to make DIY products – like Terro – safer for the general public, these products come in a less potent concentration that pest management professionals are allowed to use. One example of this is Terro Liquid Ant Baits. This product, commonly available to homeowners, has a 5.4% Borax active ingredient. The counterpart used by licenced pest professionals is 10% Borax – almost twice as potent! It’s no wonder that, while Terro occasionally works, it often just leaves homeowners frustrated.

Read More: What Attracts Ants?

The Best Offense Is A Good Defense

Like the defensive line of the 1970’s Pittsburgh Steelers, a good defense can be a winning strategy to rid your home of ants. Sure, we’re talking about ways to preventative pest control to protect your home from ants, but the same principle applies. Here’s a couple of solid defensive strategies for protecting your home from ants:

• Seal entry points: Check for cracks around windows, doors, and utility penetrations. You can seal or caulk around frames, providing extra security on the exterior of your home.
• Remove food sources: Ants can find even the tiniest crumbs, so make sure all available food sources are cleaned up or stored in containers. This especially applies to pet food and dishes.
• Trim outdoor plants: Cut back or remove plants that are touching the exterior of your home – these are basically ladders to your house for plants. It’s also a good idea to eliminate any bark mulch that touches your foundation.

Even with the best defensive strategies, you still might need to end on offense. Ant infestations don’t get rid of themselves, so at some point, you’ll need to call in the experts.

Our Comprehensive Ant Elimination System

At Bug Zapper, we’ve developed a powerful proprietary ant elimination system to eradicate ants. Our scientifically developed ant control products, combined with our meticulous application method, make pest-free living a reality. We leverage three strategies to ensure your home or office remains free of pests:

• Time Delay: Our ant extermination products have a time delay, which allows worker ants to interact with the products and bring them back to the heart of the colony. By the time the products activate, they’ve been spread throughout the colony and to the queen, allowing us to effectively eliminate the entire colony at once.
• Proper Application: Without the right application, even the best products won’t effectively eliminate ants. To ensure every service is as effective as possible, we provide extensive, hands-on training and ongoing education to every Bug Zapper technician. This allows us to consistently deliver exceptional results and outstanding customer service every step of the way.
• Preventative Solutions: Our goal is to help you live pest-free year-round. After treating an ant infestation, our technicians will suggest preventive measures to help keep future ant colonies away from your resilience. We’ll take a close look at your home and landscaping to identify and close off potential entry points.

Once your ants are eliminated, we suggest a follow-up ant control treatment every two months to make sure new ant colonies never even get started inside your home.

New Ant Baits And Elimination Products

Over the last few years, ant control within homes has changed in major ways. Professional new ant baits and elimination products have allowed us to guarantee effective ant removal.

Research And Development

Ant bait formulation has been and continues to be the subject of substantial research, organized to determine what flavors and formulas are most readily accepted by foraging ants. These studies have led to a greater understanding of seasonal changes and needs within ant colonies. At Bug Zapper, we are able to use this research to supply the right bait at the right time to quickly eliminate ant colonies with menial product exposure to home occupants.

Streamlined And Effective Ant Control

New technology only requires a mere 20 percent of the foraging colony to pick up and transport ant killing ingredients back to the remaining 80 percent of the colony. This streamlined form of ant control has never been so effective. In fact, ants cannot detect this new elimination method, and a delayed effect allows them to transport the product deep inside the colony before the entire colony – including the queen – is killed. Rather than acting as a band-aid to the problem by simply repelling ants, these innovative new products kill the whole ant colony within a few days.

Ant Control In Oregon: Our Guarantee

Because our Bug Zapper technicians use the best grade commercial products to protect your home, children, and pets from ant invasion, you can be sure that our method will work. Unlike box store products that never seem to do any good, our professional control methods are so effective that we guarantee our ant control treatments 100% of the time.

Contact us today to learn more about our permanent ant elimination service.