Why Ants Infest Clean Homes: Understanding the Reasons the Come Back to Prevent Future Infestations

If you have been diligently cleaning your house, you do not expect to find marching ants on the kitchen countertop. Sadly, this can happen even in the cleanest home. A spotless home doesn’t guarantee you can’t be visited by ants or other pests. There are reasons why ants can infiltrate your clean house and require you to contact a pest control expert at greenpestservices.net. These reasons include the following:

Extreme Weather

Adverse weather conditions like extreme heat and heavy rain can drive different pests, including ants, indoors as they search for shelter. No matter how clean your home environment may be, these tiny insects may seek refuge in your house to escape the elements. 

Thirst

As with other creatures, ants need water for survival. Despite the cleanliness of your home, ants may infest it as they look for sources of water like leaky pipes, condensation buildup, and dripping faucets. 

Neighborhood Infestation

Ants are quite mobile and can travel long distances to find food, shelter, and water. If your neighborhood is infested with ants, there is a chance that these pests may end up in your house, even if it is spotless. 

Food Residue

Tiny crumbs and spills may linter in areas that are difficult to reach like in cracks between tiles and beneath appliances. Regardless of the size of food particles, they can capture the attention of ants that can detect and track down possible sources of food. 

Sweet Fragrances

Some cleaning products and toiletries produce sweet fragrances to which ants are attracted. Although such scents are pleasant to people, they indicate possible sources of food for foraging ants. 

Rotting Wood

Some species of ants are drawn to decaying wood, like rotting or damp structural timber. Any areas in your house that have wood decay like door frames and window sills can invite ants into your living space. 

Scent Trails from Past Infestations

Ants use pheromone trails to communicate with each other. They leave these trails behind to guide other members of the colony to sources of food and water. If you have eliminated a past ant infestation, residual pheromone might linger and attract new ant scouts to examine your house. 

Entry Points

Even if you have a clean house, ants can get inside through cracks, door and window gaps, and utility pipes. After entry, they can build colonies in secluded spaces like within wall voids and behind baseboards. 

Flying Ants

During specific periods, winged ants leave their colonies to find mates and begin new colonies. Such ants may end up inside your house, even it is quite clean, because they want to reproduce. 

Pet Food

Pet food and water bowls can also attract ants and other pests. Even if the eating area of your fur friends looks clean, trace amounts of moisture and food can draw ants looking for sustenance to the space. 

Discovering ant activity in a clean home can be due to the factors mentioned above. Understanding such underlying reasons allows you to take proactive steps to prevent and control ant infestations. While it is important to keep your home clean, you should also address environmental factors and entry points that ants may use to infiltrate your home. 

To effectively eliminate ants from your home, identify why they keep coming. Get rid of food and water sources as well as access to shelter to make your home less attractive to these pests. Also, you can keep ants outside using non-invasive and non-toxic methods; however, a major infestation will usually require the expertise of pest control experts. These experts can also advise you on how to prevent future infestations.