Overview
Knowing How to Find Ants Will Help You Stop Them
Ants can make a nuisance of themselves because they can nest both indoors and outdoors and the nest or entry points can be hard to find. If the ants are indoors, finding the entrance points will be extremely helpful in the ant control process as you will be able to seal them off to help prevent future ant infestations. Locating the nest outdoors can allow you to directly treat the nest for faster elimination.
Tools Needed:
- Bright Flashlight
Step
1
Where to Inspect Indoors
Most ant species prefer moist areas to nest and hide eggs. Typically kitchens and bathrooms are the first rooms to be infested.
Use your flashlight to look for ants behind or under refrigerators, stoves, microwaves, dishwashers, sinks, and cabinets.
Ants may also be found in or around floor drains, inside the motor areas of refrigerators and microwaves, behind wall paper and in cracks and crevices in cabinets and around walls.
If you are only finding a couple of ants here and there, you can do the honey and peanut butter test to help attract the ants to one spot so you can see where the trail of ants comes from and also to help detect what type of ant bait would work best in your ant treatment program.
- Place a jar lid or saucer near the area where you have noticed some ant activity
- Place a 1/2 teaspoon of honey on one end of the lid or saucer and 1/2 teaspoon of peanut butter on the other end.
- Leave the honey and peanut butter in place until the ants start trailing
- Ants tend to be more nocturnal, so we recommend using your flashlight to follow the trail back to the nesting area or the area they are using to gain entrance into your structure in the late evening.
Pro Tip
If the ants are eating just the honey, a liquid or gel bait would be a good bait choice. If the ants are more attracted to the peanut butter, a granule or paste bait would be a good choice. You should note that as an ant colony grows and changes their nutritional needs will change. At some point they may only accept sweet or gel bait and at other times they may only accept protein or granule baits.
Step
2
Where to Inspect Outdoors
Ants are opportunistic by nature and can make a nest just about anywhere depending on the species of ant. When inspecting for ants outdoors you should look:
- In firewood piles
- Under yard debris
- In electrical and utility boxes
- In dirt mounds in the yard
- Under the siding on your structure