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Ant Invasion: What To Do When The Ants Come Marching

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Tips To Preventing & Eliminating Your Ant Invasion

It’s that time of year again: ant season. While ants can be active all throughout the year, you’re most likely to notice them in the spring and summer. These pesky critters are notorious for invading your home quickly—usually before you even get the chance to notice! In this blog, we cover how to prevent ants from invading your home, and what to do if you come across an ant invasion. Just like any other pest, ants can cause some serious issues for your home. We hope that our expert advice helps keep your home ant-free, all year long. Okay, we know the ant-icipation must be killing you! So let’s get started.

5 Steps To Preventing A Potential Ant Invasion

1. Clean the Kitchen

The first, and probably most well-known ant prevention method is to keep your house clean. Most ants that come into your home are looking for food, so the harder you make it for them to find, the less they will want to stick around. Start by paying attention to your trash. Remove garbage from the premises as soon as possible. It’s important to empty your trash bin regularly, indoors and out. Besides, outdoor trash may attract more pests than just ants, so you could end up with a larger problem on your hands! Next, double check crevices and cabinets for crumbs or open containers, and make a habit of wiping down the countertops. Remember to vacuum often, paying close attention to the baseboards, behind furniture and appliances, as well as other areas you might typically miss. It’s easy for crumbs to hide in these areas, allowing ants quick (and hidden) access to your home.

2. Eliminate Standing Water

Ants are attracted to moisture, so make it a part of your routine to spot check for water pools or leaky faucets. Carpenter ants especially are attracted to damp wood, which is often the result of a water leak. If you have spotted a water leak, or any wet wood, replace or remove it as soon as possible. Expert Advice: Standing water is a threat to your home for multiple reasons. Not only will it attract ants, but also other pests such as termites and mosquitoes. Additionally, when left untreated, standing water can foster mold and mildew growth. Check in and around your home frequently for standing water, especially after a heavy rain. 

3. Check Walls for Cracks

Ants can’t invade your house without a passageway. Make sure that there are no cracks or little openings around the bottom of your house where ants could potentially creep in. Also, check around window sills and doorways for ant trails. Faulty or worn out weather strips are a common entry point for ants, so examine these closely for damage. 

4. Keep Wood Away From Your House

Like we said earlier, carpenter ants love wet wood, or really any wood actually. Make sure that firewood and building materials are not stored right next to your home. These wood stacks are used for ants to build nests—and you don’t want these pests for neighbors.

5. Watch Out for Branches

Just like wood stacks, keep tree branches and other plants cut back from your house. These wood branches are like natural bridges for ants (and other pests and wildlife) to get in your home.  If you do have a lot of trees and plants, make sure they are trimmed and clean to make it less appealing to these pests. Keeping your trees and bushes maintained not only amps up your curb appeal, but also protects your home against a potential ant invasion.  While these five tips should help you prevent an ant invasion, what should you do if ants have already invaded? Let’s find out!

Why Pest Control Is Necessary For Eliminating (And Preventing) An Ant Invasion

There are quite a few reasons you should always consult with a pest control specialist before attempting to eliminate ants on your own. When it comes to an ant invasion, a pest expert can:

Identify The Species of Ant

There are nine different ant species that commonly invade our homes:

  • Acrobat Ants
  • Argentine Ants
  • Odorous House Ants
  • Carpenter Ants
  • Crazy Ants
  • Pavement Ants
  • Fire Ants
  • Field Ants
  • Pharaoh Ants

Identifying the species of ant that has invaded your home is key to treating the problem. As we mentioned before, carpenter ants are attracted to wood, unlike black ants that simply search for food.  Each of these ant species will require specific treatment that can only be provided by an expert! When you understand the species, it becomes that much easier to locate and eliminate an ant colony.  

Determine Where The Ants Are Coming From

Speaking of locating an ant colony, a pest expert will be able to quickly determine where ants are coming from. Unfortunately, your home may be a haven for ant colonies, or a flying ant may have decided to set up shop in one of the crevices of your home. While you can’t control when and where ants decide to colonize, your pest control expert can help identify the source of the problem. Since ants are so small, it’s easy for them to go unnoticed while colonizing. Understanding the habits of ants is key to locating them, and your local pest professional will be able to do just that! You could spend an entire day attempting to locate an ant colony, but without understanding what you’re up against, you’re likely to come up empty handed. 

Prevent Future Ants From Invading

Over-the-counter ant sprays may keep ants at bay at first, but it won’t eliminate them completely. Sprays are effective at killing ants, there’s no doubt about that! However, these generic treatments offer no long-lasting home protection. Not to mention that the chemicals in these sprays aren’t always safe for you and your family.  When ants are treated professionally, your home receives the protection it needs. Not only will the ant colony be eliminated, but also your home will be treated with a protective barrier that is meant to last. This will help prevent a future ant invasion, keeping you and your family safe against these pests! 

Re-treat For Ants If Necessary

Some ants are much harder to eliminate than others, and will require additional treatments before being completely eliminated. When this is the case, you’re only option is to trust the professionals!  At Killingsworth, our team is thoroughly educated on the ants that threaten your home. We know what they are, where they might be hiding and how to prevent them from invading your home.  With over 26 years of expert pest control experience, we know a thing or two about ant invasions! If you’re struggling with ants, or searching to protect your home against these pests, schedule a service with us. We’ll work with you to determine a pest control plan that works for you—and safeguards your home from other pests, too!

Ant Invasion: What To Do When The Ants Come Marching

Bedbug inspection

How to Know if Your Hotel Has Bedbugs

Upon entering a hotel room, do you typically reach for the tiny toiletries, take a leap onto the bed, or perhaps start by inspecting for bed bugs? Knowing what to look for is essential. Anticimex Carolinas Service Manager Christian Tweed has shared valuable insights on identifying bed bugs in your hotel room and preventing them from hitching a ride back home with you. And if bed bugs do become an unexpected part of your vacation, remember that Clark’s Pest Control is here to assist!



Q&A with a Pest Professional


How do bed bugs get inside hotels?


Bed bugs are primarily hitchhiking insects as opposed to foraging ones, meaning that they get carried around on people’s clothes and belongings. Someone with an active infestation in their home can easily bring bed bugs to their hotel, but they can also be picked up during travel (airplanes, taxis, and rideshare services) and brought to a hotel room.


What do people misunderstand about bed bugs in hotels?


From a probability standpoint, all hotels will deal with bed bugs at some point in time. If you think about a bed bug’s method of travel, there’s literally nothing a hotel can do to stop them from being carried in. What I have realized is that luxury hotels are more likely to have an aggressive response to dealing with a bed bug case once it’s identified as they tend to have a higher quality of service and a reputation to protect. While this isn’t always the case, it has been my experience more often than not.

Got bedbugs? Call Clark’s at 866-781-4991 today!

What do you recommend travelers do when they get to their room to check for bed bugs?


Most hotel headboards hang directly on the wall. I start my inspection here before even looking at the bed itself. I have found bed bugs, their exoskeletons, and the telltale black stains they leave behind around the edges of or in the crevices of headboards. If the headboard looks clean, move on to looking over the pillowcases and comforter for any signs or stains. You can dig into the bedding as deep as you want here, but I encourage people to look over the top layer of things at the very least.


What are some lesser-known signs of bed bugs in your hotel room?


The specifics of the black stains they leave behind, which as gross as it sounds, are just digested blood as that’s all that bed bugs feed on. If the stains are on a hard surface, they will be small dots as if left behind by an ink pen and will smear into a brownish gray when moisture is applied. If they’re on fabric, they will usually bleed along the fibers making a small diamond, square or X shape.


If there are bed bugs in your hotel room, can they travel home with you?


They absolutely can, however this is easy to prevent. While staying in a hotel, keep as much of your clothing and luggage off the beds as possible. Storing suitcases in the bathroom might sound odd, but it’s an effective method of prevention.

Don’t tackle bedbugs yourself, call Clark’s at 866-781-4991!

What should you do with your suitcase if you suspect your hotel has bed bugs?


When arriving home from a trip, leave your luggage in the garage or on a porch and bring your clothes in one load of laundry at a time. If the clothes are dirty, wash them like you normally would, if they’re clean then run them through the dryer for at least forty-five minutes. Once your suitcase is empty, vacuum over it meticulously (don’t forget to empty the vacuum when you’re done), or if you’re in the right climate, expose it to heat for a few days by placing it in your vehicle (parked in the sun) or for a few weeks in your attic.


The Clark’s Solution


If you brought bed bugs back to you home, Clark’s is here to help. Our Bedbug Control service is designed to eliminate bedbugs and create a safe, comfortable environment.


A Clark’s Pest Professional will do an inspection and recommend a plan of attack to get rid of bed bugs now and prevent them from hatching in the future. Call Clark’s at 866-781-4991 today for more information.




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