Tiny ants find their way into residential and commercial buildings, looking for food, water, and shelter. When they infest a home or office, they create unsanitary conditions. Knowing what pheromone trails are and how ants use them can help homeowners and business owners prevent ants from moving in.
If ants have already moved into your home or office, the pest control experts at Romney Pest Control can remove them and prevent re-infestation.
Ants and Their Sense of Smell
Ants have a strong sense of smell, thanks to the odor receptors on their antennae. Compared to other insects, ants have four or five times more receptors to help them find food via scent. They also rely on smell to maintain order in their complex colonies. Queens, workers, and soldiers smell differently, and ants can detect an intruder thanks to their sensitive sense of smell.
How Do Ants Use Pheromone Trails?
Ants use pheromone trails to communicate within their colonies. Individual ants secrete pheromones, and other ants in their colonies have sensory organs that pick up the pheromone smell. The scouting ants leave a pheromone trail toward a food source so other ants can find nourishment, too.
Along with helpful pheromones, ants leave distress pheromones. They release these pheromones to alert the colony that danger is nearby or that an individual ant needs assistance. The colony will swarm to attack the threat or help the ant in danger.
Along with pheromones, various ant species use sound or touch to communicate. Some ants use several forms of communication to alert each other to food sources or dangers.
Ants are also known to use sound as a way to communicate. Other species use touch with one another to send signals and communicate information. If you have ants in your home, you might see them walking in a line toward a food source. These are ants following a pheromone trail.
How To Get Rid of Ants
Ants are nuisances that are difficult to exterminate. Because they are so small, they can hide in sneaky places between walls, under floors, and inside upholstered furniture.
Bait Them
You can bait ants with an ant killer. The bait attracts the ants, and then they carry the poisonous ant killer back to their nests. You can find ant bait traps at hardware stores and grocery stores.
Erase the Ant Scent Trail
The best way to get rid of the pheromone trail is to spray the area with a vinegar and water mixture. Vacuuming and sweeping won’t get rid of the smell.
Clean Your Home
Ants enter homes because they find food, shelter, and water. Clean up kitchen messes, including pet food, to take away food sources.
Remove Safe Havens
Ants like to live in mulch, stacked firewood, and other safe spaces. You can make your home less attractive to ants by removing ant-friendly items from next to your home.
Contact a Local Pest Control Team
Sometimes it’s best to leave nuisance problems to the professionals, and our team at Romney Pest Control takes pride in providing prompt, quality pest control.
Wave Goodbye to Your Ant Problem Today!
The best way to remove ants is to hire extermination experts. Ants spread diseases and do damage inside and outside of homes. The experts at Romney Pest Control can remove ant colonies and prevent their return. Give us a call today to take care of your ant problem.
