Why are There Ants Even if There’s No Food in the House?
Finding ants in your house but can't figure out where they are coming from? Did you know that ants may make their way inside, even if you don't have food? Find out why they try to invade your house even if it's clean!
You clean every chance you get. There’s not a single bread crumb on the floor. So why are there still so many ants in the house?
That’s a reasonable question. And the short answer to that is: There can be ants even if there’s no food around!
But why?
Well, it’s true the main reason why ants enter houses is to look for food, but this doesn’t mean there aren’t any other forces that can invite them. They also need shelter, safety and moisture.
Learning about these factors, why they need them, and how they seek them out, can better prepare you to protect your home and increase your chances in a battle to get rid of ants.
So let’s look at the most common reasons you are likely to find ants in your home regardless of food, even if you’ve done an excellent job of keeping your home clean.
To Seek Moisture
If your house is humid, this likely to attract ants even if there’s no food in sight.
Ants love moisture. They drink water. And if it’s hot and dry outside, you can bet that they’d try to sneak into your house to build a new nest.
Ants love moisture so much that there’s even a specific ant species that infests homes with an exceeding amount of humidity. The moisture ant (Lasius spp.), as it’s aptly called, is a citronella smelling ant that nests in high moisture places. Aside from their weirdly pleasant smell, you can identify them through their characteristically yellow workers. You can also see them nest outside houses, but they can also take residency inside moist wood foundations.
So, if you want to your house to be more ant-proof take steps to stop moisture accumulation. Here are some easy tips that you can follow to regulate the humidity inside your home.
And if you find yourself suffering with ants in the most moisture laden and wettest room in your room, check out our article on how to get rid of ants in your bathroom for top tips and ways to tackle them.
To Look for Shelter
It’s the most basic necessity. Every living thing, including ants, needs to stay somewhere, somewhere they can thrive and be safe.
If there are ants even if there’s no food and if you’re the type to clean often, then those pesky insects must have discovered your home a long time ago.
There are a lot of instances that can lead to their discovery.
First, it could be a swarmer that found your house. Swarmers are reproductive members of an ant colony. Their only main job is to fly off and build another nest when they reach maturity.
Swarmers can put up a new colony anywhere in your property. The bad news is that for a colony to afford swarmers, your yard or anywhere in your house is most likely already infested with a large number of ants for years. Take a look at how swarmers affect your house.
So if you’re seeing swarmers, you really need to tackle the ant infestation in your home ASAP because it’s ALREADY gotten out of hand! Purchase an use a selection of effective ant killers as long term solution, and perhaps a good ant spray to get rid of the ants you can immediately see.,
Your ant problem could just be an unfortunate circumstance. A destroyed nest, rain or snow may have forced those ants relocate into your house. Whatever the case, the bottom line is that ants will invade your house to find better nesting places when they need to.
To Hide From Terrible Weather
Talking about rain and snow, a study from Stanford has revealed that ants, particularly Argentine ants, invade Californian homes during winter rainstorms and summer droughts.
They found that ants are most likely to infest houses during cold, wet conditions, and they can also do the same for hot and dry months. So the weather plays a key role in infestations.
Ants’ number one reason in invading human space is food, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the only reason.
You can find ants even if there’s no food in the house because they need shelter and moisture. And now that you know this, you can take the necessary measures to keep your humble abode ant-free.
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