Ever heard of pharaoh ants? They are also called sugar ants and as it is, they are one of the most annoying pests found in the home. They are also the hardest to control and prevent. With their high sensitivity, once they begin to pop up, it is almost impossible to get rid of them – but not impossible (just almost).
So what are the steps for how to get rid of pharaoh ants? That is what this post is all about. Dedicated to the elimination and prevention of these household ants, this guide will contain information on how to identify them and differentiate them from other ant types. It will also include a navigation guide on how to figure out their nest and trails. Ad-mist other informational points, it will contain the ultimate methods on how to get rid of pharaoh ants in the home permanently – with or without natural remedies. So without further ado, keep scrolling.
Starting with the first step, you need to know whether or not you are dealing with pharaoh ants to know how to get rid of them. First, pharaoh ants are not the only type of sugar ants – they are just the most commonly found ones because they prefer to be indoors than outdoors (a fond characteristic of the Argentine ‘sugar’ ant).
To identify a pharaoh ant, look at its body and its color. They are usually of the pale shade of either yellow, orange, or red. But more importantly, the abdomen of a pharaoh ant is usually darker – could sometimes be black, even.
They have no spine (although that might not be easy to identify physically), they are also long and thick. They have two long antennae, 6 legs, and a monomorphic shape with a segmented body.
The next step to knowing how to get rid of pharaoh ants in an apartment is to understand their preferred habitat. That way, you’ll know where to find them. Pharaoh ants make their nest in places that are warm and moist. This is even more certain if this location is close to water and food sources. They also don’t make nests in open and visible places like bees and wasps.
Pharaoh ants go under the floor, inside of your furniture pieces, or even amid wall voids and behind baseboards to make their nest. They also go within ceilings, the attic, behind window sills, switch plates, under door frames, around hot water pipes, within and somewhere near toilets, or sinks, between stagnant sheets of paper, laundry, and linen, or even on food.
As regards their trail and where they journey into your home, pharaoh ants often get in through the holes and cracks created in the wall and/or floorboards.
This is even more possible in apartments where pipes, telephone wires, and electrical circuits cause passage openings through the walls.
Further, they can also be found in hot heating pipes and their installations. Pharaoh ants also nest in the hollows of curtain rods right in your home, or behind fixed (immovable) kitchen appliances.
This can also be translated to ‘why you need to know how to get rid of pharaoh ants in the home ASAP.’ Pharaoh ants might not bite or sting you but they pose more threat than direct contact. First, they have an insatiable thirst for water and can do anything to get a drink. This means they can crawl in and out of toilet drains, kitchen sink pipes, and so on and then back onto your exposed food and edibles. They are also carriers of many human pathogens like Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Salmonella, and so on. These pathogens can cause uncomfortable symptoms, some even having to do with the blood and sensitive organs – so it is a serious case and a certain point that you need to know how to get rid of pharaoh ants (and fast).
The first thing to do is prevent more of those household ants from coming in. Therefore, make sure that all holes and ways that they can pass through into your house or apartment are sealed off. Since pharaoh ants are so versatile in their trail, it would be recommended that you take all the time you need to ensure that their passageways are sealed.
Check the doors, floor, windows, and ceilings for gaps and seal them with caulk.
Eliminate crevices and ensure that pantries (most especially) are free from cracks.
The next step is to find the best insecticide that will eliminate pharaoh ants once and for all from your home. Don’t use repellent sprays because you won’t be repelling them from your home but to another location. This could also make matters worse because you would be splitting up the colony making for more reproduction and harder ants to find.
You should use the non-repellent insecticide spray as a bug barrier also against more ants coming in.
When applying your insecticide, focus on their nests.
Spray around the windows, doors, and baseboards. Also go to your toilet, pantry, and kitchen since they are the target spots for their breeding.
Also, attend to all rooms within the house or apartment and spray on all the corners and susceptible spots for their nests. Go outside your home as well to get rid of them on your lawn. Spray on any pile you might have stocked up around your house. Also, go around the porches, shrubs, trees, patios, and so on to eliminate them wherever they might be.
Baiting is the most effective method to eliminate pharaoh ants without the use of chemicals and artificial products. It simply involves luring the ants to complete annihilation. There are three steps to effective baiting.
Ant trails are how you can estimate where they’ll pass through to place the bait. Aside from pipes and wall holes, they usually trail under the edges of carpets, baseboards, and near door moldings. But if you can’t seem to find their trails, you can create one.
To create a trail, dab some honey and peanut butter on a piece of flat cardboard. Then place the card on the floor near door frames, window sills, or even on two walls meet.
Place these cards in three to four more places around the house and study which cards have the most ant attraction. That will help you know where to place the bait.
The type of bait you choose depends on which appeals to you the most. Ant baits are made from different materials that scent lovely to ants but also kill them when eaten by them. Usually, when pharaoh ants find food, they don’t eat them there – as with other ants. They take the piece back to their colony where the rest of the ants and their Queen takes a bite. Therefore, when you place the bait along their trail (using the test cited in step 1), you could eliminate their entire colony without risking a spread.
Sometimes, ants switch food preferences during baiting and might not take the bait any longer. This is when you can either switch locations or switch bait types. Either way, these can only be possible if you monitor the quantity of bait that is left, the amounts of ants that come back, and how long it takes for the bait to reduce if it did.
If you want to know how to get rid of pharaoh ants naturally – you need to ensure that you have located their nest. This is because trying to kill them off on their trail can scatter them and make things worse. Therefore, if you have located their trail (or created one), follow them back to find their nest. Then you can use any of these natural methods to get rid of pharaoh ants permanently.
As mentioned in the subtitle, there are three ways to prevent pharaoh ants from invading your home even after you have eliminated them. These methods can also stop them from entering your house in the first place.
Pharaoh ants love to nest in places that are warm and moist. Some of these places include the under the floor, inside your furniture pieces, amid wall voids, behind baseboards, within ceilings, in the attic, behind window sills, switch plates, under door frames, around hot water pipes, within and somewhere near toilets, or sinks, between stagnant sheets of paper, laundry, and linen, or even on food.
Pharaoh ants eat anything from sweet things like honey, peanut butter, sugar, and syrups. They also feed on fruits, oils, meat, and all sorts of groceries. If all of these are not present, you can find them feeding on show polish, dead insects, soda, used bandages, soiled diapers, proteins, and so much more.
Pharaoh ants are widely known as the common sugar ant that gets attracted to sugary foods left on the table and floors. But more than that, they eat all sorts of things and are also risky to leave around the house. Though they don’t bite or sting you or your pets, they carry and transmit diseases that can be highly life-threatening. Hence, you must know how to get rid of pharaoh ants. Luckily, when you put all the tips and steps enlisted throughout this guide, you’ll be able to eliminate pharaoh ants in your home and apartment. You would also be able to safe-proof and prevent the re-occurrence of pharaoh ants in and outside your home – leading to a healthy and ant-free environment.
