How do I stop ants coming in every spring?
The short answer
Work on the outside. Cut vegetation and mulch back from the walls, fix the moisture that colonies sit in, seal the entry points you identified from last year's trails, and if you use a perimeter treatment, have it applied before the season rather than after the ants are inside.
What actually reduces it
- Vegetation and mulch pulled back from the siding, so nothing bridges from soil to wall.
- Gutters and downpipes discharging away from the foundation. Damp soil against a building is where a lot of colonies establish.
- Gaps sealed at door thresholds, window frames, utility penetrations and the slab edge.
- Food and moisture sources managed indoors: pet bowls, drips under sinks, recycling with residue in it.
Write down where the trails were
Ant trails follow the same paths year on year because the colony and the route are the same. Photographing where they entered last spring turns next year's job from a search into a checklist, and it is the single most useful thing you can do between seasons.
If your problem is carpenter ants rather than a general spring invasion, this is a moisture and timber problem before it is a pest problem. Find the damp wood.
Also asked
- Does a perimeter spray stop ants getting in?
- It reduces the number that cross it while the residual lasts, which is a defined period and is degraded by rain and sun. It does not remove the colony, and it does not compensate for a gap under a door. Treat it as one layer rather than the answer.
Companies whose reviewers name ants
4,622 pest control businesses in the United States and Canada have reviewers who write about ants. Every listing shows the full rating distribution rather than the average, the share that is one or two star, and whether the owner replies.
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General information about pest problems and about hiring, not advice about your specific property. Pest control licensing, wildlife protection and landlord and tenant law are all set state by state and province by province across the United States and Canada, so your own regulator is the current answer. How we read the data.