Ants

Ants—large or small—Des Moines Pest Control is here to help you with them all!

Ants are one of the most commonly seen insects inside of people’s home in the Des Moines metro.  Ant colonies are almost always found outside in the soil or in other organic material, as well as underneath concrete slabs.  Ants will reduce their activity outside of the colony during Iowa winters then once the temperatures begin to warm up in the spring, they will resume and increase their activity significantly.  The best time to treat and eliminate the colony is while the ants are most active.

Are you seeing small ants on your kitchen counter, around your sink, toilets or even around your pet's food dish?  If you answered "Yes" then you are likely seeing Odorous House Ants.  These are the ants most commonly seen inside homes as they gravitate toward areas with moisture so are often found in kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry rooms.  The ants you see in your home are foraging for food and water.  Odorous House Ants almost exclusively colonize outside of your home.

Are you seeing large black ants in your home instead?  If this is the case, then you are likely looking at a Carpenter Ant.  While seeing Carpenter Ants inside your home isn’t great news, there’s also no need to panic.  Carpenter Ants typically set up a main colony in a tree and then make satellite colonies off of the main colony.  That satellite colony may be in a tree, but may also be in a wall, door or window frame of your home.  Carpenter Ants may be destructive to your home if left unchecked.  They are a wood destroying insect, however, unlike a termite, they do not eat wood.  They excavate wood to live in instead.  Damage will usually show up as moisture damage as the excavation compromises the integrity of the wood.  Major damage from Carpenter Ants is typically done over years and not days.

The goal when addressing both Odorous House Ants and Carpenter Ants is total colony elimination.  The worker ants you are seeing inside or around your home are only a portion of the total colony.  Think of it like an iceberg—you can only some of the ants but don’t know how many more are back at the main colony beneath the earth or off in a tree.

To achieve total colony elimination, we chose to use a product that is slower acting to allow the worker ants to carry it back to the colony versus dying immediately inside your home.   Once back in the colony, those worker ants will spread the product to other ants as they groom and crawl over each other.  This allows us to get to the root of the cause and treat the entire ant issue, not just cosmetically make the inside of your home look better for a limited amount of time.

Call Des Moines Pest Control at (515) 278-6785 with additional questions or to schedule an appointment to rid your home of ants.