Find and remove their food sources, erase their scent trails with soapy water, set baits so foragers carry slow-acting material back to the colony, and seal the entry crack.
Kitchen ants are never random visitors, but they’re always unwanted. Somewhere, a scout found calories, walked home laying a pheromone trail, and recruited the colony that is now working your counter. Once the ants come marching in, they can be hard to get rid of, but there are some things you can do.
The first is to remove sources of food. It takes less than you might think. You don’t want large sources of food left unchecked, to be clear. But on the ant scale, food can often mean: a grease film behind the stove, crumbs under the toaster, or the juice spill that dried at the base of the fridge. Odorous house ants, the tiny brown ants behind most Grand Rapids kitchen infestations, are sugar specialists with a sideline in grease. To get rid of them, you need to make sure the sweet stuff goes into sealed containers, the counters get degreased, and the pet bowl gets picked up between meals.
Once you do this, the next thing to do is wipe away the trail. Plain water won’t do the trick. You need soapy water or a vinegar solution. Wipe along the routes, counter edges, thresholds, and the cabinet faces.
The next thing to do sounds silly, but it works: tolerate a few ants for a little while. Place bait stations and let the scouts take it back home. If you do this for a little while, the bait will go back to the queen, and with the queen out of the way, the colony collapses. Spraying ants, by contrast, knocks down couriers but leaves the colony intact.
At this point, you will also want to seal up gaps that allow ants to come inside. You can do this by adding new window and door trim as well as caulking any gaps along the baseboards, plumbing, or anywhere else. If you have mulch against the foundation of your home, consider pulling it back and trimming any vegetation that is touching the siding.
If you are tired of seeing ants in your kitchen, Mosquito Squad of Grand Rapids can help. Mosquito Squad's home and yard coverage works the colonies and entry routes outside, helping protect the room where the crumbs live.
