Why Do I Have Ants In My Bedroom
I hate ants anywhere in my house. Every time I see 2 or 3 of them in my living room, I get freaked out. I don't hate them outdoors but there is no way to welcome them in my bedroom.
I had to deal with them a few days back and I am about to share how to get rid of ants in bedroom.
Your desperate search for evicting these unwelcome guests from your living room ends here. You will be able to completely get rid of any creepy crawlers including any type of ants from your living room once and for all.
All you have to do is just read the full article and take notes of important points.
Why There Are Ants In Your Bedroom?
Nobody likes a continuous fight! Once you got rid of them, you don't expect them back in your bedroom any time soon. Getting rid of ants is easy but keeping the living room out of ants for a long time needs something extra.
You have to get to the bottom of this.
You have to find the root causes that are inviting ants in your living room. Once you know why there is ants in your bedroom, you can take preventive measures once you get rid of them. So, let's see what are those possible reasons.
Ants are probably the only insect constantly looking for food and moisture. You have heard about their colonies. They want their colonies full of food and moisture for the bad days.
The only way ants can sneak into your living room is through the window or door. But what leads them to your living room?
As per Dr. Michael Bentley from the National Pest Management Association (NPMA), if there is an easy to access water source and food trail, you can expect an infestation of ants pretty soon.
Among the different types of ants like carpenter ants and odorous ants, odorous house ants are most common to invade your living room. Even a few of such ants will create a chain invitation of other ants into your bedroom.
You may not be aware of the fact that odorous house ants leave a trail of chemical pheromone that invites the other ants of such kinds.
Eventually, they will build a colony in your living room if you don't take a complete eradication step.
Ways To Get Rid Of Ants In The living room
Ants are simply a nuisance, right? They not only just bite, but they also contaminated our food and most importantly destroy our valuable wooden furniture by chewing them.
But now that we know why ants are in your bedroom, it's time to find the right ways to get rid of them.
Do you know how many types of ants are out there? 700! But out of the 700 species, only 25 of them infest our home or outdoors. Dealing with an ant infestation is somewhat different since each type of ant requires different types of treatment.
Luckily we can get rid of them without calling a professional exterminator. All we need is a proven method. Since the odorous house ants are most like the culprit, let's talk about how to get rid of them first.
I will talk about the carpenter ants afterward.
How To Get Rid Of House Ants From Bedroom?
Are you thinking about traditional ant repellants? Well, a few of them are really good but I am not here to talk about them here.
I personally don't like any traditional ant repellants because they are made of chemicals and I don't like any chemicals in my living room. So instead, why not try with the homemade solution?
To eradicate the house ants, you need powdered sugar and Borax. The powdered sugar will attract all the ants in one place as the bait and then you will use the Borax to get rid of them.
This is what you should do…
First, locate the exact place inside your bedroom where the ants are entering. Now fill small bottle caps with the powdered sugar and Borax as baits and place them to such places.
It is almost certain that you will find a trail of such house ants. In such a case, place those bottle caps in their path.
When you put the baits in the middle of their trail, they will stop entering your living room since they have already found the food.
You have to be careful if you have little kids who don't know what you are doing. Keep them outside the living room for a while.
Can you guess why these baits will destroy the entire colony of ants?
Let me explain why. If you can resist the temptation of killing them immediately as soon as you see the trail, you will be successful to eradicate them entirely.
The ants will take the baits back to their nests. The Borax in the mixture will eventually kill the entire colony!
Pretty neat, right?
However, this trick will only work if there are not spilled soda or cookie crumbs in your bedroom. Because the ants will prefer them over the baits!
Also, you will find many ready-made ant sprays in your local hardware store. You may prefer such sprays to kill the ants but they won't destroy the colonies.
So, control your temptation to go for ant sprays. Try the above-mentioned home-made solution for a relatively permanent solution. Now, watch the video on how to apply Borax to get rid of ants:
Take Ant Preventive Measures
Now that you have won the game primarily, it's time to take preventive measures. You may be able to destroy one or two colonies with this trick, but they will come back sooner or later if you don't take preventive measures.
- You need to do something so that no ants come back to your bedroom ever! To do so, spray white vinegar at all places where the ants usually love to come. House ants hate white vinegar.
- You don't have to keep the surfaces wet with vinegar. You can wipe clean it or let it dry. Still, the chemical of the vinegar will deter new ant to enter into your living room.
- Spray insecticide around the living room doors and windows. Caulk and seal any holes.
- More so, stop having snacks in your living room. Don't allow your kids to have their foods there as well. When you keep your bedroom always neat and clean and there is no food trail for the ants, there will be less ant invasion naturally.
- Clean up any food spill ASAP. Don't let the ants have even the smell of the food spill. All the ripe fruits should be in your fridge and other foods in the containers properly sealed.
- Since ants look for water, you should fix all the water leakage as well from your attached bathroom and other sources.
- Not just the bedroom, you should keep your entire house neat and clean always. If there is ant anywhere in your house, some of them will eventually end up in your living room too. So it's very important to keep your food especially sweets/sugar in tightly sealed containers.
- Use only crushed stone or rock around the house instead of mulch.
- Always maintain a healthy lawn. Don't let them build their nests under the layers of thatch. Read how to get rid of ants from your lawn.
- There should be a distance of at least 20 feet between your house and your firewood stacked.
- Seal all the jars containing food with zip-top bags. Always prefer airtight containers to store your food. When there is no way to get food and water from your house, ants will naturally starve to death or at least leave your house.
When you don't allow ants anywhere in your house, your living room will be free of household ants forever!
How To Get Rid Of Carpenter Ants From Bedroom?
They love to chew wood! If your living room has wooden furniture in your bedroom (I am pretty sure you have), you may find carpenter ants living there.
In fact, carpenter ants can damage the structural integrity of your entire house if left untreated!
The problem with carpenter ants is that they don't carry the bait back to their colonies. Their nest is outside of your bedroom, they just enter your living room in search of food and water.
The mixture bait made of Borax and sugar won't work for them. So you have to do something different to eradicate them. The first challenge is to identify them.
If you notice a nice pile of sawdust, you have found them! Now you have to apply the old school method to eradicate them.
- Figure Out The Entry Point!
You need to figure out the exact spot though which such ants are coming in your bedroom. This is the only way to track back their nests.
Unlike the method you apply for the house ants, you have killed the carpenter ants whenever you see them. Then wait for the new ants and try to figure out their entry points. You gotta seal such entry points for good with proper caulking.
- Apply Diatomaceous Earth To Eradicate Them!
Not just the carpenter ants, Diatomaceous Earth (DE) is the ultimate killer of all insects. DE is available for different purposes, so there are different types of DE available in the market.
But you have to find the type that is appropriate for the insects only, not the type that you normally use for your swimming pool.
For your own safety or if you have kids, get the food-grade DE. They are perfectly safe for the kids and you. Your first job is to destroy the nests. Directly inject the DE into their nests.
You should repeat doing so for a couple of days until their nests are completely destroyed. You can use a medicine dropper or bulb duster gadget to inject the DE.
Now that you have destroyed their nests, you need to kill the rest of the carpenter ants from your bedroom and any other places in your house.
Create a mixture of water and DE (2 tablespoons of DE per quart of water) and spray directly on the ants using any sprayer. Keep spraying it anywhere you have the ant problem.
Limitations of Ant Control In Your Bedroom
There is no doubt about the effectiveness of the Diatomaceous Earth (DE) to destroy the colonies. However, you should keep in mind that some colonies are hard to reach.
Sometimes, you will find out that the colonies are within the walls of your living room or house. You can't reach anything there even if you try any spray solution.
Another problem with the solution is that the destroyed colony may revive again if the queen ant survives. Don't forget the fact that the queen ant is responsible to breed the entire colony and she will send her worker ants to collect food and water.
So, your bedroom, kitchen or entire house will be invaded again.
Using the DE or any spray won't kill the queen ant since she never leaves the nest. This is what makes ant extermination so difficult on your own. In such a case, calling a professional exterminator is a good idea.
Are Ants Dangerous For You?
While ants can be very annoying, they don't pose a threat to you directly. But they still harm you in some ways that aren't evident to you right away. Here are the dangers of an ant infestation in your house-
- Damage To Your Home
Well, this mostly depends on what type of ants live in your household. For example, termites can be a huge cause of damaging wooden items at your home.
Along with termites, carpenter ants can also cause this condition where you will see more wood shavings dropped here and there.
This can be a huge issue if you have many wooden items at your home, as you will see them getting damaged all the time.
- Threat To Your Health
All kinds of ants have the nature of biting as a protective measure. While some of them have no impact on our health, some bites are threatening.
Some ants have stingers, and they can inject venom into your body when they bite.
These venoms are primarily painful and uncomfortable. However, in some cases, they can become life-threatening, depending on the species that bit you.
So, you can't take having ants at your home for granted at all.
- Invitation To Other Insects
Ants are food sources for many other insects. When there is an ant infestation at your home, it's most likely an invitation to several other insects.
Your home then works as a food source for such insects, and some of them can be very lethal too.
Even though regular odorants don't pose that much threat, certain ants do pose a threat. And either way, you shouldn't wait out on the ant infestation no matter what type of ants you see.
Types Of House Ants And How You Can Identify Them?
Before you go ahead and get rid of the ants, you have to learn about them first. Different ants will behave differently, so you have to take actions based on their type.
Here's how you can identify the different types of ants-
- Black Ants
You may easily confuse these ants like carpenter ants since they are black. However, these are much different from them.
You can identify these types of ants through their entirely black color. Their favorite location to build nests is around the walls or floorboards that are rotten.
- Little Ants
These are also known as ghost ants. They usually have a large head with a small proportionate body. Their natural habitat is in the crack of walls and floorboards.
These ants aren't usually lethal.
- Odorous House Ants
If you see any small and brown ant, it's mostly likely an odorous house ant. The reason they are called odorous is that they leave a filthy smell after they die.
So, try not to step on these ants. They usually hide around the dry spaces in your room where they can find food easily.
- Carpenter Ants
Well, these are the ants that do it the most when it comes to damaging your house. They chew on wood to make their colonies around your house.
Usually, they are quite large and black. Whenever you see sawdust spread near your furniture, it's most likely a carpenter ant.
- Fire Ants
These are the worst kinds of ants that you can have in your household. They have a poisonous bite that can be very harmful to you. And trust me, you don't want to get bitten by these ants.
You can easily recognize these ants by their bright red color and a large head that's a bit darker shade of red.
Good To Know Natural Ant Prevention Tips
Apart from using the mixture of Borax and sugar, or using Diatomaceous Earth, there are some other natural methods to prevent ants from entering your living room.
I did not personally try all of them but a lot of other people applied these tips and found them useful.
You are welcome to try them as well. Since all of them are natural solutions, so there is no harm to applying them. Besides, these methods will cost you almost nothing!
- Believe it or not, baby powder work as a great ant repellant. Sprinkle baby powder on the ants invaded space, see the result yourself!
- Instead of baby powder, you can apply lemon juice, orange peels, or coffee grounds as well.
- Sprinkle cayenne pepper around the entry points helps to prevent ants greatly.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What attracts ants in the bedroom?
Any bedroom with food source, hiding spots, and ideal temperature will attracts ants naturally. Ants are more concerned with bad weathers and enemies. So, if they find their hiding spots, they will make your bedroom their home.
Is it bad to have ants in your room?
Ants are nuisance pest and disturb our normal life and destroy foods and stuff in the kitchen. They don't transmit any diseases but I would not want them in my home.
What is the fastest way to get rid of ants in the bedroom?
Applying the vinegar and water spray is the fastest way to get rid of ants in the bedroom.
What smell do ants hate?
Ants hate the smell of peppermint essential oil.
Do coffee grounds repel ants?
Yes, coffee grounds repel ants as they are highly susceptible to caffeine.
Summing Up
You really should not keep your focus on getting rid of ants in the bedroom only, rather pay your full attention to get rid of them from your entire house. Your living room is not safe if they invade anywhere inside your house.
I tried to cover only the most effective methods that you can apply easily to get rid of them. If nothing works, you can call the professional pest control service. You really should not be giving them much time exploring your options.
Why Do I Have Ants In My Bedroom
Source: https://denresidence.com/get-rid-of-ants-in-bedroom/
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