As the warm weather approaches, nature comes to life, and with itall the living creatures that have hidden in secluded holes for the winter. Birds, butterflies, dragonflies, bees, ants... Stop! That's what we're talking about ants. Many housewives clutch their heads in horror at this word. How to get rid of ants? How to get rid of them? These questions are asked not only in villages, but also in city apartments. Because for many people, in whose houses these small insects settle, this phenomenon becomes simply a natural disaster. So what kind of misfortune is this and how to deal with it? Ants are social insects that form three castes - males, females and workers. Males and females are winged, workers are not. Ants are widespread throughout the world, except for some remote islands and Antarctica. Ants live in nests in families. They build nests in wood, soil, under stones, in mounds or build anthills from small plant particles. There are also parasitic ants that live in the nests of other ants. There are even "slave-owning" ants that keep other species of ants in their nests. And there are some that adapt to living in human dwellings. That's what we'll talk about. They say that most ant species perform a variety of ecological functions that are useful to humans. But there are also those that harm agriculture by feeding on plants, berries and fruits, and cause a lot of inconvenience to humans by invading their homes. Ants penetrate through the smallest cracks into utility and residential premises, apartments, houses, where they spoil meat and sweet products. In addition, some species of ants, for example, the pharaoh ant, serve as a carrier of viral and bacterial diseases in humans. Thus, some species can be considered household pests. Others are of no interest to us at the moment. It is almost impossible to eliminate the entire population due to their high adaptability. Therefore, the question of how to get rid of ants implies the issue of population control, and not the destruction of all families. Moreover, almost all attempts at control are only temporary solutions. Ant population control is carried out using insecticide baits in granular or liquid form. Ants collect baits as food and deliver them to the nest. There, the poison spreads to other ants through food exchange. Borax and boric acid are often used as insecticides. A real scourge of human habitation has become the cosmopolitan ant - the pharaoh ant. This is a small yellow pest ant 3 mm long. It has settled all over the globe. In addition to dairy and meat products, it feeds on sugar, flour products, bread. They can even damage entomological collections.

Fighting ants

Fighting ants is difficult, but possible.You may ask, how to get rid of house ants? The main thing here is to take into account some features of ant organization and life. The heart of the pharaoh ant population is the nest, where the ant queens are located - females that give birth to more and more new individuals. The females cannot get food for themselves, because they do not leave the nest. Feeding them is the responsibility of worker ants. It is very difficult to find a nest of such ants in an apartment. Most often, it is hidden very securely in some crack in the floor or cavity in the wall. Sometimes they gnaw long paths under tiles, parquet, wallpaper and even in the plaster on the walls. Therefore, if you are suddenly lucky and you come across an ant hole, do not rush to remove the parquet or tiles: the corridor leading to the nest can be very long. You will simply waste your time and ruin your nerves and the interior. It is better to take advantage of the fact that worker ants feed the entire family and try to "treat" the entire colony with some poison through them. As we have already said above, one of the most effective poisons for these little ones will be boric acid, which corrodes chitin - the ant shell.

"Grandma's" Ways to Fight Ants

If you are faced with the problem of how to get rid of domestic ants, try those methods that are passed on by word of mouth. Usually they are the most effective.

If you have found ant tracks, tryspread them with sunflower oil. Muravyov scares his scent. Just keep in mind that this should not be a refined vegetable oil having a specific smell. He is not liked by ants.

Do not "like" the ants and the smell of some plants, for example, wild mint, elderberry and wormwood. It does not like this little thing and the smell of garlic, so a couple of times a month regularly lubricate their stitch-paths with garlic.

Another insidious way: put in a bowl or jar of water with honey or sugar. Crawling into it in search of sweets, many ants will find there the last refuge.

Well, the snack is the most effective tool. Dilute 1 teaspoon of sugar or honey with 1 teaspoon of boric acid in the glass, add a little water and sprinkle this mixture with all the ant pathways that you know. This method works slowly, but inexorably. Working ants will destroy both themselves and the progeny of the uterus. The only thing is to update this mixture regularly, adding water.

You can, using all the same boric acid,make a dry bait. Cook a couple of potatoes and a couple of chicken eggs. Grind them together in a mixer or rastolkite ordinary tolkushkoj to a homogeneous mass. Add there a bag of boric acid and 1 teaspoon of sugar and mix everything thoroughly. Roll small balls out of this mass and arrange them in the places of the greatest accumulation of ants and on their paths. Grandmothers are advised to carry out this procedure with the onset of the waning moon, and then repeat after ten days, but this is unlikely to be important. The principle of the lethal effect of these baits is based on boric acid, and not on the moon. And there - who knows! The only warning: if the house has small children or pets, such bait should be used very carefully to avoid trouble. Lay out them in this case only inaccessible and for those, and for other places.

In the same way you can cook and meatbait, because ants are very fond of eating meat. To do this, mix a bit of minced meat with brown and spread the balls from it in the places where the ants appear.

Insecticides in the fight against ants

If you ask in the store how to get rid ofants in the apartment, you will be offered a choice of various products that our industry produces. Among them are "Combat", Raid - spray and traps, "Dohloks", "Raptor" gel, "Frontline" spray, "Regent" product, etc. All these products are more or less effective against small domestic parasites, namely ants. If these products do not help you, then you will have to seek help from professionals.

Prevention against ants

It is always easier to prevent trouble than to cure itfight it. Therefore, to prevent domestic ants from appearing in the house, it should be, if not ideally, clean. Do not forget to wipe crumbs from the table every time, and throw garbage into the bin, the contents of which should be taken out regularly. Never leave garbage at home overnight. If you have cats or dogs at home, do not leave food in their bowls for a long time. It is advisable to change their food at least once a day. And do not throw food on the floor for your pets. And if you do throw it, then immediately wipe the place so that there are no crumbs or stains left there. Jars of sugar, cereals, vanilla and other products stored in your kitchen should be tightly closed. We recommend reading:

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