If you have a problem with ants and wasps in your home it can really be a pain. Ants can turn up throughout your home, contaminating stored foods and being a general nuisance. If you have a nest under your floor you can also end up with hundreds of flying ants emerging all at once as they leave the nest to breed.
Wasps can ruin your enjoyment of your garden, especially if you like to eat and drink outside, as sugary foods will attract worker wasps who in turn will lead more wasps to the area, increasing the likelihood of stings. You don’t want wasps to set up a nest in your home, that’s for sure. So let us look at what to do if you have a problem with ants and wasps in your home.
Why Do They Visit Your Home?
Ants are attracted to food and forage everywhere. They will come into your home if your food is not covered over or if you leave anything in the kitchen uncovered. Even crumbs or a spillage of anything sweet will attract ants. Ants can enter through air bricks and gaps around doors, or emerge up from the floor through small gaps if part of the nest is under the floor of the house.
Queen wasps can make nests in a wide variety of locations, making their nest in wall cavities, roof eaves, sheds, garages, trees and shrubs. Worker wasps will bring proteins such as other insects back to the nest to feed the young. The workers themselves eat sugary foods and will go after foods and drinks that we like to enjoy when they can’t get enough within the nest.
The Problems With Getting Rid Of Them
Ants do good. They aerate the soil and spread seeds. Wasps are good for the environment too. They control pest populations in your garden and in crops.
So why get rid of them? While these insects are completely natural they can be a real pain when you have to share your house and garden with them. It can be a balancing act in how to get rid of ants and wasps without damaging the environment, so let’s have a look at how we can do this.
How To Get Rid Of Ants And Wasps
Here are some simple tips to get rid of ants and wasps in the first instance, which we have put together with the help of the team at Greenway IPM.
Ants are attracted to food so keep all your work surfaces clean and crumb-free. If you have a spillage wipe it up with soapy water straight away. You could also try lining your doorways and entry points with salt. Spraying vinegar will also work as it disrupts ant pheromone trails which ants use to find food. .
Wasps can be kept away in your garden by using plants such as citronella, thyme, and eucalyptus. They also hate the smell of peppermint. You can try diluting peppermint oil in water, filling a spray bottle with this mixture and then spray it where you get wasps. There are also purpose made chemical wasp repellents available on the market which do not contaminate the environment. With wasps be especially careful, do not get near to them if you can help it, and if in doubt leave it to the professionals to remove them, you don’t want to get stung.
Talking about professionals, it’s important to use a pest control company if you cannot remove the pests yourself safely and effectively. The best pest control companies are professional and responsible and limit any damage to the environment by using targeted treatments. It’s well worth paying to have ants and wasps removed if you are overrun, as you should be able to enjoy your home and garden in peace.
Let us know if you have ever had any problems with pest control and how you resolved it.
