Ants use flowers as camouflage to hide near house - Ant control and removal in Bayville

Challenge

I was dispatched to a Bayville customer for a routine home protection plan (HPP) servicing. Our residential preventative plans provide homeowners with protection from a variety of common pest infestations. Our plans offer homeowners preemptive pest control treatments, and because of our periodic inspections, we often catch infestations in their early stages before they are even noticed by the homeowner. These plans can not only save your home from costly damage, but also protect your family from potential health issues that often accompany pest infestations. 

During my HPP servicing, I observed a trail of ants underneath the home’s front bay window. If you see foraging worker ants on their scent trail, there is inevitably a colony nearby. I inspected the surrounding areas to trace and locate the source of the problem. I meticulously followed the ant trail down the home’s siding, onto the brick foundation, and back to a flower bed about 15 to 20 feet from the home where the ants were trailing up a some flowers.  

The homeowner was apparently unaware of the ant infestation because no call was put into Cowleys to report the problem. Apparently, ants had not yet advanced inside the home to forage for food and water. Given the natural progression of ant infestations, if I had not been there, it was only a matter of time before these insects would be crawling around inside. This ant infestation was much easier to resolve while it was still in its early stages and still outside of the home. This particular job is a great example of why residential protection plans are so beneficial to homeowners. It’s far easier to treat a small, localized infestation before it progresses to a bigger, more entrenched infestation.

Solution

I treated all of the holes that the ants were crawling into with an insecticide dust to provide long-term protection against these pests. I also treated the home’s foundation and siding with a liquid residual insecticide and applied a slow-acting granular bait around the exterior. The bait, which resembles food, will be brought back to the colony by the worker ants to share. Once the queen and the other worker ants eat this specially formulated bait, the colony will soon die. By treating the ant infestation outside, the ants lose the opportunity to start coming inside where they can cause even more problems. 

Finally, since this was a routine protection plan servicing visit, the homeowner was not home. I left a note for the homeowner that I found an ant infestation around the perimeter of the home, and that Cowleys should be contacted if any ants are observed inside. I also recommended that any vegetation touching the house should be trimmed back. Vegetation directly touching the home is an open invitation for ants and other pests to enter your home through the cracks and crevices in your foundation.