So you have ants in your house. Wondering why? Hopefully this info and the referenced links will help you understand why you have ants and what it takes to get rid of them.

While some ants damage wood to nest in it, ants do not eat wood.

Although some ants will feed on sugar, human food is typically the last food source on the menu for most ants.  Of those ants that will eat our food, most will only do so in the early spring before their true food sources become available - one of the reasons ants seem to 'disappear' after a few weeks every year.

Ants are in your home, because its their home.  Somehow, somewhere they have started nesting in some crack, crevice, or void, or they are making thier own nesting space, in, on, or under your home.

How clean your house is has nothing to do with why the ants moved in.  It's not your housekeeping, but it might be how you keep your house.  That is, it is not because your home is clean or dirty, but you may have unknowingly created an extremely attractive ant nesting environment without realizing it.

Anything which adds to the moisture in your home, anything that allows them easier access, and anything that provides them with a nearby food source is highly attractive. Your home will always be attractive to ants as a nesting site but there is a lot that can be done to the average home to make it less attractive.

Read ANT PREVENTION on what you can do to make your home less attractive to ants.

Ants are typically in a home for a few years before they are even noticed.  When they are noticed, most people assume that since they only see them on the outside or at least rarely on the inside that they are just passing through.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  You could have a massive ant infestation with heavy ongoing damage occuring and never see an ant in your living space.

Even big ants are pretty small and when their population is low and they aren't crawling around all over the inside, they don't register on our radar.  Many ant species are very small and sometimes hard to see.  99.9% of all ant activity will always be on the exterior of a home or inside their nest.

Keep in mind that all this is still true after they are eradicated.  Ants are usually back in a home within six months to a year.  Again, most of their activity is not in our living areas and remains unnoticed.  Most of our customers will relate information about prior infestations but few of them will understand just how much ant activity their home has really had. To find out why ants re-infest read ANT BASICS.