Ants love being inside your home… But you would love it if ants were not in your home. One of the easiest ‘solutions’ many homeowners turn to for ant prevention is the over-the-counter insecticide RAID!. RAID! is well known for its ability to kill on sight but unfortunately, this may end up worsening an ant infestation instead of improving it. Pest control experts will always advise against using RAID! as a form of ant prevention, and you may ask yourself why? Stop puzzling because we’re here to explain why you should avoid using RAID! when dealing with an ant infestation.
Ants Don’t Grow on Trees, but They Sure Do Multiply
An ant infestation is never just a couple of individual bugs. When you see one ant, there are sure to be more to follow. Ant colonies are massive and the cause of an infestation in your home. Made up of a queen and her workers, a colony can expand into the millions. One queen can breed with seemingly endless amounts of workers which leads to rapid reproduction. If the size of a colony wasn’t bad enough, consider how they spread: budding. Budding is when the queen and a handful of worker ants (not all of them!) move to a new colony location. This allows them new space to breed, creating a second colony. The original colony can then adopt a new queen and continue breeding. Endless colonies can be produced this way.
Rodents May Be How RAID! And Other Insecticides Worsen Ant Infestations Small, but They’re a Big Problem
The way RAID! works is by spraying an aerosol compound which contains toxic pesticides. When the pesticide comes in contact with an ant, it dies. This can make it seem like the problem is being contained! After all, bug corpses scattered on the ground usually indicate the ant prevention is working… But this is not always the case. RAID! also acts as a repellent, which again seems like a very positive thing (of course you want to repel the ants!). Unfortunately, repellent gets carried back to the nest. This creates panic amongst the ants, who then try to overcompensate in response to the panic. If repellent gets to the colony, the ants will try to breed back their lost soldiers or bud. Once the ant colony starts budding, you’ll be left with multiple new colonies in fresh locations.
Ant Prevention the Right Way
If you’ve got an ant problem and need it taken care of, we’ve got the solution! A trusted pest control company will never use repellents. While they may give short term relief, you’ll end up with a potentially worse problem. Because of this, professionals recommend using non-repellent ant prevention methods. Non-repellents used by pest control companies may include baits. Baits are ant prevention tools that the ant carries back to the hub of the colony. All the worker ants and queen will then consume the bait and eventually die without panicking. Panicking (what happens with repellent ant prevention options such as RAID!) would lead to budding, so the more calmly the bait works the better chances of long-term success. Ants are common in Las Vegas but don’t need to be common to your home! Keep you and them separated with any of Dr. Death’s Pest Control services. All packages include ant prevention so you can take out all critters at once!