Ants sometimes appear in the strangest places in a home, such as the dishwasher. This is a particularly unsettling place because the dishwasher is an appliance you trust to get your dishes and utensils clean enough to eat safely.

From the ant experts at Precise Termite & Pest Control, here is some information about why ants get into dishwashers and what you can do to get rid of them here.

What Draws Ants to Dishwashers?

You might think that a dishwasher is the last place an ant would want to live, especially with all that hot, flowing water on a regular basis. However, dishwashers are attractive to ants because of all the food residue left behind on the dishes you put inside them. Many people leave dirty dishes sitting in the dishwasher for a few days before running it. This is a great opportunity for ants to enter and feast on your leftovers.

Ants can easily hide in the cracks of a dishwasher to avoid drowning or being swept down the drain. Even modern dishwashers have various cracks and openings that offer easy entry points for tiny ants. Common entry points for ants in a dishwasher include side vents, gaps behind the dishwasher, the lower kick plate, and the area where the plumbing connects to the hole in the appliance.

Getting Rid of Dishwasher Ants

If you have an ants-in-dishwasher problem, it’s not enough to simply run the appliance on a hot cycle and assume they all died. Some DIY enthusiasts have tried placing delayed ant lures near dishwashers to poison ants that come into them and then spread the poison through the rest of the colony. Another option is to pour a cup of vinegar combined with boric acid down the dishwasher’s drain to reduce the smell of food residue that attracts ants. You can also scrub the dishwasher with soap and water to clean up food residue, check for leaks around the machine, apply diatomaceous earth around the dishwasher, or place ant bait stations underneath and around it to target the ant colony.

Professional Help for Ants in a Dishwasher  

However, one consideration to keep in mind is that you don’t want poisonous substances anywhere near the cups, bowls, plates, and utensils that you will soon be eating with. Never spray pesticides inside a dishwasher because you could unintentionally poison yourself and your family while trying to get an ant problem under control.

The safest and most effective solution is to call Precise Termite & Pest Control for professional help with your ants in dishwasher issue. Ants common to Northern New Jersey are our specialty and what our trained exterminators excel at handling every day. From our experience, it is likely that you have ants in more than just your dishwasher if you find them here, so you may have a more extensive infestation problem on your hands than you even realize.

When you hire us to get the job done right, we will not only get rid of ants in your dishwasher but also inspect other possible entry points around your home and take preventative measures to ensure they won’t come back. For your free ant inspection, please call us today at 866-971-2847 or contact us online. It’s best to reach out to us at the first sign of ant activity so that we can address the infestation early on and prevent it from spreading elsewhere in your home.

It’s common to see ants crawling on the sidewalk, around the foundation of your house, and perhaps even on your kitchen counters if they find their way inside. But one place that you might be surprised to find ants is in your carpet. Regardless of whether your carpet is thick and fluffy or short and flat, ants in carpet are a more common issue than you might think.

Here is some information about why ants get into the household carpet and how to get rid of ants in carpet if this unfortunate situation happens to you.

What Draws Ants to Carpet?

First of all, there is nothing inherently attractive to ants about the carpet itself. What ants love to find in carpet are food droppings and residue from spilled drinks.

Many people have carpets in their homes to make the floors softer for kids and pets. But these household residents are likely culprits for spilling and dropping foods and beverages without promptly cleaning them up. Spilled items can become embedded in carpet fibers over time. Meanwhile, carpenter ants can be drawn to the wood below the carpet and access that wood through tiny holes in your carpet.

DIY Solutions for Ants in Carpet

If you notice just a few ants in your carpet for the first time, you might initially turn to DIY solutions and home remedies to get rid of them. Start by vacuuming your carpet more regularly than you usually do to get rid of food sources and suck up the ants. After vacuuming your carpet, you can spray a cleaning solution made with 50 percent vinegar and 50 percent water on the carpet to kill the remaining ants.

Another DIY method is sprinkling baking soda or diatomaceous earth on your carpet to get rid of ants. Ant baits can be set up on and around your carpet to kill them. Some commercial carpet powders contain ingredients that are toxic to kids and pets, however, so you will need to be careful with what you put on your carpet.

Exterminating Ants from Carpet

The safest, easiest, and most effective way to get ants out of your carpet is to call Precise Termite & Pest Control and have one of our professional exterminators come to your home. We offer free inspections and are experienced with all kinds of ants that live in northern New Jersey. Our ant control and removal services are affordable and will keep ants from coming back into your home while also keeping little ones and furry friends safe.

Preventing Ants in Carpet

Once you get the ants out of your carpet, there are steps you can take to help prevent them from returning. Vacuum your carpet at least once or twice per week on a regular basis, and then vacuum up crumbs and wipe up spills as soon as they happen. You’ll also want to mop your floors and wipe down counters in your home so that ants aren’t attracted to other parts of your home and later find their way to the carpet.

When our exterminator arrives at your home, ask the professional for other tips and ideas for keeping ants outside where they belong and not in your house at all. Exterior sprays, for example, can be very effective when professionally applied around the outside of your house and leave long-lasting protection for several months or more.

For more information or to schedule your free inspection, call us at 866-971-2847 or contact us online.

Garages are handy places to store vehicles, sporting equipment, exercise machines, and tools. But they are also attractive spaces for ants to move into and take up residence. If you have ants in your garage, the issue could be more severe than you might initially think because of all the access points to boxes, attics, and the main house.

Here are some tips for dealing with ants in a garage and insights about what drew them into this area of your property in the first place.

Why Ants Like Garages

One of the most common types of ants living in garages is the carpenter ant because this type of ant loves wood frames and structures. Many garages have exposed wood areas that are not sealed and offer easy entry points. Garages may accumulate moisture due to car tires and shoes that make the floor wet during rainy and snowy days. Ant in garage problems can get even worse if you store pet food in your garage or leave open trash containers in your garage.

Signs of Ants in Garages

If you knock on wooden structures in your garage and hear a hollow sound, it could be due to carpenter ants digging through the wood to make nests. You may notice droppings from ants in your garage or find holes in bags of pet food you have stored in the area. Doors that stick, floors that sag, and walls that bulge are other signs of damage that may be due to an ant infestation.

How to Get Rid of Ants in a Garage

Some baits and traps can be used to eliminate ants from garages. These extermination strategies have long-term effects and can be very effective for ridding your property of ants. You might try mixing equal parts water and vinegar with a few drops of liquid dish soap as a DIY strategy. It is also helpful to identify ant nests to know where ants are coming from and gathering together.

Make a point to inspect vehicles parked in your car for ant activity, as well as storage boxes and other items you don’t access regularly. Inspect the outside perimeter around your garage to see if ants are active in the outdoor areas nearby. Going forward, avoid keeping trash, food, or seeds in your garage to deter ants. Clean up excess moisture as soon as possible inside the garage so that it is less attractive to pests as well.

When to Call a Professional for an Ants in Garage Situation

If the ants in your garage seem like more than you can handle with an easy DIY approach, Precise Termite and Pest Control is here to help. We assist New Jersey residents with prompt, professional, and effective ant control services every day and know what it takes to keep garages free of ants.

At the first sign of ants in your garage, we recommend calling us at 866-971-2847 for a free inspection. We look forward to helping you make the most of your home’s garage space without any ant issues!

You use your kitchen sink to scrub dishes, wash your hands, and prepare food. Clearly, this is no place for ants to be living. But there they are, walking around the drain and hanging out on your dish sponge. This is an unsettling place for ants to take up residence in a home but a more common place than you might expect.

Here’s a look at why ants are drawn to the kitchen sink and how to deal with an ants in sink problem at home.

Why Ants Get in the Sink

Like all living creatures, ants are constantly searching for food to eat to sustain their bodies. You’ll often find lots of food scraps, crumbs, and grease in kitchen sinks. Ants are also steady and reliable sources of water, which is another thing that ants need to survive each day. This makes them perfect habitats for ants, especially when you don’t keep your kitchen sink clean and tidy.

Leaving stagnant water in your sink attracts ants, as well as dirty dishes for long periods of time. You might also have an ants in sink problem if you have a leaky pipe that causes a pool of water to form under the sink. Inadequate caulking around the sink and a garbage disposal clogged with food debris can also lead to ant activity in the kitchen sink.

How to Get Rid of Ants in Sink

Ants in the kitchen sink are very noticeable, and getting rid of them requires more than just washing them down the drain. You’ll need to thoroughly clean your sink inside and out to deal with an ant infestation. To clean the top of the pipes, you can put baking soda and vinegar in your sink and then pour boiling water down the drain. However, you don’t want to use chemical ant killers in your kitchen sink because they could get into your water supply and put your health at risk.

Therefore, the safest solution is to call Precise Termite & Pest Control to come out and evaluate the extent of the ant problem. We can safely remove ants from your sink and give you peace of mind that they won’t keep crawling back up the pipes, through the drain, and to the rest of your kitchen.

Preventing Ants in Your Sink

One of the best preventive tips for eliminating ants is controlling moisture problems. This process may involve checking for plumbing leaks, removing puddles of water, and getting faucets tightened up. Keep food scraps out of the kitchen sink to prevent ants from coming back in the future. To make your kitchen less attractive to ants, keep the counters, the backsplash, and the stove clean and free of food scraps and spills.

Call Us for All Your Ant Problems

Most DIY ant remedies only address the ants that you can see and not the more significant problem of ants in the sink. An infestation may be worse than you think if ants live down within your pipe system, under your floors, and behind your walls. We are your local Bergen and Passaic County ant control experts, so call us at 866-971-2847 for an inspection any time you notice ant activity in your home.

Ants are very common in New Jersey, and although they’re tiny, they can cause big problems for local homeowners. Ants can squeeze through the very smallest cracks and gaps in homes as they search for food, water, and shelter. One place that ants often gravitate to when they get inside is the bathroom, which can really throw off your normal hygiene and grooming routine.

Here are some tips for how to get rid of ants in your bathroom and where to turn for professional help to get a bathroom ant infestation under control.

Why Do Ants Live in Bathrooms?

There are a lot of things about a bathroom that makes it the perfect place for ants to live. These rooms of the house are dark and moist, with easy access to water. Bathrooms provide ants with a damp environment from condensation after you shower, pools of water from clogged drains, and plenty of smells from your favorite soaps and lotions. Even if you make a point to clean your bathroom on a weekly basis, ants can still make their homes here between your cleanings and without going noticed in dark corners and under the sink.

Ant Control in Bathrooms

Ant control in the bathroom often involves setting baits after identifying the type of ant you are faced with. Baits are most effective when they target specific kinds of ants, and yes, we do have several different types in our region. Yet, getting rid of ants in bathrooms starts with finding the place where they are coming in from and following their trails. From there, look for what is attracting them to the area, such as a leaky pipe or crack in the wall. If you don’t address an ant infestation promptly, the ants can get into your toiletry products, cause plumbing problems, and be very unsettling for everyone in your household and guests.

Professional Help with Bathroom Ants

The professional exterminators at Precise Pest Control can identify the ants in your bathroom and come up with a quick and effective solution to get rid of them. There are DIY home remedies that you can try to eliminate ants from your bathroom, such as white vinegar, borax, and coffee grounds. But if that sounds like too much of a hassle to mess with and you simply want the ant situation to go away as quickly as possible, Precise Pest Control should be your first call.

Prevention Tips for Ants in the Bathroom

Fortunately, there are some things you can do to prevent ants from inhabiting your bathroom for the next time after we have come out to exterminate the existing ant colony. When you are done using the shower, turn on the bathroom fan or open a window to remove steam and reduce moisture levels. Clean the space between floor tiles to remove grime that can attract ants, and wipe up any puddles of water on the floor as soon as possible.

Other ways to prevent ants in the bathroom are to replace bathroom mats, empty the bathroom trash can regularly, and clean the bathroom drain occasionally. The area behind the toilet is an enticing place for ants and somewhere that you don’t look at every day. So, this is an important place to pay attention to with your regular bathroom cleanings.

We are here for you whenever you have an ant problem in the bathroom or elsewhere in the house. Call us at 866-971-2847 for a free ant inspection!