During nice weather, ants tend to build their mounds in yards or crawl on trees. But what happens to ants in the winter? Ants that have been in your yard will stay there or even find shelter in your house until it becomes nicer outside. If you have a serious ant infestation, contact an exterminator in Kansas City to help you address the issue. Ants are more than just a nuisance because they introduce pathogens into your home and can give you painful bites. Keep reading to know what ants do when it gets quite cold outside:
Set Up Camp in Your Home
As ants are cold-blooded creatures, they need warmth during the coldest months of the year to survive. Your house offers these pests the best shelter they need. It is temperature-controlled and offers moisture and food they need for their survival. But you may not know your home is already infested with ants because they may hide in walls or floors. Some of them may hide in cabinets and come out only whenever they look for food.
While ants enter your house for warmth, food sources like the grains and plants they feast on in spring and summer may not be available in winter. Because of this, ants may venture into your house to find food. To make your home less inviting to these pests, eliminate the smallest food crumbs and spills on your counters and floors. Also, store pet food in airtight containers.
Ants Species that May Be Active in Winter
Depending on your location, ant species like acrobat ants, carpenter ants, Argentine ants, dark rover ants, odorous ants, ghost ants, crazy ants, white-footed ants, and pharaoh ants may take residence in your house.
Aside from cleaning your home regularly, you can try natural recipes to repel ants like applying a water and vinegar mixture to doorways and windowsills. Also, do not decorate your house with plants that ants are drawn to like wild parsnips and peonies. A dish soap and water mixture can kill ants immediately. Also, you can but diatomaceous earth to make a solution for your ant issue.
How Ants Survive the Cold
If ants cannot live in your house, they can try some tricks to survive the cold. These include the following:
Generating heat with rocks.
Some ant species will establish their colonies underneath rocks in winter. As rocks warm up under the sun, they offer adequate heat for the colony to survive until spring comes.
Using decomposing leaves.
Ants can use leaves that fall and start to decompose as a shelter. Also, leaves offer warmth that ants can use to survive in winter. You can prevent ants from invading your yard in the spring and fall by raking leaves and disposing of them properly.
Creating special tunnels and mounds.
These tunnels retain body heat, allowing ants to maintain their body temperature. Also, ants may close up their mounds in winter to ensure heat cannot escape.
Using tree bark.
Ants may dig underneath tree bark where they can hibernate until the winter is over. To keep ants from infesting your trees use dish soap.
