We can all agree that ants are unwelcome pests in our homes. The sight of one ant means that there will be more coming soon! It makes sense that you want to wipe them out the moment you spot them in your house. However, this might be the beginning of your troubles. Killing ants will, definitely, attract more ants because the dead ants release pheromones that attract or rather alert, nearby ants.
If you want more information about what happens when you kill ants, keep reading through this article.
Does Killing Ants Attract More Of Them Into Your House?
Ants communicate through smells. Therefore, they release different chemicals with unique scents to send out different signals. The pheromone chemical is typically the strongest, it travels the fastest and even the farthest, thus encouraging other ants in the colony to act immediately.
Do Ants Know If Other Ants Die?
When an ant dies, the others do not notice straight away. They will just walk around it as if it was not there, but after three days, the ants will notice. After three days, the corpse will start decaying and it is at this point that it releases oleic acid. This acid is the smell of a dead and rotten ant. Therefore, until an ant reeks, no other ant will notice that it is dead.
What Do Ants Do With The Dead Ant?
When an ant dies, it is carried by other ants to a midden. This is similar to a dumpster. Ants carry their waste, their dead, and their contamination to this area. It is built to keep the possibilities of infections far away from their nest and the queen.
When a member of their colony dies, its corpse will remain where it died for about two days, and during this time the ants take their time to pay respect to their dead comrade. After the two days, the worker ants take their fallen comrade to the midden in a respectful procession while honoring the duties it did, or rather performed, for the colony.
Is It Good To Kill Ants In Your House?
When you kill an ant, it releases pheromones from its body to alert others ants in the colony that the area is risky and has something that can cause death. Although it is confusing that a danger signal, specifically one that can cause death, would attract more ants. When ants sense danger, they want to investigate the cause of death before carrying the dead ant away to the midden. Thus, it is not good to kills ants in your house because it will just make more of them come. Since most ant species live in closed-off spaces, for example, walls or underground, you won’t be able to eradicate the entire colony with simple DIY methods.
However, it is possible to get rid of ants without attracting more, meaning you are not killing them, by hiring a professional exterminator. The expert will know how to effectively eliminate, or rather get rid of ants without attracting more of them. The good thing about exterminators is that they do an intense and thorough cleaning as well, reaching the nooks and crannies you cannot think of.
Should You Clean Up Dead Ants?
If you have killed or discovered dead ants near the foundations of your house, or precisely in your home, you should wait before trying to clean them up. As mentioned earlier, dead ants release a pheromone chemical that is supposed to alarm the colony. As soon as other ants detect this smell, they get out of their hiding place to come and collect the dead body. This takes about two days.
Therefore, if you leave the dead ant on the floor for two days, you will see the ants come to collect the carcass. If you watch the ants for these two days, you will notice or know where their nest is located. After that, you can find a way to get rid of the nest or kill the ants in the colony. Therefore, you should not clean up the dead ants so that you can identify their nest.
Have you noticed an indoor ant nest?
Tracking or trailing to a nest in your home is very crucial. Their presence in your home means food and water contamination as well as structural damage. To track down the nest, look for a pile of ants’ carcasses near windows, door edges, and other openings. Look around pipes because ants need water, or parts of your house or structures in your home that are made from wood. When you track the nest, treat that area with insecticides specifically designed to kill ants.
Looking for ant removal service near you?
Our dedicated team at Peachtree Pest Control provides the most effective solution to eliminate your ant problem. So call us today to get your free estimate on fast and reliable ant pest control in Metro Atlanta.