You would have already heard that prevention is better than cure. If you’ve just treated fire ant infestation, you must take preventative measures to make sure that these red devils don’t come back to your property.
Additionally, it’s also important to follow prevention tips if you live in a place where fire ant infestations are common but you haven’t experienced one.
In this article, I’ll show you how to keep fire ants away from your property, both indoors and outdoors. It’ll help you keep yourself and your family safe from the painful fire ant bites.
How To Keep Fire Ants Away
Keep in mind that preventing red imported fire ant infestations is an ongoing process. There’s always a chance to have new fire ant colonies in your backyard building new nests and mounds, once you have eliminated the existing ones.
Along with inspecting your property and eliminating new fire ant mounds as soon as they appear, there are some general maintenance and sanitation measures that you can take to keep fire ants away.
Preventing Fire Ants from Entering the Home
In most cases, you’ll find a fire ant mound in open areas, near a big object or structure. However, it doesn’t prevent them from invading your indoor area to find food sources.
Here’s a list of tips that you can follow to prevent these ants from wandering around in your home.
Create a Barrier
One of the first things you need to do to keep fire ants away from your home is to create a barrier, around the foundation of your home, that these insects can’t cross.
There are different types of ant repellents and killers, such as Amdro fire ant killer (link to Amazon).
If you don’t have a commercially available product or don’t want to use one, you can use several household items to treat fire ants and prevent them from reaching your property.
Borax or boric acid is one of the best materials that you can use, as it can kill fire ants and keep them away. Just sprinkle it around your home’s foundation and it’ll prevent fire ants from entering. You can also use diatomaceous earth, cinnamon, ground cayenne pepper, or even salt with limited effectiveness.
Cover Possible Entry Points
After creating a barrier around the periphery of your home’s building, you’ll need to cover the entry points. Spread the repellent you’re using in front of all places, such as vents, pipes, windows, and doors, from where fire ants can enter your home.
Seal Crevices and Cracks
Due to the natural wear and tear process, it’s possible to have crevices and cracks in the foundation of your home.
First, you’ll need to inspect your house and find these places and then fill them using an airtight sealant. You can use epoxy, concrete, or even caulk for this purpose.
Trim Bushes and Trees
Keep in mind that fire ants are incredible climbers and they can climb trees and bushes easily. They can use the bushes and branches of trees touching the walls of your home as a bridge to make their way inside the house. Therefore, it’s important to trim these bushes and branches regularly.
Keep the Indoor Area Clean
The scent of food is what brings worker ants indoors. If you have food waste and crumbs inside your home, it’ll likely attract fire ants inside. So, throw it in the trash cans, located outside the house, immediately
Additionally, don’t store the food items that attract fire ants openly. Place them inside the refrigerator or use airtight containers to store them in the pantry. It’ll drastically decrease the chances of encountering fire ants indoors.
Protect your Electrical Equipment
It’s not uncommon for fire ants to make their way inside electrical equipment and build a nest. They can bring soil inside different pieces of equipment, such as air conditioners, switch boxes, circuit breakers, and transformer boxes.
It can lead to several electrical problems, such as short circuits and corrosion. Therefore, you should use glue or duct tape to seal entry holes leading to electrical equipment. You can also apply a fire ant repellent around the machinery to protect it.
Keeping Fire Ants Away from the Yard
The favorite place for fire ants to build their ant hill is a sunny and open spot. They need a food source and water for their survival, which makes lawns and yards a suitable option.
You can use the following list of tips to keep fire ants away from your yard.
Get Rid of Decaying Wood
Experiencing fire ant nests inside or around decaying wood logs is pretty common. Having a decaying log in your outdoor space is equal to inviting these insects to build a fire ant nest.
So, remove all types of decaying wood, such as tree stumps, fallen branches, and logs from your yard immediately.
If you have fruit trees on your lawn, make sure that you remove fruits from them as soon as they are ripened. Plus, pick all fruits from the ground around trees that have fallen.
Keep Your Lawn Dry
As mentioned, fire ants need a water source, along with food, to survive. If you have standing water in your outdoor space, eliminate it as soon as possible.
Plus, if you have a container with water for birds, place it on a high spot and sprinkle fire ant repellent around it.
Replace Outdoor Trash Cans
If your outdoor trash cans are placed near your home’s building or in the yard, place them away. Additionally, make sure that you keep them clean and use airtight lids to cover them.
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