Milwaukee's Best Ant Exterminator
Ants are the most common household pests in Wisconsin. These tiny insects are frequently found in kitchens and bathrooms as they search for food and water. Ants have six legs, narrow waists, and bent antennae, and they can vary in color from black to brown, red, or yellow. These social insects live in colonies that can contain hundreds of thousands of ants. While most ant species are harmless, they can be quite annoying when they invade your home. Ant infestations spread quickly and are very difficult to eliminate without the help of a professional ant exterminator.
What are the Signs of an Ant Infestation?
Ants are a problem in many households. They are drawn to damp areas with abundant food and moisture, especially in kitchens and bathrooms. Ants are social insects, so where there is one ant, there are likely hundreds or thousands more waiting to invade your home.
Ant Trails
Ants leave scent trails to help other ants find food. Seeing trails of ants along baseboards and floors is a common sign of an ant infestation.
Ant Hills
Ants will often nest outside your home in the ground and form small piles of dirt and sand on patios, sidewalks, and driveways.
Wood Shavings
Small piles of sawdust or wood shavings near wall studs, floor joists, or wooden furniture are common signs of a carpenter ant infestation.
Rustling Noises
Carpenter ants can make slight rustling sounds as they build nests in wooden walls. Knocking on a wall and hearing a hollow sound may indicate a nest inside.
Professional Ant Control
in Milwaukee, WI
Advanced Wildlife and Pest Control offers professional ant extermination services in Milwaukee and southeastern Wisconsin. Our certified pest specialists provide safe, effective, and reliable pest solutions to eliminate ants from your home or business.
We recognize that every ant infestation is unique, so we tailor our strategies to the specific ant species and the severity of the problem. We utilize a combination of non-repellent baits and long-lasting residual applications to eradicate the colonies and prevent future infestations.
What Damage Can Ants Cause?
While most ants are harmless, carpenter ants can cause significant structural damage to your home. Carpenter ants create tunnels in wood to build nests, which can weaken the wood’s structural integrity over time. This is particularly concerning when they infest load-bearing structures like beams, joists, and studs. Additionally, ants can also contaminate food, food preparation surfaces, and utensils with harmful pathogens.
How Can I Prevent Ants?
The following prevention tips will help deter ants from your property.
- Regularly wash dishes, vacuum floors, and empty the garbage.
- Store food inside airtight containers or in the refrigerator.
- Clean up crumbs, spills, and food debris.
- Fix leaky pipes, faucets, and fixtures.
- Use a dehumidifier to dry out your basement.
- Seal up cracks and crevices in the foundation.
- Place weatherstripping around windows and doors.
- Remove dead trees, limbs, and tree stumps from your yard.
- Trim shrubs and tree limbs away from the exterior of your home.
- Store your firewood away from the exterior of your house.
Ant FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
Do ants bite or sting?
Ants defend themselves by biting or stinging if they feel threatened by humans. They will grab your skin with their pinchers and release a chemical called formic acid into your skin. Most ant species are too tiny to bite through human skin due to their small, weak jaws and pinchers.
What do ants eat?
Ants are omnivores and will eat just about anything. Most ants are attracted to sugary foods, including honey, sugar, syrup, candy, and honeydew from aphids. Ants will also eat greasy foods, seeds, grains, fungi, and other insects.
Do ants have wings?
Certain types of ants develop wings during their reproductive phase and are referred to as alates or swarmers. Their sole purpose is to mate and reproduce. Once a year, these winged ants engage in a “nuptial flight” where thousands of them swarm together in late spring to mate in flight. After mating, the male ants die, while the fertilized females search for a suitable place to build their new colony.
Can I DIY ant control?
DIY methods of ant control often aren’t very effective. Over-the-counter pesticides only kill the few foraging ants and don’t provide any residual effects, so the ant nest and colony will remain and continue to enter your home. Our trained pest control professional utilizes an integrated pest management approach to eliminate the queen and colony at the source with a combination of bait and spray treatments. Sanitation, reoccurring applications, and monitoring are necessary for long-term results.
I had a treatment for ants; why do I see more?
It is not uncommon when using non-repellant baits for ants to see an increase in the volume of ants shortly after our initial bait treatment. Non-repellant bait treatments are utilized in interior ant infestations and are especially effective in getting rid of ant colonies at their source. The foraging worker ants will take the bait back to the colony, where it is fed to the queen, juveniles, and other members, killing the entire ant colony. During the initial treatment phase, it is important to allow these ants to feed on the bait and take it back to their colony for it to control and kill colony development.
Types of Ants
Common Ants in Wisconsin
Acrobat Ants
Carpenter Ants
Field Ants
Odorous Ants
Pavement Ants
Pharaoh Ants
