Ants Indoors

Exclusion and Clean Up

When you see a trail of ants indoors, don’t panic. Before you do anything, use the trail to figure out the next steps. First, follow the trail to find the opening they’re using to get into the room. Seal the opening with caulk, this is exclusion. Identify whatever food the ants found and remove it. Wipe up the ants and clean the area with warm soapy water or a household cleaner. 

Household cleaners may kill living ants on contact. But I do not recommend using household cleaners for the purpose of killing ants, as that would be an off-label recommendation. And, doing so will not solve the bigger, recurring ant problem. 

Cleaning up with soapy water or cleaners does have the added benefit of eliminating the ant’s chemical trail. Therefore, if other ants find another way in, they will not be able to find the old trails and use them to their advantage.  They’ll have to start over and rely on random searching. The hope is that they won’t find anything and return to the nest with nothing to share.

The next step is to go outside, near the point of entry you caulked inside, to find the breach the ants are using to get into the building. Seal that up with caulking as well. This will slow them down, but just for a bit. The real work starts out in the yard. We have to reduce the number of Argentine ant nests outdoors to have a lasting impact. 

Key points for managing ants indoors

• Follow the ant trail to see where they’re coming in

• Exclusion - seal the opening with caulk

• Clean up the ants and eliminate their chemical trail using warm soapy water or a household cleaner

• Exclusion - go outside and seal up the cracks the ants are using to get indoors 

  • More work must be done outdoors for best results