There’s nothing worse than having ants in your home.
And if you’ve spotted one, chances are, there’s likely to be a colony of ants lurking somewhere — ready to appear now the weather is warmer.
Not only are these tiny critters persistent, making it notoriously tricky to get rid of ants, but could cause long-term destruction to your home and its foundations.
That’s why it’s so important to remove the things that are attracting ants to your home in the first place to avoid an infestation.
But, if the first thing you do is crush, step on or otherwise flatten ants once you spot them, you might want to think twice.
According to pest experts, you could be attracting more ants to come back — with a vengeance
Don’t crush ants at all costs
Have you ever noticed ants invade an area where you’ve just squished one? There is a surprising (yet gross) reason for this, that will explain the unsightly trail.
Typically, ant's bodies contain a fluid that seeps out each time you crush them. This fluid produces pheromones, which then sends out a signal to its entire colony to come and rescue them.
This weird survival tactic actually helps to keep ant colonies safe from disease
Surprisingly, this weird survival tactic actually helps to keep ant colonies safe from disease. As ants arrive to remove dead ant bodies away to another area, this prevents them from contaminating the rest of the colony.
Unfortunately for us, once you’ve crushed them, you’ll only be asking for trouble when more literally come out of the woodwork.
"They're essentially sending a distress signal to alert the nearby colony that there's a perceived threat," Louisa Messenger, a medical entomologist and professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told The Spruce.
"They're coming in to investigate, defend and mount more of a coordinated response. Counterintuitively, you actually end up with more ants than you wanted in the first place."
Top tips to prevent ants
The most obvious tip is to ensure the area that you’ve squished an ant on is cleaned and sanitized properly. This will remove the lingering scent of the pheromones to prevent further pest activity.
Make it a daily habit to wipe down food spills and countertops immediately, and ensure you store your food correctly.
Ideally, use airtight, sealed, storage containers for dry goods, snacks or even pet food, to prevent ants making their way inside.
Additionally, you could keep ants at bay with several, DIY natural solutions — especially if you don't want to use harsh chemicals.
Simply mix a 50:50 solution of white vinegar to water in a clear bottle, before spraying your countertops, surfaces or anywhere else you’ve spotted ants frequently.
Not only will the strong smell of the vinegar repulse ants, but also remove the scent trails they leave.
Alternatively, you could spray diluted, essential oils such as peppermint, tea tree, eucalyptus, spearmint and cinnamon oil to give off strong scents to repel ants.
What’s more, if you love a good brew from your trusted coffee maker, don’t throw out your used grounds.
Another great ant deterrent is to sprinkle leftover coffee grounds on a disposable surface such as cardboard, before placing them in ant-areas. In fact, most pests are repelled by the overpowering smell of old grounds, including mosquitoes, slugs, and even foxes.
Plus, there are so many surprising ways you can reuse old coffee grounds, which can be used indoors or outdoors. From fertilizing soil and plants to deodorizing trash cans, you can put them to good use.
So if you ever spot a ant or two, just avoid squishing it — or you might risk an expensive call out to the exterminators in the long-run!
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