How To Keep Your Office Ant-Free
Most full-time employees spend enough time at work to eat at least one meal and a snack or two, and some workplaces regularly host parties involving catered or homemade food. With so much food being enjoyed and shared around an office building, employees may not be the only ones enjoying a bite to eat. Colonies of ants might just set up shop outside a busy office building. If your office is overrun with lines of hungry ants, you should be able to fix the problem with these ant control techniques.
Keep Food Contained
If ants are coming into your office regularly, they have a very important reason to be there: food. Ant colonies love the abundant food sources many office buildings offer. From regular crumbs dropped by consistent snackers to uncovered snacks left in the break room, the way workers handle food around the office can help ant colonies thrive. To fix the problem for good, everyone has to clean up their act and their desks. Inform employees of the need to keep food sealed in containers and wipe down surfaces often. Preferably, have your office vacuumed regularly to remove crumbs from carpeted floors.
Spray Wisely
A line of ants wandering across a desk or countertop might make anyone want to reach for a spray bottle of pesticide. Although ant-killing sprays definitely work on the ants you can see, they don't do anything about the real source of your ant problem: the queen and her colony. Instead of killing the visible ants, you can use them to learn more about the colony. Try to trace the line of ants back to their origin point outside of the building. If you can find the colony, you can act decisively by spraying the entrance of the colony with a pesticide spray that contains Lambda-Cyhalothrin or is otherwise designed to kill ants on contact.
Use Bait
Not every office manager or business owner has time to track an ant infestation to its source. If you want a quicker, easier solution, you could turn to storebought or DIY ant bait stations. You can make the bait stations yourself using water, sugar, and borax mixed together in a shallow container. No matter which bait stations you use, make sure you place them in areas where you have regularly seen ants. The ants will bring the bait back to the colony where it will eventually kill the queen, but you may have to be patient. Some colonies may take a few weeks to kill.
If you don't feel confident taking care of your ant problem, call an ant control exterminator.
