What To Do About Sugar Ants In Charlotte, NC

Charlotte, NC is a great place for ants to call home. The city is located in the central portion of North Carolina, making it a hot spot for these creatures. In fact, Charlotte is listed as one of the top cities in the nation where ants take control of homes. It’s also reported that ants outnumber people by about 7 million!

Sugar ants are a common term for species of tiny ants 1/16 inch long. They prefer to nest inside walls, cabinets, food boxes, crevices, and cracks. They eat carbohydrate and protein-rich foods, and particularly like our trash and anything sweet and sticky.

Are Sugar Ant Species Dangerous?

Most sugar ant species are not dangerous, but one of the most common species of sugar ant, the pharaoh ant, is. They are yellowish-brown in color, small in size, but the queen pharaoh ant is larger than the worker ants. Some colonies have more than one queen, which can result in a rapidly growing infestation.

Pharaoh ants are known to carry and transmit a variety of bacteria and pathogens. They invade hospitals and medical facilities. Pharaoh ants will invade the IVs and wounds of patients and transfer microorganisms, bacteria, and viruses that cause diseases in unsuspecting patients. Influenza, strep, throat infections, and impetigo are some of the conditions they trigger. Finding them in such facilities can be hard to eliminate. That said, there are plenty of things you can do to protect your Charlotte home.

Prevention Tips To Avoid Ants In Charlotte In The Future

Knowing the favorite hiding places for sugar ants will help identify where the colonies are located as they need moisture and heat to survive:

• Cool, dark places such as cracks in concrete, behind boards, and under patio slabs where the wood framing is exposed.
• Under decks with electrical outlets or plumbing vents.
• Anywhere a tree root grows through a house foundation. Sugar ants love tree roots because they bring moisture into the house from the outside along with their own food source – tree sap.
• Mulched beds planted around your home or backyard.

Sugar ants are tiny and can fit through the smallest cracks and holes. This means that more measures have to be put in place to control their efforts of invading your Charlotte home.

• Keep outdoor spaces clean and tidy. Messes inside the home are an invitation for ants to move in.
• Seal cracks around doors and windows.
• Get rid of any dead trees or other vegetation in your yard to prevent ants from finding food sources. It’s not the ants themselves that eat the tree, but rather the larvae that feed off of it. Thus, if you kill off these larvae, you kill off why these ants are there in the first place.
• Locate crickets and other bugs in your yard and kill them off. While they may be pests to you, they’re very appealing to sugar ants. If you get rid of the insects that feed off them, the ants will seek elsewhere to find food.
• Make sure grass clippings and leaves do not pile up anywhere around your home.
• Do not water plants directly; water them from watering cans instead to avoid attracting ants with excess moisture. Keep plants in pots instead of in the ground.

The most effective, quickest, and safest way to get rid of a sugar ant and pharaoh ant infestation is with professional pest control from Aruza Pest Control. Contact our expert exterminators in Charlotte today to keep your home or business ant-free and pest free!