Ant Control & Inspections in Utah

Dealing with ants? Ants can be extremely aggravating, distracting, and difficult to control. Thorn can help eliminate your ants fast.

Don’t let ants disrupt your home or business. Call Thorn today.

Thorn knows how to solve ant problems.

Ant Control

We take a scientific approach to ant control.

Ant control can be tricky and if done wrong can make things much worse. Typically “spraying” for ants will lead to poor results. Best results come from a true pest professional that can identify the species of ants and deploy the right control methods for each individual situation.

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Ant Inspections

searching for pests under kitchen cabinets

Ant inspection is the most important step in getting good results. During the inspection we need to identify:

Ant Species
Trailing ants
Location of the colony
Conducive conditions
Entry Points

Ant Baiting

Thorn pest professional treating for pests near an outlet

Treating an ant colony directly always gets the best results, but when a colony cannot be found or accessed, baiting can be a great option. The ants can then carry the bait back to the colony and share with the other workers and queen through a process called trophallaxis. Spraying the baseboards for ants almost never gets good results.

How Thorn Can Help

Our 3 Step Process:

1. Assesment

2. Treatment

3. Follow-up

Assesment

Inspection is the most important step to getting rid of ants.

Inspection allows us to identify the species of ant, find nests, and contributing conditions. Every ant species has specific behaviors and preferences. Without proper identification we cannot know the best course of action or know where we might find the nest. Finding and eliminating nests is the best way to get lasting ant control.

Treatment

The right products in the right places at the right time.

Once we know the ant species we are dealing with, we can prescribe the right treatment. Generally this includes finding and treating colonies directly, baiting, and treating with slow acting and non-repellent pesticides. The goal is to eliminate the entire colony and not just foraging ants.

Follow-up

Ants can be tricky so we follow-up to make sure treatments are working

We are here to help and make sure your pest issues get resolved. Ants sometimes require additional services and follow-ups to eliminate the problem. We will follow-up with you to make sure you are happy and the ants are gone.

The benefits of our ant solutions

We protect your businesses reputation and image. Our ant control also keeps employees and guests comfortable and isn’t just a band-aid approach so you save money.

Why is ant identification critical?

It tells us if the colony has one queen or multiple queens
It tells us how new colonies are formed
It tells us if there is one nest or multiple nests
It tells us where proffered nesting sites are
It tells us the preferred foods of the ant

Process:

Inspect the property for trailing ants and possible food sources
Identify the ant species
Assess the situation and create a treatment strategy dependent on the property and ant species (This is almost never walking around with a canister sprayer and spraying the baseboards. That tends to make things worse and doesn’t give good long term control.)
Perform the work
Ask you to clean up any identified food sources
Follow-up to make sure we are getting the desired results

How common is the problem in Utah?

Ants are one of the most common pests in Utah. Most ants are harmless and they stay outside, but there are a few pest ant species here in Utah. The most common pest ant species in Utah are: pavement ants, odorous house ants, carpenter ants, and argentine ants. These ants have different nesting habits and proper identification of the specific species is important when trying to control.

What attracts ants to some places?

Different ants will be attracted to different things but some tips on how to keep ants out of your home are:

Keep plants trimmed away from the house so they are not touching the home. Plants touching the home or structure create an easy “bridge” for ants to get inside.
Clean up food spills. Ants are often foraging inside your home looking for food. Keep ants out by trying to keep all food spills cleaned up. This includes pet food. Ants love pet food so make sure spills in the garage are cleaned up.
Exclusion. Ants are very small and can squeeze through very small cracks but sealing up cracks on the outside of your home can go a long way in keeping ants out. Make sure caulking around windows and utility pipes is still in good shape.

Signs that you may need a pest control professional

Many ants for many days. If you see one or two ants on a rare occasion, it may not warrant treatments. These are most likely foraging ants from outside just scouting for food. If this becomes a regular occurrence or you find ants in large numbers you may want to call a professional. Ants can be difficult to eliminate and do it yourself treatments generally don’t work. With ants, you can also make things worse and harder to eliminate if you don’t treat correctly. Most “sprays” on the market are the wrong product to use on ants even though they have ants on the label.
Discarded wings. Discarded wings are from reproductive ants called an alate. These ants can be difficult tp control as they are coming out to mate and not to feed. It also means that you often have a colony in, under, or near your home. Cracks where the ants are coming in should be sealed and bait treatments should be made to eliminate the colony. –
Pushed up dirt or sand. This generally means a colony is present.
Ants keep “coming back”. Most likely they were not eliminated to begin with. Many treatments like “spraying” may only suppress ants. Colony elimination is the best strategy for long term success.