Pest Off Pest Control provides full service ant control services, including evaluation, inspection, and extermination As a potential client, it is our responsibility to you and to all consumers to find out more about ant risk and prevention in any residential or commercial location here in the Texoma area. Pest Off Pest Control Services, a licensed Pest Control company in Texas is in business to make sure you have peace of mind about the health and welfare of your family and business when dealing with suspected ant infestations.

Identify the Ant

Ant control begins with correctly identifying the particular pest that has invaded a home, business, school or other building. After Pest Off identifies your ant, we can choose the pest control methods and and products to use for safe elimination of the ant colonies.

When dealing with such infestations, baiting for ants is usually considered less intrusive and easier than using ant sprays, dusts, granules or other contact insecticides. When it comes to choosing an ant bait, it is important to use a product proven effective against the specific type of ants to be exterminated.

Each ant species in the index that requires baiting, specific types of ant baits and brands of bait are discussed. Carpenter ant baits are designed for a particular species. Extinguish Fire Ant Bait can be used in pastures where fireants need to be controlled but where livestock or horses graze.

In many cases, the ant species will dictate which products will successfully eliminate the pests. When the wrong product is used, time and money are wasted!

Examples of ant control method and products for the most common species:

Carpenter Ants

Carpenter Ants build nests inside wood consisting of galleries chewed out with their mandibles, preferably in dead, damp wood. They do not consume the wood, however, unlike termites. Sometimes, carpenter ants hollow out sections of trees. They also commonly infest wooden buildings and structures, and are a widespread nuisance and major cause of structural damage. However, their ability to excavate wood helps in forest decomposition. One of the most familiar species associated with human habitation in the United States is the black carpenter ant.

Carpenter ants can be controlled with contact insecticides or with special Carpenter ant baits. When special baits are used, the wood ants (as they are sometimes called) will do the work for you – carrying the ‘food’ back where it is fed to the entire carpenter ant colony. Once these pests have been brought under control, either continuing the baiting program or changing over to a spray program will prevent re-infestation.
h3>Red Imported Fire Ants

Red Imported Fire Ant colonies can be treated with many different ant baits that are generic, that is they are labeled for many ant species, including fireants. There are, however, fireant baits that are designed specifically to attract and kill this particular pest. The Red Imported Fire Ant is an invasive pest species introduced to the gulf coast states decades ago. Unfortunately, their ability to out-compete most native ant species has led to large areas of the country to face this painful infestation. Although complete fire ant eradication is not possible, recent advancements in product technology and application techniques have allowed homeowners to attain acceptable levels of pest management.

Fire ants build large mounds on top of the soil. When these mounds are disturbed, ants will emerge en masse and will begin to crawl over anyone or anything unlucky enough to be nearby. You may also notice the red-colored ants swarming around the mounds. The most common solution for red imported fire ants is a treatment application near the mounds. The ants will feed on the bait and return it to the colony. Once the bait kills the queen fire ant, the colony will collapse.
We recommend that red imported fire ant treatments are conducted early on in the spring to decrease the likelihood of major infestations.

Odorous House Ants

Odorous House Ant (OHA) infestations can be tracked by their distractive trails back to their nest. Odorous house ant nests are almost always located outdoors. These tiny insects will travel great distances indoors to find food and water for the colony.

Once located, a treatment will then be applied to the ant colony’s trails and nest. To ensure that no new trails are established after the initial treatment, a follow-up appointment will be scheduled 7-10 days later. Odorous house ants are very common and found throughout the United States.

Argentine Ants

Workers are about one-eighth inch long and are all the same size in the colony and are dark brown in color with a single node that is pointed. Colonies may have many queens making them difficult to control. Outdoors nests are found under shallow nests in moist areas, including under boards and stones, beneath plants and along sidewalks. Argentine Ants can establish well defined trails which can be very wide with multiple lanes of workers going both ways. They are very aggressive to other ants in their territory and may eliminate all other ant species where they are found. Argentine ants prefer sweets such as honeydew, fruit juices and plant nectars.

Vegetation should be trimmed away from touching structures as these are used to gain entry inside. Argentine ants typically live outdoors during the warmer times of the year, but move inside when the weather begins to turn cold. Thorough perimeter treatments during the late fall can help to reduce the chance of colonies moving into structures. Argentine Ants will also accept professional baits but their colony system (at times) can be too overwhelming to handle with an outdoor baiting program; baiting indoors sometimes helps remove localized colonies.

For Reliable Ant Treatment & Extermination Services, Choose Pest Off Pest Control Residential & Commercial Ant Control Services

Pest Off Pest Control & ant treatment and exterminator company understands that you home and business should be protected from all sorts of ants and other pests. We will work with you on a plan to rid the inside and outside of your home or business of ants.

Pest Off’s Ant Control Solution include:

Step 1: Ant Inspection (Indoors & Outdoors

Find and identify the specific ant infestation problem. When inspecting a home for potential ant problems, it is important to look for anything that could promote ant activity in the house structure and the surrounding environment. Structural flaws such as cracks in the foundation, gaps in walls and floor voids provide ants with easy access to your home or business. It is also necessary to locate sources of moisture outdoors, such as gutters, mulch beds and leaking A/C units that could damage wood and form a perfect spot for ants to set up shop and dish out some of their damaging behavior.

Step 2: Follow the Trail to Find the Nest

Successful ant management assumes two related directives: “Locate the trails” to “Find the nest.” Trail inspections become an important tool in management protocols. Homeowners may be of assistance but technicians should recognize the importance of inspecting possible trailing activity at specific times of day. Guidelines such as fences, wiring and plumbing leading to the structure, plus any vegetation in the form of trees, shrubs and plants that are in contact with the roof or siding, must be inspected.

Step 3: Treat the Trails

Ants will not find baits placed at random locations; therefore, the more efficient use of the material is to place the bait where it will be discovered by the ants (i.e., their trails). Once the bait is encountered, other ants will be recruited. Proper location and chemical placement along trails will result in successful ant management because ants follow trails to the nest(s). When trails are located and treated, callbacks will be reduced; however, treatments require a thorough inspection and knowledge of ant behavior.

Step 4: Outdoors Pesticide Applications

Once all ant colonies have been located, treating the nests is quite simple. All visible mounds will be drenched (or soaked) with high volume of the chemical treatment associated with the type of ant. All mulch needs to be sprayed. Ants will often thrive in the damp organic materials we use around our homes and in landscaping. Also we will spray a barrier around your home; an area 4 to 6 feet wide around the structure should suffice. Tree trunks and soil adjacent to the trunks will be fan-sprayed. Also, all landscape timbers, decorative stones and rocks, or any other object which might look inviting to ants and other insect pests will be fan-sprayed.

Call Pest Off Today: A Flea Control Services Company with a Plan!

Pest Off is a fully licensed and insured Sherman, Texas based pest control services company. We offer professional ant treatment and extermination programs for our Texomaland residential and commercial clients. Our staff receives ongoing training to keep up with the industry’s best practices for the ant control for your home or business. When you contact us to get rid of ants, your satisfaction is our guarantee! If you are looking for a quality Texoma-area ant extermination service, you’ve come to the right place! Call (903) 814-5002 today!