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Los Angeles residential exterminators are often called in for ant removal. Pest extermination in Los Angeles tends to stay busy with the over 20 species of ants that can invade your home. Even though ants are not dangerous pests, they are still irritating and unpleasant to live with. After all, no one wants to share their home with insects! Therefore, Los Angeles residential exterminators should be contacted in order to deal with a large ant infestation. Although ants are pests and ant removal is a necessity, ants are also very fascinating creatures:

• Ants are extremely social creatures. They live in colonies ranging from a few dozen to a few million. For this reason, pest extermination in Los Angeles is often sought to deal with the staggering numbers.
• Ants communicate through use of pheromones, and it’s been found that, unlike other creatures, ants living in one country are actually able to communicate with ants from another country when placed together. This gives ants the ability to work together like perhaps no other creature can, besides humans.
• Parallels are often drawn between ant and human colonies. Like humans, ants have an organized division of labor and the ability to solve complex problems. Because of this, ant removal can be particularly difficult.
• Los Angeles residential exterminators tend to deal with the more invasive species of ants, such as fire ants. Pest extermination in Los Angeles is important when it comes to fire ants. These ants can sting humans and pets and damage gardens. They are also particularly drawn to electrical equipment and can cause electrical shorts.
• Queen ants can live for up to thirty years.
• Except for Antarctica, ants are present on every other continent. Los Angeles residential exterminators are certainly not the only pest control services dealing with ants!

If you’re seeking pest extermination in Los Angeles, contact Accuracy Plus at 888-675-0258. We offer free evaluations and eco-friendly solutions for ant removal.

Fire ants are not only a huge home and garden pest, they can be very painful if they bite you. For this reason, people take all kinds of different fire ant control measures trying to get rid of them. And while there are many home remedies available, most of them are exactly what you should not be doing for fire ant control in Orange County.

Grits

Many people think that placing grits on top and around the ant’s mound will be enough fire ant control. The idea behind it is that the fire ants will eat the grits and that when they do, the grits will expand in the stomach and the ants will literally explode. In fact, this is not at all the case. Grits will not kill fire ants; all they will do is give the fire ants something to eat, and a reason to stick around!

Gasoline

One of the most intense ways that people choose to deal with fire ant control is gasoline. They believe that pouring gasoline over the mound will send toxins throughout the colony, thereby killing the ants. However, this isn’t the case. Fire ants live in deep tunnels in the ground, and they are pretty fast. Once the gasoline has been poured, fire ants will simply burrow deeper into their tunnels and will remain unharmed. Also, because pouring gasoline onto the ground is so bad for the environment, this is actually illegal fire ant control in Orange County.

Boiling Water

Just like gasoline, many people think that pouring boiling water over a fire ant mound will be enough to kill any of the ants. Again though, the fire ants will just burrow deeper into their tunnels, or move away from the mound altogether. Once the area becomes cool again, they’ll simply build another mound and continue living there. Also, even though boiling water may not be as harmful to the environment as gasoline is, this will still kill any plants or vegetation that are also in the area.

If you have a fire ant problem, you can be guaranteed that these fire ant control measures will be nothing but a waste of time. Fire ants are notorious for being extremely hard to deal with on your own. When you need something that will get those nasty, biting ants out of your home or yard, call a professional in fire ant control in Orange County. They’ll be able to provide fire ant control that will actually be effective!

Accuracy Plus can handle all of your pest control needs, both inside and outside. Call us at 888-675-0258 for more valuable information.

If you’ve seen ants marching through your kitchen, or see them going up and down your hallway walls, your first thought was most likely to get rid of them as fast as you can. But, you don’t really need to panic. While ants are definitely irritating, they’re not really dangerous, or even a major threat to your home. But that also doesn’t mean that you can forget about them completely and hope that they go away on their own. You will have to take some measures to help you in getting rid of ants; and if the problem does get out of hand, you may even have to call in professional Los Angeles ant control.

If you have an ant problem in only one area of your home, or there aren’t many ants to contend with, you can try getting rid of the ants on your own. There are many different sprays, drops, traps, and bait that you can use to get rid of ants in your home, and many of them are very effective. Of course, if the ants bite or sting at all, you’re probably going to want to call in Los Angeles ant control as soon as you can, no matter how few ants are present. No one wants to live with pests constantly biting them, and no one should have to.

Of course, if you have an ant problem that’s already out of control, you’ll definitely want to call in Los Angeles ant control. Although these critters aren’t dangerous, as long as they’re not stinging, they can be really annoying and they can get into just about everything, mostly all of your food! When you think the ant population is getting a bit out of control, it’s time to call someone in.

Another time to call in Los Angeles ant control might be if you have a recurring ant problem that seems to happen the same time every year. If this is the case, you’ll want to call in Los Angeles ant control as they can determine where the ants are coming from, and why they’re attracted to your home at particular times of the year.

Accuracy Plus can handle all of your pest control needs, both inside and outside. Call us at 888-675-0258 for more valuable information.

Chances are that you’ve never found an ant hill in your home. But you’ve probably found a lot outside of it! These hills can be as small as a golf ball, or they can be as large as a few softballs piled on top of each other – and there can be a lot of them! It’s usually the sheer number that appear alone that make people want to get rid of ant hills, and there are a couple of different ways that you can try.

If the ant hill is on a surface that is soft, such as grass or turf, you can use ant stakes to get rid of ants and the hills they create so quickly. These stakes can be placed directly through the ant hill and within the stake there is poison. The ants not only ingest this poison but they also take it back to their colony and feed it to the queen! So you won’t just get rid of ants that you can see but the entire colony, making sure that you never have to deal with the problem again! Ant stakes are not only very effective at getting rid of ants but they’re also one of the most environmentally-friendly ways you can get rid of ants too. Because they don’t have any toxic chemicals polluting the air, only the ants are harmed during the process.

There is another way to get rid of ant hills, but it’s not nearly as effective: this is using boiling water. Boiling water has been used as a way to get rid of ant hills for a long time, especially when the ant hill is on a very hard surface. But there are a few things to remember when using this method to get rid of ant hills. The first is that it’s the temperature of the water and not the water itself that will kill the ants. Ants will not drown in the water so it’s important to make sure that the water is extremely hot.

Also, it’s important to remember to use a lot of water, about three gallons. Ant hills are complex structures that grow even more complex when they reach deep into the ground, which they all do. Because of this, if you use just one or two cups of boiling water, it won’t be enough to reach far down into the colony and kill all of the ants. And if you don’t get them all, that ant hill will just reappear almost as quickly as you took it down!

Ant hills aren’t really a huge deal to have around your home, but they can be a bit of a nuisance. Try either one of these ways and you’ll be walking on smooth surfaces outside your home again in no time!

Accuracy Plus can handle all of your pest control needs, both inside and outside. Visit our site for more valuable information or give us a call at 888-675-0258.

Fire ants can be a real hazard to your yard, and to the bare feet and ankles of anyone who walks in it. The bite of a fire ant is incredibly painful and they can cause a great deal of damage to flowers, vegetables, and grass. But you don’t want to be spraying all kinds of chemicals and toxins all over your yard either. Here are 5 eco-friendly ways to get rid of fire ants!

Boiling Water

Pouring boiling water over any ant mound will do the trick in eliminating them, and the case is no different for fire ants. Boiling water will kill most of the ants in the colony but most critically, will kill the queen, which will eventually kill off the members of the colony that manage to survive the steam treatment. It’s important when you pour boiling water over the nest of fire ants that you don’t disturb it in any way. This will only alert them to the fact that there’s danger nearby and not only will you get bitten, but the fire ants will also be likely to skitter away before you can do much harm to them.

Sticky Traps

There are sticky traps that are made for several pests in the yard and garden, including fire ants. Place them in the insect’s path to their food source and while they’re on their way to eat, they’ll become stuck and eventually die.

Grits

Fire ants really like grits, but once they eat them the grits expand in their stomach and cause them to explode. If you’re not in a real rush to get rid of the fire ants in your yard, grits are an inexpensive and effective option. Just spread them out on the lawn close to the nest of fire ants.

Caulking

If you think fire ants are bad outside, wait until they make their way inside your home – then you’ll know what a real problem is! Go outside and make sure that any cracks in the foundation, near windows or doors are caulked so that they are tightly sealed. This will be enough of a barrier to keep fire ants out.

Eco-Friendly Exterminators

Sometimes the nest of fire ants in your yard is small enough for you to control it yourself. But if there are several nests, or the nest is extremely large, you might need to call in a professional. Fire ants are not only painful when they bite, they can be very harmful too, especially if there are a lot of them. Call a professional that uses eco-friendly fire ant control measures and you’ll be able to enjoy your yard again in no time!

Accuracy Plus can handle all of your pest control needs, both inside and outside. Visit our site for more valuable information or give us a call at 888-675-0258.

If you have an ant problem in your home, there are many pesticides, insecticides, and poisons that you can put out that will get rid of the ants for you. But if you’re concerned about the toxins that are often found in many of these products, you’ll be happy to know that there are some ways to get rid of ants that are much more eco-friendly, and that will be safe for everyone in your home – with the exception of course, of those pesky ants.

The first thing you should do when looking for eco-friendly ways to get rid of ants is to find out what they’re coming in for. If you have crumbs or bits of sugar lying around, these are huge attractors for ants. Clean up any scrap food or garbage that may be lying around and the ants will stop coming as soon as their food source dries up.

The next step in your mission to get rid of ants is to find out where they’re coming in from. There are several things that you can place down in these areas to keep ants from coming in at all. Things like mint, cayenne pepper, chili powder, coffee grounds, bay leaves, and black pepper are all things that ants don’t like, so they won’t bother chomping through them to get into your home.

If you have an area in your home that will be difficult to lay these ingredients down, you can use a liquid solution to get rid of ants. Place equal amounts of apple cider vinegar and water in a spray bottle and hunt down the areas that are ant-infested. Spray wherever you see ants and this should be enough to send them scurrying the other way! And just like peppermint can be used to get rid of ants, peppermint oil can also be sprayed in areas that seem to attract ants.

If you have a real ant problem and want to go straight to the source, you’ll need to find the anthill where the ants are coming from. This can take a lot of digging but once you find it, you can simply pour boiling water over it and that will instantly kill of the ants that are in it at that time. Plus, it also wipes out the home of any returning ants, and they’ll need to find a new place to live – preferably one that’s not anywhere near your house!

Accuracy Plus can handle all of your pest control needs, both inside and outside. Visit our site for more valuable information or give us a call at 888-675-0258.

There are many amazing things in nature, and the case of zombie ants, and the fungus that infects them, is a prime example of this. Zombie ants are a specific type of ant, but they are not an actual species. Rather, it’s an ant that becomes infected with a certain fungus, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. This fungus infects Camponotus leonardi ants, and then makes them behave in a zombie-like behavior, taking control of the ant’s physical actions, and it seems, their thought process as well.

It begins when the fungus needs to climb down to a certain level above ground in order to have the right temperature and the right humidity to flourish. Unfortunately, the fungus doesn’t have legs to move itself down and so, needs an able body to do it for them. Along comes the Camponotus leonardi ant. This type of ant lives in the same tropical trees in the rainforest as the fungus, and is the perfect transportation vehicle for the fungus.

Once the Camponotus leonardi ant stumbles across the fungus, the fungus will then infect it with many spores. The reaction in the ant is immediate, as it then becomes a zombie ant and climbs down the tree where it will find a leaf. Once this leaf is found, the ant will bite into it so forcefully that it’s actually called a ‘death grip’ when this happens with the ant. This is perfect for the fungus, as it now has a home at the perfect temperature and the perfect level above ground. It’s not so great for the zombie ant, which dies shortly after biting the leaf. Once the fungus has access to the leaf, it will then inhabit the ant’s body and use it to spread more spores among more ants.

What’s most amazing about this is that not only does the fungus infect the ant, but it also seems to take control of its mind as well as its body. This is based on the study of zombie ants once they’ve been infected and crawl to a leaf. All of the ants, or most of them anyway, find their way to a leaf on the north side of the tree, and that’s about 25 centimeters above ground. The leaves selected also generally have 90% – 95% humidity as well as a temperature of 20 – 30 degrees Celsius.

Another unique element regarding the relationship between the Ophiocordyceps unilateralis fungus and the Camponotus leonardi ant is that this ant seems to be the only type of ant the fungus is in. Studies have also been done on the effect this fungus has on other types of ants. While the results were still somewhat detrimental to the ant, they also weren’t nearly as prosperous for the fungus.

Some things in nature are so amazing! But in some cases, it can be quite cruel at times too.

Accuracy Plus can handle all of your pest control needs, both inside and outside. Visit our site for more valuable information or give us a call at 888-675-0258.

If you have an ant problem in your home, then one of the first things you need to do is identify what type of ant you’re dealing with. This will help you understand whether or not they bite, if they have more than one queen in their colonies, and other important information that will help you prepare better strategies to get rid of them.

When it comes to the different types of ants, there are about 10,000 in total. However, there are thousands of different species that are rarely ever seen by humans, because they forage at night or live completely underground. So, when you’re trying to identify a certain type of ant, it’s best first to search among the most common types of ants.

Carpenter Ants: These ants can be thought of as the termites of the ants world. They do not eat wood, but they do plough through it building nests and tunnels and can tear apart large wooden structures as they do so. Sometimes they can enter your home, which can be a great problem as they can cause great damage to walls, furniture, and other wooden items in the home.

Driver (Army) Ants: Driver ants are mostly found in Africa and tropical areas of North America. They can also be seen in some south-western states in the United States and these species are largely known as legionary ants. Driver ants are mainly predators and they are almost constantly on the move, moving their colonies every two to four weeks. They are not known for entering homes but they do eat a lot and they feast on things like insects, lizards, and even animals as big as chickens.

Fire Ants: Fire ants were originally only found in South America, but they have found their way to the United States and reside mostly in the southern states. Fire ants don’t bite, as many people think, but they do have a sharp little stinger that is very painful. Large armies of fire ants can cause such damage with their stingers in fact, that they can kill livestock.

Fungus-Growing Ants: These ants are found only in the Western hemisphere, and are known for their unique way of feeding. These ants, as their name suggests, grow fungus so that they can then eat it. They grow the fungus using leaves from trees and bushes, which they cut off with their teeth, and then chew down to mulch when they get to their nests. The mulch will then sit until it grows a fungus, which the ants will then feast on. You can identify these ants easily because they’re the only kind that can be seen carrying entire leaves over their head.

Harvester Ants: Harvester ants are so named because they do exactly that – spend their lives harvesting. These ants wander around looking for seeds and grains that can be found in the grass or fallen from trees. They then store them in their underground nests for sunny days, when they then come up and spread the seeds out to dry. These ants also have a stinger that can be quite painful.

Honey Ants: These can also be found in south-western states and are also known for their unique feeding habits. These ants spend their lives collecting nectar and other sweets which they feed to worker ants, whose only job is to collect this nectar from other ants. They collect this nectar until they are more than twice their normal size and can no longer move. The other ants in the colony then hang the worker ants from the nests. The worker ant will begin to regurgitate the nectar that it’s been storing, which the other ants then eat. This process is only done in the dry season, when other food sources are difficult to find.

For a free Los Angles pest control inspection, give us a call at 888-675-0258 or go to our website.

Spending time outside in the warm summer months is great. You can cook on the grill, spend time in the garden, and watch as your kids frolic in the sprinkler or kiddie pool. But, if you have an ant problem in your yard, you’ll quickly be finding things to do inside, or outdoors – elsewhere. Don’t let ants deter you from enjoying your own yard; get rid of them and use your yard however you choose!

One of the best and safest ways to keep ants out of your yard is to shake baby powder along the trail. This will block their path and they will have to find another area that isn’t as blocked. Ants travel a great distance, so the chances of this alternative location being out of your yard are good. Black pepper is another great way to keep ants of your yard, but can be a bit more dangerous when children are playing, as if it were to get into their eyes or open wounds, it could be quite dangerous.

Another great, non-toxic trick to try is to place some vinegar in a spray bottle and just spray along the entire path. The ants will be gone a day or two after this application. Windex, Ivory Soap, and a multi-purpose cleanser with orange oil will also work well but always be careful when using a chemical-based product like, especially if pets or children go out into the yard frequently.

If you want to actually kill the ants, and not just get them out of your yard, you can try using Terro, which is basically a mixture of borax and sugar water. Place it along the trails and the ants will be attracted to the sugar, and the mixture of borax and water will kill them when they eat it. It takes a little while to work and the ants are sure to bring some of the sweet treats back for the whole colony to eat.

If you see a large number of ants in one area in your yard, boiling water and then pouring it on them will immediately kill the ants. Keep in mind however, that this will not kill the colony or the queen, so you probably won’t be rid of your problem for good.

Dealing with ants outside is not difficult, but some of these applications may need to be done a few times. And it doesn’t hurt to always remember that unless they sting, ants really are generally harmless, even though they can be awfully annoying.

For a free Los Angles pest control inspection, give us a call at 888-675-0258 or go to our website.

There are lots of different types of ants, but no matter which kind you have, the chances are that you want to get rid of them. Ants can be a real nuisance, getting into your food and just by being there every time you turn around. So, if you have ants, how do you get rid of them? There are a few different ways to get rid of ants but the first thing you might want to do is determine which type of ants you have. Although many of these tricks will work for many different kinds of ants such as pavement ants, black ants, and red ants, there might be a specialized product out there that can help you control a specific type of ant.

The first thing you’ll want to do is to apply caulking to any cracks you might find in or near your house, as this might be where the ants are coming from. The safest and least toxic caulking is silicone. Another way to get ants to stop using a specified route is not by sealing it but just by deterring them from using it. This can be done by sprinkling strong spices and items with strong odors in the cracks. Things like paprika, chili pepper powder, dried peppermint, or borax will all work.

If you’re having a problem with ants in your garden, the chances are that you have other insects that are attracting them so you’ll have to get rid of the initial insects first. Bugs like aphids, whiteflies, and mealybugs all secrete a sticky sweet substance that ants love. Get rid of all the pesky insects, and you’ll see your ants go too! If you have shrubs or trees in your garden that ants are all over, apply a sticky ant trap up along the bottom of the bark. Ants climb trees looking for food and once they step on the sticky tape, they won’t be able to get off and ruin your foliage.

And if you see an anthill that you know is going to be a big problem, you can create your own non-toxic ant killer and pour it over the anthill. This concoction can be made by taking orange and lemon peels and mixing them with water. Mix these together in a blender and then just pour it over the anthill. This will be enough to kill the ants and get rid of your problem, and it’s safe too!

For a free Los Angles pest control inspection, give us a call at 888-675-0258.