How to Prepare for Your Ant Treatment

Counterintuitive but important: do NOT spray the ants you see before our visit, and don’t wipe away their trails with strong cleaners on treatment day. Those trails are how our targeted baits reach the colony — erasing them hides the road map.

The day before

Kitchen basics. Wash dishes, wipe up crumbs and spills, and store food — including pet food bowls overnight — in sealed containers or the fridge. We want our bait to be the most attractive food in the house.

Clear the treatment zones. Move items away from areas where you see ant activity: under sinks, along the affected baseboards, around window frames. Outside, note where you’ve seen trails entering — around doors, windows, the garage, deck posts or where utilities enter.

For carpenter ants specifically: tell your technician about any moisture history — past leaks, damp corners, older wood decks or trees touching the roofline. Carpenter ants follow moisture, and that history usually points at the nest. If you’ve seen large black ants or fine sawdust-like material (frass), note where.

Day of treatment

Kids and pets should be away from treated areas until products are dry — your technician will give you exact timing, typically a few hours. Interior gel baits are placed in cracks, crevices and stations out of reach.

What NOT to do

No store-bought sprays before or after — repellent sprays scatter colonies (and can cause “budding” in some species, turning one colony into several). Don’t clean treated baseboards or remove bait placements for two weeks. If you see MORE ants for several days after treatment, that’s usually the bait working — foragers recruiting nestmates to carry it home. Details in After Your Treatment.

One-time ant treatment starts at $345 ($425 interior + exterior); carpenter ant treatment — nest and satellites — is $525. Every service begins with a $95 inspection, credited when you book. Recurring ant pressure is exactly what the Insect Control plan ($845/yr) is for. Questions? (705) 302-1887.