What are Ants Eating in Your House?

The number one reason ants come into homes is because they can find food there. Ants voracious eaters and a single ant will eat about a third of its body weight in a day. This may not seem like a lot on its own, but remember that your ant problem is never just one ant. A colony of thousands of ants collectively can eat more than 3 pounds of food per day.

Knowing what ants are eating makes it possible to remove those food sources from your home, and hopefully ants as well.

Common Food Sources for Ants

While an ant colony may be eating 3 pounds of food per day, that is not all necessarily coming from your home. Ants can have scouts in their colony going into many different homes and finding food out in the wild to support the colony. This means that even a small amount of food inside your home can be enough to attract ants.

A main challenge here is that ants are omnivores and will eat a wide range of materials. The most common substances for ants include:

• Carbohydrates – Sugars and other carbohydrates are a great nutrient dense food for ants and are found in a large number of foods. Everything from a small crumb to a drink spill to juice from a fruit or vegetable can contain sugars that ants will eat. Sugars are the food that ants most often go for inside homes because ants can eat a large amount of sugar for their nutrients and because they are one of the more common food sources inside homes.
• Salt – Ants will sometimes also eat salt as well or in place of sugar, although this is less common and often depends upon the species of ant. Like with sugar, sources of salt are usually easy to find in a kitchen or any location where someone has been eating food.
• Other Animals – Ants can be carnivorous and will consume decaying animals. This is less likely in homes because most homes ideally do not have dead mice, rats, or other animals. But if you have recently had a rodent problem, an ant infestation could follow.

Ant control in NYC from 24 Hour Pest Control is often an effective way to get rid of an ant infestation. We can apply the right treatments to exterminate ants. Even if small bits of food are present, treatments can repel ants. Reach out to 24 Hour Pest Control to schedule an ant control visit.