Can Ants Cause Damage To Your Home?

Out of the pests that are commonly found in different parts of Oklahoma City pests are among the most well-known. While seemingly innocuous, they can cause more harm than you would think. While irritating, many property owners don’t think they can can be much worse than being a mild annoyance.

Unfortunately, they can cause damage to your property if left unchecked. Here at Harmony Pest Solutions, we will be talking about the kind of damage that they can to your property, and what you can do about it.

Ants are common nuisances in households. They are often found scurrying around in the kitchen, trashcans, pantry, etc. If you have an ant infestation in your home, it may be a danger to you and your family.

They can affect your health and compromise your home. Learning the different dangers of an ant infestation can give you an edge in controlling and preventing an ant infestation. 

Damage to Your Home

The damage of an ant infestation may vary depending on its species. For example, carpenter ants are known for causing property damage in your home. They are known for creating nests inside the wood, and they build tunnels into it.

They create colonies inside wood so if your home is full of moist places near wood structures they will not hesitate to establish their colony on them.

These types of ants are known for building their nests in cool moist areas in your home. You can easily find them in bathrooms, basements, crawl spaces, below your kitchen sink, etc. If you have moisture problems or water-damaged areas, carpenter ants will be easily attracted to them. They prefer decaying wooden structures and hollow areas. 

The damage they can do to your home does not occur overnight. It can take a few years for significant damage to happen. The damage they can do to your home is usually irreversible and difficult to fix. Unlike termites that eat wood, carpenter ants cause extensive damage by tunneling through the wood.

Checking for carpenter ant infestation can be difficult if you don’t know what to look out for. If you happen to see carpenter ants in your home, you must address the problem as soon as possible.

To detect a carpenter invasion, you must check for piles of wood shavings under a wood structure. Checking for light rustling in your walls or other areas of your home can also help you detect these. These signs may indicate carpenter ants that are moving and tunneling through the wood. 

If you see a couple of ants in your home it means they have invaded your home. They are usually black. They can grow up to 1/4-1/2 inches in length. If you see carpenter ants in your home in Oklahoma City you must immediately consult a pest control company like Harmony Pest Solutions. 

Contaminate Your Food Sources

Ants usually enter a home for a simple reason, they are attracted to food and moisture. They are commonly found in the kitchen. Keep in mind that these can carry bacteria and fungi that can be easily transferred to your food and cause food contamination. You can get sick from eating food that has come in contact with ants.

Safety measures to take include keeping your utensils and food in sealed containers so that ants will not be able to reach them. Ants can also contaminate pet food, so if you have pet food lying in the corner that has been left uneaten, you must discard this immediately.

Store pet food inside a sealed container to avoid infestation. Odorous house ants are mechanical vectors for harmful bacteria. They are known for spreading E.coli, shigella, salmonella, and many more. 

Health Risks

Ants can cause health risks to you, your family, and your pets! Ants are known for biting people and animals. They have mandibles and mouths to pinch your skin if they feel threatened. Their bites can cause pain and discomfort but they are not usually dangerous. However, your skin might become infected if you do not clean and care for the bite.

Some ant species have stingers that can hurt your skin. One example is a fire ant, that, when it stings you, can inject venom on your skin using its stinger. Their sting is extremely painful, and its venom can cause serious issues, especially if you have an allergy, as it can cause anaphylactic shock, which can be life-threatening in some cases. 

What are the symptoms of a fire ant sting? It may vary from one person to another. You may experience pain, inflammation at the affected site, redness, and itchiness. Other symptoms like nausea, diarrhea, stomach cramps, dizziness, chest pain, and difficulty breathing can also occur in individuals allergic to the fire ant’s venom.

An allergic reaction to the venom of the fire ant can be one of the worst-case scenarios that you can deal with. You can experience swelling of the airways, leading to difficulty breathing. Because of these dangers, getting rid of a fire ant infestation is a must from your garden and inside your home. 

Can Invite Other Pests

Ants are food sources for other pests. If you have an ant infestation, other pests like spiders will invade your home too. Spiders like black widow and brown recluse spider eat ants. Bats are also attracted to a home with an ant infestation.

The Brazilian free-tailed bat is known for eating insects like ants. They can eat insects as much as half of their body weight. Having ants in your home can attract even worse problems to your home and property, which is why keeping ants away from your property is in your best interests.

If you are a homeowner in Oklahoma City and are facing an ant infestation, contact Harmony Pest Solutions. We offer our services to different locations, such as Canadian County, Cleveland County, Logan County, and Mcclain County. If you want to hire us for our pest control services, please call us at (405) 760-7204 or send an inquiry email at harmonypestsolutionsokc@gmail.com.

We are located at 16307 Sonoma Park Drive, Suite #6 Edmond, OK 73013. Make sure to choose Harmony Pest Solutions to deal with an ant infestation in your home. We are happy to help you get rid of different types of pests in your home.