None of us want to see ants crawling around our kitchen sink or on the wall. However, the ugly presence of these insects is not the primary reason why we should get rid of them. Ants are not good for our homes by any means. The section below will help you to understand why ants are dangerous for your home and why you should use ant control Novi, MI services to eradicate them.
Ants Can Cause Serious Damage to Your Home
Carpenter ants can damage the wood structures in your home permanently. However, rarely do homeowners treat these creatures as threats to their expensive wood objects. They tend to be more worried about termite infestations and spend hundreds of dollars to remove them. However, the fact is that carpenter ants are almost as harmful to wooden structures and termites.
These ants don’t eat wood. Instead, they damage wood objects by digging a tunnel in them. As these damages usually remain hidden in door and window frames, walls, porches, decks, and other similar wood surfaces, spotting them is not easy. However, you should take the necessary steps the moment you notice wood shavings accumulating under or around the wooden surfaces in your home.
Another sign, which may suggest that ants might be moving around and tunneling through wood is an unexplained soft rustling inside the walls. You should call ant control professionals even if you see a couple of carpenter ants moving near a wood structure in your house. These ants are black or blackish-brown in color and are usually ¼ to ½ inch long.
Ants Can Cause Health Hazards
Certain ant types can impose serious health risks. All ants, irrespective of their species, can bite. Whenever these insects feel threatened, they pinch human skin using their mouth and mandibles. This can make the victim suffer from intense discomfort and pain. However, the outcomes are rarely dangerous.
Things can get worse if you don’t receive proper treatment for an ant bite or don’t clean the area with an antiseptic solution. In such cases, the irritation might last for days, and you may even develop a skin infection.
Ants of certain species are stingers. For your information, stings and bites are different actions. For instance, when a fire ant stings, they inject a venomous solution into your skin using their stinger. This can not only lead to pain, but the venom can result in more serious health issues. Ant stings can even be life-threatening.
Common symptoms of fire ant stings include redness, itchiness, swelling, and pain. If the situation turns worse, the victim might experience more serious symptoms like chest pain, stomach cramps, diarrhea, nausea, dizziness, and breathing difficulty.
The venom can also cause allergic reactions. The victim may have swelling in his/her throat and experience shortness of breath.
Ants Invite Other Pests
Ants are food sources for several other pests. As a result, if you don’t take the necessary steps to eradicate ants from your home, your home will soon become a breeding ground for more dangerous pests. Examples of pests that eat ants include brown recluse spiders, black widow spiders, bats, vampire bats, and more.
Final Words
The section above might have helped you to understand that ants do no good to our home. So, if you spot these insects in your home, you should hire professional ant control services right away.