Our friends at Sacramento News 10 called recently about a story they were doing on how to get rid of ants without harming the environment. Long story short, it seems one of the newscasters had woken up that morning to find ants in her kitchen!
The news team gathered some home remedies from their Facebook fans, such as baby powder, cayenne pepper and cinnamon, white chalk and even dried cream of wheat. Then they turned to the experts!
Earth Guard Pest Management manager Barbara Romig and technican Lito Marquez from our excellent team of Sacramento pest control professionals were happy to share information about Earth Guard’s line of green pest control products, which include botanical oils that stop the ants without the use of toxic chemicals that can get into the air or water. Here’s a link to the clip on Earth Guard’s YouTube channel:
We’re still getting calls about ants with every shower. This great article about a 2001 Stanford study of 69 California households explains that bug spray and ant baits simply won’t stop them. The culprit is weather: The study concludes that ant “abundance is highest in winter when the weather is cold and wet, and there is a second, smaller peak in the hotter, drier part of summer.”
The article goes on to discuss the ecological impact of the Argentine ant that has successfully invaded California. Among other impacts, the Argentine ant has decimated native ants that are a food source for the native horned lizard found in the San Diego area. The Argentine ants are so successful in part because they do not fight among their own species but rather treat other Argentine colonies as part of their extended family. Hmm, maybe a lesson there for our human species…