It might be a genuine head-scratcher the first time you discover ants in your bathroom. Ants prefer to reside in a warm and humid environment with the constant availability of food and water sources. The humid environment of your bathroom may attract a wide range of ant species, including ghost ants.
So how do ghost ants manage to get into bathrooms? Because of the humidity, warmth, safe shelter, and food source, ants easily find their way into bathrooms. The majority of ant species prefer to nest under sinks, bathtubs, inside wall cavities, cracks, or under the titles. To avoid a ghost ant infestation in your bathroom, remove all the elements that may attract them.
Ghost Ants: How Do They Get In The Bathroom?
Ant-infestation is a common issue throughout many American households. They can be found in the kitchen and dining rooms, where there is an abundance of food scraps to be found. Ants may make their way inside your bathroom in some circumstances. You may not realize it, but your bathroom could be supplying the ideal breeding environment for ants.
Why are Ghost Ants Attracted to Bathrooms?
Although there are hundreds of ant species that can be found in the bathroom, ghost ants, carpenter ants, pharaoh ants, sugar ants, and fire ants are the most common. Moisture and food are usually the main attractions. However, not all of them are likely to enter and start a colony.
One of the first and most crucial measures in keeping your entire home pest-free is to maintain your bathroom clean and disinfected. Although there are some factors present in bathrooms that attract ants, it isn’t possible to completely avoid them if you use your bathroom on a regular basis.
Moisture
It’s challenging to keep a bathroom clean and dry at all times. This is where you can bathe, shower, flush the toilet bowl, and wash your hands, as the name suggests. Not only that, but undiscovered water leaks can cause rotting in wood and other materials, providing food for some ants. While fixing leaky fixtures and clearing up water spills is critical, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to keep your bathroom fully dry.
Odor
Every time you enter the bathroom for your daily routine of brushing your teeth, washing your hands, showering, or even combing your hair, you’re setting off a signal that could attract ants. Ants are drawn to chemical odors in the bathroom, smells from drains, and even rotting hair, as disgusting as that may sound. That’s why ants love to make their homes in bathrooms.
Skin and Hair Cells
Different odors emerging from the bathroom can attract ants. Hair-filled bathtubs or shower drains are unpleasant to us, but they provide a convenient location for stagnant water to gather. In fact, ants believe the drain to be a source of water and food and are attracted to the odor it emits. The ants can smell it even if you can’t.
How Do Ghost Ants Find Their Way to Bathrooms?
Many different varieties of ants can be found in our homes, including the bathroom. They use cracks and crevices around windows and in foundation wall voids to gain access to our homes in pursuit of shelter, water, and food. Ants use air conditioning or heating ducts as another way in. They can also get entrance to our homes through attic vents or when plants, utility lines, or tree branches come into contact with the house.
Due to ideal environmental conditions, ants are easily enticed to your home, particularly bathrooms. It’s one of the ideal spots for ants to reproduce and expand their nests. Ants prefer to establish their nests in dark areas such as drain holes, crevices, beneath leaking pipes, and under sinks and bathtubs.
They can damage your bath products and bring infections into your bathroom through waste or garbage. The ants have the potential to grow rapidly and create larger colonies in a short amount of time.
How to Identify Ghost Ants
Most ant species like to make their nests in warm, damp areas such as the bathroom sink, bathroom counter, and toilet bowl. The most common ant species you’ll find in your bathroom, though, are those that thrive in moist, warm environments. Ghost ants, sugar ants, carpenter ants, tiny black ants, odorous house ants, pharaoh ants, pavement ants, and other tropical species of ants commonly infest bathrooms.
To take effective preventative measures and apply proper pest control procedures to existing ant colonies in your bathroom, it’s essential to accurately identify the type of ants. The ants may appear harmless in the early stages of an infestation, but their quick development and adaptability can cause plenty of complications.
What Do Ghost Ants Look Like?
Ghost Ants are like little white apparitions that arise out of nowhere and vanish just as swiftly. These ants can be found indoors and outdoors. Because they seek excess moisture, they can be spotted in the kitchen and bathroom. Keep the following in mind when identifying ghost ants:
- Appearance – Ghost ant workers are monomorphic and exceptionally small, measuring about 1.5 mm in length. The head and thorax have a rich dark brown (nearly black) color, while the abdomen is opaque or milky white, almost translucent, thus the name.
- Behavior – Ghost ants can build extremely large colonies with numerous queens. Similar to pharaoh ants and white-footed ants, colonies can separate or divide through a budding process. When crushed, they emit a coconut-like odor, similar to the odorous house ants.
- Food – Aphids and honeydew are favorites among ghost ants. Worker ants go out and collect food, including dead insects, to feed the ghost ant colony. Ghost ants will eat sweet foods indoors, but greasy food like peanut butter is preferred if it is available.
- Indoor Nesting Areas – Look for void or in-wall locations surrounding a moisture source like pipes, shower stalls, and sinks if they’re already inside, making a nest. Additionally, examine potted plants.
- Outdoor Nesting Areas – These ants like to build their nests outside, under lumber, firewood stacks, mulch, rocks, and tree bark. These are areas where organic stuff is decomposing.
- Threats Posed by Infestation – Although ghost ants don’t sting, they can bite. They are not violent, however, but will only bite if their nest is attacked. These bites are barely detectable and pose minimal risk to human health. The only danger that ghost ants represent is the possibility of food contamination.
How to Get Rid of a Ghost Ant Infestation in the Bathroom
Ant infestations are common in damp and humid environments. A few ants may not appear to be a problem at first, but they have the ability to establish massive colonies in just a few weeks, causing major consequences. As a result, rather than waiting for the problem to go away on its own, you should take the appropriate actions to get rid of ants in bathrooms.
1. Ant Bait
Choose the appropriate ant bait or trap for the types of ants after accurately identifying the ant species and severity of infestation. Sugar-based bait and protein-based bait are two examples of commercially accessible liquid bait. Gel or granular baits are also available. Each product has specific instructions to make an effective bait for ghost ants.
If the bait does not produce positive results, you can adjust it. This is the greatest way to get ants out of drains, crevices, holes, and other places where you can’t reach them physically. Install bait at ant access points and nesting sites in your bathroom. Deadly ant traps or baits can kill an entire colony in a matter of days or weeks, depending on the severity of the infestation.
2. Insecticides
To eliminate the entire colony, a pest control company usually employs toxic insecticides. There are a variety of commercially available insecticides that can assist you totally eradicating an ant infestation. Use non-repellent insecticide sprays or control treatments whenever possible.
To avoid direct contact with the harmful substances, wear personal protective equipment when performing the treatment. If you don’t want to use liquid insecticides, powder insecticides are an option. Make sure to read the product label for a more effective pest control treatment.
3. Vinegar Solution
You can use vinegar spray to manage ant infestations in your bathrooms because vinegar is a natural ant repellant. To make your insecticide spray, combine equal parts white vinegar and water. Baking soda and vinegar can also be used to treat drains and kill ants.
You can scatter baking soda over the drain, then pour white vinegar in an equal amount. Through this, the ants will be suffocated by the acidic solution.
4. Essential Oils
Natural pesticide spray can be made with essential oils from various plants. These insecticide sprays can be used in the bathroom exactly as ordinary insecticide sprays. Because essential oils make ants hypersensitive, you can utilize them to create pest control treatments. Tea tree oil, peppermint oil, and citrus oil are some of the ant repellant essential oils.
15 drops peppermint oil, 15 drops tree oil, and 7 drops citrus oil in 1/4 cup water can make a natural pesticide spray. Instead of citrus oil, half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper can also be used. Fill the spray bottle with the solution and spray it directly on the ants, infested areas, and ant entry points in your bathroom.
Tips to Prevent Ghost Ants from Getting to the Bathroom
Ghost ant nests can be found under sinks, under pipelines, inside holes or wall spaces, under bathtubs, and near showers, among other places. Bathrooms attract ghost ants because of the warmth and water supply. To prevent ghost ant infestations, keep your restrooms clean and dry. Here are some preventive measures to keep ghost ants out of your bathroom:
1. Seal cracks
Thousands of workers frequently enter the space through crevices in walls and tiles to scout for access to water and food. Sealing entry holes and replacing damaged caulk is one of the most effective strategies to eliminate these threats. Additionally, do not provide the ants with access to your house or bathroom through pathways outside your house.
2. Eliminate the ant trails
Ants are able to leave a pheromone trail while exploring your property. Like street signs, this will direct other worker ants to a food source and return to the ghost ant colony. Naturally, you won’t be able to see ant trails. Ants may leave your bathroom in search of food sources such as the compost bin or the pet food bowl. Simply wash these scent trails away with dishwashing liquid to remove them.
Fill a small container halfway with water and add some dishwasher liquid. Keep track of the trail the ants use to get to and from the colony. Wash the ant trails down with the soap mixture. To completely eliminate the invisible scent trail, you’ll have to repeat this process several times.
3. Maintain proper drainage
You should expect hair and skin particles to clog bathroom drains after everyday showering. While that debris is excellent for ants to build their nest, cleaning and unclogging drains on a regular basis will help you eliminate ant infestations and prevent them from returning. If you discover a drainage issue in your shower cabin, contact a plumber to have it serviced. You’ll be able to tackle the ant problem in the most effective way possible.
Ant Infestation Extermination Services at Midway Pest Management
When dealing with serious ant infestations, it’s best to hire a pest control technician. Homemade solutions only work for a handful of ghost ants. Midway Pest Management is a pest control company that uses integrated pest management (IPM) solutions to help people get rid of ants and common pests, both inside and outside their houses.
To build a specific treatment strategy that eliminates the ghost ants and stops them from returning, we take into account the location of the ant nest as well as the pest’s behavior. Feel free to contact us now to schedule a free home inspection.
Learn More: How to Make Bait for Ghost Ants With Boric Acid
