Ants are tiny creatures that keep on invading your home causing unnecessary discomfort. But do you know some of the best ant traps? Ants move in a certain pattern using pheromones in search of food and water. Some are destructive especially the carpenter ants, they destroy wooden structures. Here in this guide, we will review the best ant traps that you can effectively get rid of the ants.
Best Ant Traps List:
1. TERRO PreFilled Liquid Ant Killer II Baits, 3-Packs of 6 Baits Each
2. Terro T1812-2 Outdoor Liquid Ant Killer Bait Stakes
3. Advance 375a Select Granular Ant Bait
4. Amdro Ant Block Home Perimeter Ant Bait Granules
5. Catchmaster 72MAX Pest Trap, 36Count, White
6. Terro 3200 Spider Traps 4 in a package
There are quite a number of methods and pest control ways to get rid of ants. Ant traps are some of the ways you can get rid of the ants at home for both indoor and outdoor use. Some people prefer ant traps to get rid of them.
Here are some of the several ant traps that you can use to solve your ants’ problem.
Liquid Bait Traps
Liquid ant traps are the most commonly used ant killers. How do they work? They are made with ingredients that produce a scent that lures or attracts the ants. Usually, the ants will feed on the toxins in the baits, thus they end up dying.
Worker ants tend to eat some of the food before carrying the rest to the colony. Again, ants move in a certain trail that communicates or send signals to the other ants. Basically, a single worker ant can poison about 10-20 ants of the same species. This process can take up to 5 days for the entire colony to be eliminated.
Liquid ant baits re ideal for both indoor and outdoor use. All you have to do is to place them on a plastic container. The other unique feature about liquid ant baits is, they don’t get spoiled by either rain or snow.
Dusted/Powdered Ant Traps
You can use dust or powder form of ant traps to get rid of the ants at home. They are usually come in form of dust or powder.
How do they work? They are simply dry poison that are made in form of dust. They are highly efficient especially in ant hills. You can also use it to get rid of ants in cracks and crevices of your house. Actually, dust ant baits are used in places where you can hardly reach.
The dust ant killer baits have the same effect as that of the liquid baits. In some cases, the active ingredient or the poison, can kill the pest almost instantly.
To prevent an infestation in your home, you can use dust ant traps especially on ant hills so that you bar the ants from coming into your house.
Instant Ant Killer Traps
These type of ant killers are somehow ineffective especially when dealing with a big ant colony. But if you are dealing with a small invasion at home, they work just fine.
How do they work? They are designed with certain special sticky tapes, electricity or active poison. As soon as the ant gets into the trap, it dies immediately. You can use to specifically get rid of those big black ants or the carpenter ants.
Before you settle for any pest control method, it is important to know which ants are most likely to appear in your house or garden.
Identify the Ant Type
While there are several pest control methods, it is important to identify the type of ant species you are dealing with. Indoor ant invasion tend to spoil food or even wooden structures in your home.
The carpenter ants are the most stubborn and destructive type of ants. They chew through wooden structures while building their nests.
Sugar ants on the other hand also known as the pharaoh ants are usually fond of the kitchen. They move in looking for something to eat such as peanut butter. They are very cunning and tend to hide their colonies well. Sometimes, their anthill can be located outside your house.
Some of the ants that live outdoor are similar as those indoors. They bring some benefits to the garden. Garden ants are predators especially the small black garden ants are usually found near the plants. But there is nothing to worry about. They don’t destroy plants but eat other insects that might destroy the harvest.
The Best Ant Traps to Use
If you are looking for the best ant traps to use to get rid of the ants for both indoors and outdoors use, here are some of the 6 best ant traps to use.
Best Liquid Ant Traps
Let’s discuss some of the best liquid ant traps you can use.
1. Terro Liquid Ant Baits
When looking for liquid ant traps, you should consider Terro Ant Bait. It is one of the most recommended commercially available product to deal with ants. It is considered as the best ant bait for sugar ants.
It comes in small, handy containers convenient to use them for both indoors and outdoors. Like we’ve mentioned earlier, this liquid ant bait has delayed effect. It uses borax as the main active poison.
When the ants feed on the borax, they carry some of it to the nest which makes it easy to get rid of the entire colony. This bait has a sweet taste mostly used to attract and lure ants. You will notice the amazing effect after 3 -5 days.
2. Terro T1812-2 Outdoor Liquid Ant Killer
This type of liquid ant trap can be used to fight an entire colony in just few days. This liquid bait is also conveniently packed into the mini-stations. Other than using it for outdoor ant killer, it can also effectively get rid of ants in your house including the carpenter ants.
Best Liquid Ant Bait Traps
Pros:
- Delayed time effect
- Eliminate the entire colony
- Ideal for both indoors and outdoors
- Pre-filled in plastic stations
Cons:
- Their main ingredient can be harmful to your pets or children
Best Dust Ant Bait
Here are some of the best dust ant baits you can use to get rid of the ants in your home.
3. Advance 375a granules
If you are going to use dust or powder ant bait to get rid of ant invasion at home, then you have to include Advance 375a granules in your purchase list. It has a strong delayed action impact on insect upon treatment.
In fact, it has the same effect to that of liquid bait, but only that granules or dust can be used in hard to reach places such as the cracks, crevices etc.
According to the manufacturers, it works best against the odorous house ants, crazy, little black, argentine and pavement ants. Most of the ants are fond of protein. They like anything protein including meat, dead or live insect bodies and greasy foods.
4. AMDRO Ant Bait Granules
This is one of the best ant dust killer bait especially for carpenter ants. You can use it get rid of ants that mostly invade your house from outside. Just place the granules around your home to create a barrier to stop carpenter ants from coming inside your house.
You can also place some of the granules neat trees and roots to protect them from being destroyed by the carpenter ants.
Best Dust/Powdered Ant Traps
Pros:
- Used to access hard-to-reach places such as holes, cracks, crevices etc.
- Best as ant invasion prophylaxis
- Suitable for a large number of ant species
Cons:
- You need gloves to protect yourself
Best Instant Killer Ant Traps
Below here are some of the best immediate killer ant traps.
5. Catchmaster 72MAX Pest Trap
If you are here for the best immediate ant killer trap, then you should go for Catchmaster traps. They are one of the best ant killer that provides quick results. To get the best result, place some food inside the trap to attract the ants.
This method is useful when you target a small amount of insects. Again, the trap is suitable for all types of insect species. Another unique features is they are pet and child friendly thus you don’t have to worry when the trap sticks on pets or child. Just use oil to remove it.
6. Terro Spider & Insect Traps
This trap, Terro Spider & Insect trap is another amazing ant trap that uses sticky glue traps. It is intended to capture and kill a large number of pests and insects. It works with the same principle as Catchmasters. It is non-toxic as well.
Best Immediate Killer Ant Traps;
Here are some of the pros and cons for the best immediate killer ant traps.
Pros:
- Doesn’t kill ants alone butt also insect too
- Non-toxic
- Pet and child friendly
Cons:
- Has no long lasting effect
Buying Guide for Ant Traps
This buyer guide is to help to go through the phase of finding the best ant traps to get rid of ants. There are a number of ant traps in the market but it can be difficult to get the right ant trap on the marker. This guide helps you to overcome the challenges that comes with buying the best ant traps.
a) The Type of Ants you are Dealing With?
To effectively get rid of ants with ant traps, you have to first understand the type of ant species you are dealing with. For instance, if you are dealing with sugar ants, you may consider sweet-tasting bait to effectively eliminate them.
Carpenter ants would be effectively dealt with any non-repellent baits and traps.
b) Where is Your Issue?
Find where the pest or ants are coming from. Once you notice the pest inside the house get the best ant traps for indoor use. If the issue is outside, then there are effective ant traps to get rid of ants outside.
How to Apply the Ant Traps Correctly?
Here are few tips on how to use ant traps correctly.
- Learn where the ants are most likely to appear. Some of the prime source to find the ants include the kitchen and bathrooms. You can follow the ant trails and place the traps on their way
- Check the bait Station – always check the bait station in most cases the ants will consume them but keep on placing a fresh one immediately
- Check the sticky traps as will. As soon as the stick trap is full, place a new one.
- Don’t use several traps in one place. For instance, don’t put a bait trap and a granule in the same place.
- Read more on what you purchase. Know what works for indoor and what works outdoors.
- Remove all food sources while using ant traps. This is to make sure the ants don’t have any food option but the bait
- Reduce direct contact especially with the granules and powders. When using insecticides, wear protective gears.
Tips on How to Prevent the Ant Infestation
Since you have information on the best 6 ant traps, here are rules or tips to prevent ant infestation.
- Remove garbage and trash from your house in time
- Remove dirty dishes on the table and in your kitchen sink
- Wash the floors with strong odor ant repellent such as ammonia and vinegar
Garden ants can be quite difficult to deal with. But you can find out the reason why the ants are there. If there are aphids in your garden, chances are that you will most likely notice garden ants.
Using chemicals to get rid of garden ants is not usually wise. You will only add toxic substances to the soil and plants. The simplest and easiest way to deal with garden ants, is using soap suspension. Aphids normally breathe through their skin, the soap is used to block oxygen to get into the skin of the aphid. What soap does, it simply suffocates the aphids.
