Photo Album: Odorous House Ants Hiding in the Crawl Space in Freehold, NJ
Decided to Inspect the Crawl Space
After finding ants in the kitchen, and identifying them as odorous house ants, we inspected the exterior of the home to determine how they were getting in. We noticed a small trail of ants near the crawl space, so we investigated further.
Coming from Below
After a thorough inspection, we found a large colony of odorous house ants crawling on the sill plate.
The 4-1-1 on Odorous House Ants
Odorous house ants emit a rotten, coconut smell when they're crushed or alarmed (hence the clever name). They're most likely to invade buildings during or after rainy weather.
This is Why An Inspection is Needed
Even though you see ants in the kitchen doesn't mean that is where their colony is. A majority of time when you see ants in your home, you'll see the foraging ants. The main colonies are in another location. That is why we always thoroughly inspect an entire property from top to bottom to find the source (in this case, the crawl space).
After Finding the Source
We applied a non-repellant residual directly onto the colony, throughout the crawl space, and along the entire exterior. For the interior, we placed an ant gel bait in the cracks and crevices of the kitchen and the adjacent rooms.
Designed to Neutralize
Once the ants come in contact with any of these treatments they bring it back to their colony and transfer it to other ants and their queen. Shortly after the entire colony is eliminated and the home is ant free!