Complete Ant Treatment in Monmouth Beach, NJ Home
Challenge
A Monmouth Beach, NJ homeowner was having a problem with ants in her kitchen. After she contacted Cowleys, and I was immediately dispatched to her home to resolve the infestation. Upon arrival, I was greeted by the homeowner. She had told me that ants were getting inside her kitchen area, and she saw an ant trail alongside a sliding glass door that led to an outside deck adjacent to the kitchen. The flooring in the kitchen was hardwood.
Usually, ant colonies are located outside of the home, although satellite nests are sometimes built inside. Homeowners often find themselves with ant problems when foraging ants from the colony enter the home through cracks and crevices in the foundation or elsewhere in search of food. With this home, given where the ant trail was found, the foraging ants likely found their way inside the home from a nest underneath the deck. And once ants gain access to wall voids, any area of the home is fair game! They’re able to enter rooms through the smallest holes or gaps, including the holes in switch plate covers and cracks around window frames or baseboards.
Solution
For the inside treatment, to reach the ants, I used an aerosol application to get the product deep into crack and crevices and as well as into the wall voids (see photo of crack and crevice treatment under the floor moldings and treatment under the sliding class door and edge of hardwood flooring).
During treatment, to my surprise, springtails were flushed out of the wall. Springtails are very small insects found in high moisture environments. They feed on fungi, mold, and other decaying organic matter (finding them in your home may mean you have a mold problem). These pests jump around when disturbed, much like fleas. Outdoors, they are often found under mulch, rock beds, decks, and pavers, and enter homes through window screens and gaps under door thresholds. Homes that have slab foundations, can find themselves with a springtail infestation because they can enter up through the expansion joints under the flooring. Caulking these gaps can be a big help blocking these nasty little pests.
After treating the interior, I moved to the home’s exterior perimeter. I treated under the deck, under the siding, under the kick plate boards and the mulch that boarded the house (see photo of treatment under deck boards to reach the soil and foundation wall).
This indoor-outdoor treatment will be effective for both the ants and springtails, as well as other occasional invaders entering the home.
