Last updated on October 23rd, 2023 at 08:51 pm
If you have discovered the first ants in the house or garden, you should start fighting them as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the larger the colony will become and the more nests the ants will build.
But how quickly do ant baits actually work and do you immediately notice how the ant poison kills the animals? Find out how long it takes until the house or garden is free of ants again.
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Effect of the ant poison
If you want to get rid of ants permanently, you can generally only succeed by using an ant poison. Natural means may be more ecologically justifiable, but the effect leaves much to be desired. Most ants are hardly impressed by chalk or the typical home remedies. Only a homemade ant trap, in which you lure the animals, proves effective. But even with this construction you will hardly succeed in pushing back the ants completely.
Ant poisons with various active ingredients are available on the market. Among the most common are:
- Spinosad
- Fipronil
- Permethrin
These active ingredients are widely used in agriculture to control other pests. They are also approved for household use and are safe for humans when used properly. In any case, however, you should proceed with caution when applying the toxins. Wear gloves and avoid direct contact. Then the application is safe.
Mode of action of the ant baits
Once you have applied the ant baits to the desired areas, they work in different ways. In order for the ants to approach the bait, they usually have an attractant. If the first curious ant gets to the bait and finds the attractant, his fellow ants will follow him down the ant trail.
But to your surprise, you will notice that the ants initially move away from the bait completely unharmed. Does this mean that the ant bait has failed and is proving ineffective?
No, because the effect is delayed. The active substances must first enter the organism. Absorbed by the body, they trigger paralysis symptoms there or act on the central nervous system.
It is therefore quite desirable that the effect is not immediate. The advantage is that the poison is carried into the ant’s nest. Thus, the poison does not only develop its effect on the individual ants near the bait, but is carried directly to the base. There, the queen also comes into contact with the poison and after a single application, success can already be achieved, so that the nest has been successfully combated.
How long does it take to fight the ants?
The poison does not have an immediate effect. After contact or ingestion, a few hours pass before the ants are rendered harmless. However, this does not mean that after placing the ant bait already after a few hours there is a great improvement.
On the contrary, the ant trail may initially lead to a larger infestation. However, the ants only move along the road and carry the poison into the nest. It is only with the large number of ants that you now start to see that you are likely to become aware of the full extent of the infestation. For it seems that the crawling does not stop, and although isolated ants are already killed, their number has hardly decreased.
In practice, more patience is needed. It takes at least 2 to 3 days for the poison to spread over a large area of the nest. So, if the applied agent proves to be effective, you have to count with at least 2 to 3 days until the ants do not show themselves anymore. A period of 7 days is also considered reasonable until the ants are completely eliminated. If there is still no improvement after this period, you should set up ant traps again to repeat the application.
The ant spray for an immediate effect
If you do not want to wait several days until the ants are effectively controlled, ant spray is more suitable for this application. The effect is not delayed, but occurs relatively quickly after the first contact.
Therefore, ant spray is a good choice if the little animals have strayed into your house. If you are expecting guests or want to prevent ants from invading your kitchen, ant spray is an effective alternative with an immediate effect. However, you must be aware that it will not eliminate the actual problem. The nest remains untouched by the spray, so individual ants can always stray into your kingdom.
Nevertheless, the spray proves useful for a short time. In addition to the immediate effect, it also contains a barrier effect. If you spray the active ingredient, ants will stay away from that area for some time. Thus, you protect the entrance to the house and leave the ants in the garden.
Fighting the ants effectively
Ants can be a real nuisance in the house and garden. Once attracted to something edible, they form ant trails that allow you to invade your home in large numbers. To combat the ants, ant traps prove to be effective.
You distribute the small bait cans at the sensitive access areas and wait for the ants to get at them. However, the effect of the poison is not immediate. The ants carry the bait, including the active ingredient, into the nest, so that the entire colony is controlled. It takes about 2 to 7 days until the nest is completely dissolved. This makes ant bait particularly effective as a long-term solution.
You can achieve an immediate effect with ant spray. You direct this specifically at the individual ants that are becoming a nuisance to you. However, this will only kill the individual animals and not the nest.
Depending on the desired goal, you should therefore choose between a fast-acting ant spray or a permanent solution such as ant bait.