KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Winter is over and bugs are coming to life. And in some cases, those bugs are coming into your home. Pest control companies said ants and spiders are their number one complaints this time of the year.
“All insects and the arachnids, the spiders, they've been hibernating,” explained Mitch Shipman of Blue Beetle Pest Control. “It's been a long winter for them so they're nice and hungry and they are very aggressive and they're looking for a meal.”
Shipman said insects will look for any way to get into your house, whether it’s through a crack in your foundation, around windows, or on the side of doors.
But Shipman said there are things you can do to keep the ants out. It begins with keeping your kitchen clean. Ants hunt for crumbs and water.
If you see ants, he suggested using a store-bought bait to kill them. You can place it around your sink and along any crack where the ants may be entering. Shipman said you should also place bait outside your home to have the biggest impact.
“You want to get your rake, rake up the mulch. It gets the ants running and moving and they'll find the bait and take it back to the colony and sayonara,” Shipman said.
The tool exterminators said works well against spiders is a glue board, typically a piece of paper or thin plastic with sticky glue on it. Place it near a door, or in an area where spiders might come into your home, and as soon as they get in, they stick to the glue and die.
If you have tried everything but ants and spiders keep coming, there are professional exterminators who can help, and Shipman said plenty of people are calling for their help.
“The long winter — the phones did not ring much. The moment it heated up into the 80s, the phones are going off the hook because all those bugs are coming out. They're so hungry and there is so much pressure to get food for the colony. Here they come,” Shipman warned.
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