Are there ants in your bed? You try to drive them away, but the ants keep reappearing, which is very annoying. Not as tricky as dealing with bed bugs, you can get rid of the ants when you know and understand them with some basic rules: always keep the bed and surrounding items clean. Will and will not have any food source to attract ants.
Believe that after reading through and applying some of the following knowledge, you will quickly know how to get ants out of my bed in the first place without calling the exterminator.
Why are these ants in my bed?
Ants are one of Earth’s most successful animals. They are present everywhere, more than any other insect. They work hard, cooperate reasonably, and do not skip any opportunity to bring back even a tiny amount of food to their fellow humans.
So if your bed has a comfortable temperature, a shelter, or a large amount of food somewhere, it will attract ants. Why do ants appear in our beds? First, you should probably check to see if you have made any of the following mistakes:
Crumbs or pills in your bed
First, you should see if you eat a lot in your school because ants suddenly appear in your bed. After all, ants appear wherever there is a food source for them. Therefore, if you repeat eating in your bed for a long time, you will inevitably have food and grease samples accidentally scattered around, and ants will sniff them.
In addition, if you do not clean your body thoroughly, such as not cleaning your dirty hands after eating or your clothes have stains due to food on the bed can also be a cause. Therefore, you should avoid staining your bed sheet by eating and drinking.
Moisture
Although less common, dampness can also be a cause of attracting ants to your bed. Make sure your bed is always dry and free of moisture from the mattress to the bed frame.
Old wooden bed
The old wooden bed attracts carpenter ants for a potential residential area, especially at the joints. The natural humidity will make it even easier for them to dig into the surface of the wood frame. In addition, the spots or particles in some of the beds will tell you that ants have occupied your bed.
It will not scare you unless one day you drop some food crumbs on your bed; you will be surprised because of the time by how quickly the ants appear right in front of you as they are always under your bed.
Or sometimes, if you “misbehave” by slightly pressing on them or threatening them, they will immediately attack you. So make sure your wooden bed is not what the ants desire by preventing it from being too wet, or if it is too old, replace it with a new one.
Cracks and holes in the mattress
The mattress is usually warm and moist, which provides a suitable habitat for ants to breed and lay eggs. So ants can also live in your mattress and make a nest there, especially when it’s made of metal and barely lays on the floor.
It would help if you did not ignore when there are holes and cracks in your mattress because ants find no reasons to ignore when it’s easy to invade such potential hiding places like these. Make sure the “ant hole” was stitched or patched appropriately; otherwise, you will have the ants bite or sting you while sleeping, or sometimes you can even encounter deadly ones.
How To Get Ants Out Of My Bed?
You have to do something to remove those annoying ants for fear that they will attack you or might carry bacteria and ant problems to your bedding place. Here are steps-to-step guidance that you can use to get rid of ants:
- Step 1: Locate the ant nest
- Step 2: Apply insecticide to the nest
- Step 3: Monitor the situation and repeat as necessary.
Step 1: Locate the ant nest
When the ants attack the piece on your bed, the first thing that comes to mind is that you should make them “disappear” right at times by force or “blow “them away. But that way doesn’t effectively get rid of ants for long to go; they will still come at times. So next time you see ants on the bed, you should do some “deep” observation of where they come from to eliminate them by root.
Knowing where the ants come from is essential, either in your bed or somewhere in the room. Try to follow the trail they march from their nest to your bed to ensure you do the right thing to prevent ants from coming again.
Step 2: Apply chemical substances to get rid of ants
After identifying ant nests, apply insecticide directly to them. There are many insecticides, so ensure you follow each insecticide label’s instructions precisely. Bleach and white vinegar are options to kill ants and their eggs.
Or you can use ant baits. Ant baits are mixtures of toxic chemicals with food items that can kill ants. They might bring the food items to feed the Queen so it can effectively eliminate ants on a massive scale in the nests underneath or even the entire colony.
Just use the chemical substances only in the affected areas so that other species are not affected. You can see an immediate effect by soaking a cloth and wiping down the nest areas or using an ant killer spray bottle.
If you are not into a chemical solution, perhaps you should think of other more natural remedies: pour boiling water down the nest. It’s considerably the easiest way to get rid of ants since no species can tolerate high temperatures. Hot water is also more hygienic than any ant killer substance.
Step 3: Monitor the situation and repeat as necessary.
To entirely get rid of ants, you must do further actions to monitor and control the condition of the “Free of ants” of your bed by constantly checking on any signs of ants returning, and you should set a timetable for periodical spraying.
Kinds Of Ants Getting Into Beds
Here, we provide you with more useful information about the kinds of ants so you can learn more:
They are one of the most common species of ants across the world. They get their name from their appearance with black coloration with the variation of sizes as many kinds display. These ants are highly attracted to food in your bed. They can build a nest in your bed and bedroom, such as on the walls or the trash can nearby.
Carpenter ants
Carpenter ants are also one of the most common types of ants that will get into your bed. Although, as their name can tell, they are attracted to wood, they build a nest by excavating the wood and forming smooth tunnels, which will annoy you and also ruin your bed condition. And wooden headboards or footboards are pretty typical for bed materials.
Little brown ants
Little brown ants are small insects that are about 1/16 to 1/8 inch long. They have a brown or black body and six legs. They are social insects that live in colonies. Colonies can be small, with just a few dozen ants, or large, with thousands of ants.
Little brown ants are found all over the world and are common in homes, businesses, and other buildings. They are attracted to food and moisture, and will often invade homes in search of these things.
Pavement ants
Pavement Ants can be easily found around the house. They are about 1/4 inch long and are black or brown. They are familiar with nesting under sidewalk cracks or gaps in the ground or sideways.
Flying ants
Despite being more harmless than the rest of their kinds, flying ants- as you might know- can fly around your bed. They are just regular ants with wings. They still pose a threat in your bedroom by seeing several of them swarming around the peaceful atmosphere.
Tips To Prevent Ants From Getting Into Beds
It’s not necessarily the best way to destroy ants in the first place, especially when you can naturally get rid of ants by some tips below:
Remove food sources
Besides getting rid of ants with an ant spray bottle or any ant traps, you should avoid all factors ants coming for, mostly food stains. For example, just a few drops of lemon juice or a crumb of toasted bread are enough to attract ants.
Keep the bedding clean
You make sure to change the sheets regularly and vacuum the floor around the bed regularly so that you won’t be afraid of ant infestation, even when there are ghost ants.
Use ant repellent
There are some natural substances that help repel ants. For example, peppermint essential oil or tea tree oil could be ideal for repelling ants from invading some unwanted places. Or some materials with smells that ants hate, such as cayenne pepper or orange peels.
Seal up entry points
Make sure the ants can’t access the potential food sources by carefully sealing up the packaging or containers of the objects. For example, this method works for sweets that attract sugar ants because you can’t apply chemicals to food.
Conclusion
These tips help keep ants out of bed and ensure a good night’s sleep. And when you have sought all solutions but still not gotten rid of ants. Then, it’s time you should resort to professional help to solve ant problem. An exterminator can give you some good advice on how to get ants out of my bed.
FAQs
What smell do ants hate?
Some smells that ants shy away from, like lavender, eucalyptus, cinnamon, and garlic. So you take advantage of these ant-disgusting materials to turn against them.
Which substances can keep ants away?
White vinegar, boric acid, sprinkle pepper, bleach-based detergent, peppermint oil, and calcium carbonate are home-available materials that we can use to get rid of ants.
What attracts ants the most?
The most obvious answer is sugar. Sugar can have ants coming in a matter of minutes. So be aware of your food types. If the food is rich-in-sugar ingredient based, you should preserve it carefully.
