Odorous House Ant Extermination Richmond VA

If you have tiny black ants taking over your kitchen or bathroom, you are likely dealing with Odorous House Ants. In the Richmond area, these are the most common ants we see inside homes. Most people realize they have them because of the strange, rotten smell they give off if they get crushed. At Optimal Termite & Pest Control, we don’t just spray the ones you see; we find out where they are hiding so they stay gone.

These ants are constantly searching for two things: food and water. This is why you usually find them trailing across your kitchen counters or around bathroom sinks. You will likely notice a big jump in activity right after it rains or when the Richmond humidity kicks in. When it gets wet outside, they start looking for a dry place to move their colony, and your home is the perfect target.

As an expert who deals with these ants every day, I’ve noticed a pattern. Homeowners with heavy mulch beds, lots of potted plants, or stone decorations in the garden tend to have the biggest ant problems.

The reason is simple: those areas stay damp and protected, making them the perfect spot for a nest. If you use untreated mulch right against your foundation, you are basically inviting them to live there. From those outdoor nests, they use your bushes and untrimmed tree branches as highways to climb up and enter your home at the higher levels.

If you’ve tried buying a can of spray from the store, you probably noticed the ants came back a few days later. That’s because those sprays only kill the few ants you see. The product you bought could also be a repellent pushing them to a different part of the house. They don't touch the thousands of ants waiting in the nests under your mulch or patio stones. To really get rid of them, you have to treat the source.

When we come to your home, we don’t just spray your baseboards and leave. That doesn't work for these ants. We use a strategic plan to find the nests and stop the trails for good.

First, we look for the trails. We check the outside of your home, specifically under mulch beds, garden decorations, and rocks where these ants love to hide. By seeing where they are moving, we can treat the "source" instead of just the "symptoms."

We use a two-step approach on the outside of your house to keep it safe:

• Liquid Treatment: We apply a non-repellent liquid "two feet up and two feet out" around your foundation. The ants can’t smell it or see it, so they walk right through it and carry it back to the nest.
• Granular Bait: We place a special ant bait in a two-foot band outside of our liquid treatment. We keep these separate so the liquid doesn’t ruin the bait. This gives the ants a "snack" to take back to the colony that will eventually eliminate the nest.
• Crack and Crevice Work: If we find specific gaps or holes on the outside of your home, we may use a professional dust or aerosol to get deep into those hiding spots.

If ants are on your kitchen or bathroom counters, we never spray the countertops. That is unsafe and against the rules. Instead, we perform "crack and crevice" work.

• We look for the tiny holes around window framing or the gaps between your backsplash and the wall.
• We use professional dusts inside these wall voids because they last much longer than sprays, giving you better protection.

Most people know to trim their bushes, but you’d be surprised where ants can travel. I have actually seen ants use outdoor string lights as a highway, trailing from a fence line 30 feet away directly into the third story of a home! If it touches your house, an ant can use it as a bridge.

To keep the ants from coming back, there are a few things you can do around the house:

1. Housekeeping: Keep kitchens clean and make sure all pantry items are sealed up tight. Ants leave behind a chemical "scent trail" that tells their friends exactly where the food is.
2. Mulch Management: If you can, try moving mulch away from your foundation and replacing it with a rock bed. It’s not a 100% fix, but it makes your home much less attractive to nesting ants.
3. Landscaping: Keep trees and bushes trimmed so they don't touch your siding or roof.

Bonus Info:

One thing most people don't know is that ants can actually build up a resistance to certain products. If the same chemical is used over and over again for years, the ants can eventually "learn" to survive it.

As an expert, I keep a close eye on this. If we treat your home and it feels like the results aren't what they used to be, it might be time to rotate the products we use. By switching to a different active ingredient, we can "reset" the clock and knock out the colony. This is why we encourage you to call us if you see activity between visits. We don’t just keep doing the same thing—we adapt our plan to make sure it actually works.