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Welcome. It’s another episode of the volunteerridapest.com podcast with your host Mike Stewart and pest expert in Chattanooga, Eric Gardner. Eric, are you here again today?
I am here and ready to go.
Well, you know, I heard from a little birdie, that ants are a problem in Chattanooga, Tennessee and the surrounding areas like Cleveland, Tennessee and all the other places where you help people with pest control. I want to know what, as a homeowner and as a resident of Cleveland, Tennessee or Chattanooga, Tennessee, what do I need to know about ants and the problems they cause and what you guys can do to get rid of them?
Well, Mike, you know, we get a lot of phone calls about all kinds of different pests, but far and away most of our phone calls are about ants. And ants can be just a more of a nuisance to most people. They don’t understand that actually. they transmit a lot of different bacterias and germs and things that can make you sick. And anytime you have ants on your kitchen counter, you don’t know where they were a couple hours ago they could have been in the backyard, crawling around in a garbage can they could have been in the backyard around some dog or cat feces. You just don’t know. But once they get in your house, they crawl on your sink, you can get on your dishes, possibly on your food supply. So answer a major problem. And they’re really difficult to control. One reason is because they can get in your wall voids and hang out there. You can treat the outside of your house, but they’re technically already in. So, they can be difficult to track down and find their nest. But we have a lot of experience with this. We can find them and we can get rid of them.
So you’re telling me that these ants have all kinds of germs and pathogens on their little bitty feet. And they’re tracking those germs and pathogens all over my kitchen plates and my pots and pans and the things I eat off of. Is that correct?
That’s exactly right. You know, most of the time when we get sick, we don’t really know, the source of it, you know, we eat something and we have an upset stomach for a few hours or sometimes longer. And now it’s probably just a little bug or whatever. Well, a lot of times, it’s something like that. There’s all kinds of different little bacteria. They’re microscopic, and ants really small, but these little microbes are even smaller. And they can get on the ant, on their feet on their skin. As they crawl across the surfaces, they can deposit them and then we come in contact with them. So it’s really important to wipe down your sink. You know, make sure if you do see ants in your kitchen cabinets, you don’t just use them, run them through the dishwasher again, make sure that the you know it’s not gonna be passed to your family.
Well, that makes a whole lot of sense. And the truth is, I don’t care how clean you are and how nice a house, and new house you have. Every home has the cracks and crevices around pipes and doors and windows that these little pests can get in your house and they’re always looking for food. And they’re always looking for water. And so you just need to know that when you see them, protect yourself. And Eric Gardner and volunteer rapist knows exactly what to do to help you protect yourself and maybe get the get rid of the nest. So you’re saying getting rid of the nest in the yard or somewhere near the house could really reduce the amount that come in your house. Is that correct?
Yeah, that’s thing they get out foraging for food and they leave their nest which is typically an anthill in the yard. But once they get in your home they many times we find them in the wall void between the say the kitchen cabinets and the exterior siding and then installation. Great place for them to hide. It’s close to a water source close to the food source gives them a lot of protection. We have found ant colonies inside wall voids literally 10s of thousands of ants. They’ve been there for a long time. And typically they get there in the winter months when it’s cold outside instead of going dormant like they’re supposed to. They get into a nice warm wall void. They’re protected, it’s warm, and they do their business all winter long. People see him in December, January, February, they pop out from time to time to feed and they think well, they’re gone but then they come back again then in April in May, they got a huge ant problem. And it’s because they took no action when it originally started. So we have found huge ant nest in wall voids and attics and basements. So if you’re seeing ants, don’t just assume it’s a mild problem. You know, get it checked out make sure you stay on top of it or it could become a major issue.
Wow. They can be living in your house and and set up home inside your house even in the winter. What are the major type of ants found in Chattanooga
We get a lot of calls about Pharaoh ants, pavement ants. They call them crazy ants because they act sort of erratic. There’s an odorous house and there’s Argentine ants, carpenter ants and a whole lot of other ones. But those are probably the major ones. And there’s even one a little tiny one called a thief ant, and they are just, you know, there’s all kinds of there’s, I’d say probably several hundred different varieties, and they look very similar at a distance, but when you look at them under magnification, you can tell the differences, but some feed more on proteins, some more on sugar, and some, they prefer moist locations, some prefer hot, dry locations, so you have to know all that and know exactly how to treat for them.
Well, this has been extremely informative. I have been curious, and it’s not just ants, it’s a lot of different kind of species of those pests can get in your home in Chattanooga and what I recommend you do is Go to volunteerridapest.com or ChattanoogaTermiteandPestControl.com either of those sites, you find the phone number and you call Eric gardener. He will come out there and make sure guaranteed that if you got a pest problem in Chattanooga, especially an ts, they’ll take care of it. Hey, I’m Mike Stewart for the Volunteer Rid A Pest podcast. You can subscribe to us on Apple, Google and Spotify. Wherever podcasts are, share us with your friends, share us on social media, and we’ll see you next time on the Volunteer Rid A Pest podcast
