Vacuuming ants is a common method for getting ants off surfaces around the house, but does it actually work?
If you’re looking to kill the ants, vacuuming is not the way to go. Most ants will survive being vacuumed, and you will likely miss a lot of the ants which will not prevent an infestation.
Let’s take a deep dive into why vacuuming ants doesn’t actually work, and what you can do to get rid of ants once and for all.
Why Vacuuming Ants Doesn’t Work
Although vacuuming ants up is probably one of the first things you would think of when you notice some around the house, it is very ineffective at getting rid of ants completely – especially if there is an infestation.
Ants Are Incredibly Strong
Vacuuming ants simply won’t kill the majority of them, and this is because ants are extremely lightweight.
The common worker ant weights between 1mg to 5mg, and with their hard exoskeleton made from chitin, the force of a vacuum simply isn’t enough to kill them in most cases. You have probably heard stories of ants being able to lift 10x of their body weight, and this is actually true.
You Won’t Remove All Of The Ants
No matter how much you vacuum you will not remove all of the ants.
The reason for this is simple – you are only seeing a tiny proportion of the ants that are part of the colony. The majority of the ants will be in the nest or on the path to it, so if you vacuum the ants you see at first you won’t get rid of all of them.
Surfaces like carpet make it even trickier to remove ants as well as they can get deep into the fibers, especially on thicker carpets like wool.
Disposing Can Be Tricky
Once you’ve vacuumed the ants it is more than likely that the majority of them will still be alive, so where exactly can you dump out the vacuum dust?
If you decide to throw it away in the bin as you usually would, you are simply making your problem worse as the ants will have access to more food. Sure, you can go outside, but you will also have to dump the rest of the vacuum waste as well as the ants.
In some cases, the ants will be able to escape the vacuum when the suction is turned off as well, which makes it even harder to properly get rid of them!
Can Ants Survive In A Vacuum?
Ants can survive in your vacuum for a long time, so it won’t be productive to wait around after vacuuming them up to hope that they suffocate.
The bottom line is that vacuuming ants can remove them from your floor, but you won’t get rid of all the ants and the majority that you vacuum up will survive anyway.
How To Properly Get Rid Of Ants
The first thing you need to do when you notice ants around the house is to identify where they are coming from.
Cut Off Access
If you have gaps in baseboards or grouted areas of the kitchen, these can provide easy access for ants to enter. They can enter from just about any other type of gap, including those between floorboards, so be careful when checking for the origin.
If you notice any obvious areas where they are entering then seal them up straight away as a priority. You can then follow the steps below to kill the remaining ants.
Identify Nests
The next step is to identify the nests, as this is where the majority of the ants will be.
The most common method for doing this is to pour boiling water directly into the nest. You may have to do this repeatedly, but it is a good method of killing most of the ants. You should then surround the entrance with ant killer powder to prevent any other ants from escaping.
Spot Clean Surfaces
Any remaining months that are outside of the next will have to be killed next.
This can be done with a traditional ant killer product, or by using a homemade solution of white vinegar and water.
Use Ant Killer
Ant killing products come in many different forms, but we like to use powder to get rid of ants.
Once you have cut off the access routes for the ants, pour a generous amount of powder onto areas where you have noticed them and leave it for the recommended amount of time. You can also apply the powder to other surfaces like carpets if you suspect ants are there.
After the time is up simply vacuum the powder away and repeat until all of the ants have been eliminated.
Use Distilled White Vinegar And Water
Distilled white vinegar and water is a great solution for killing ants if you want a home remedy – just bear in mind that this solution is better to use on hard surfaces where you can wipe it away after applying it.
For this solution simply mix the vinegar and water in a one to one mixture in a spray bottle and spray it on the necessary surfaces. Leave it for 5 to 10 minutes and then wipe away the rest.
Final Thoughts
Vacuuming ants is not the way to go if you want to get rid of the ants properly.
Use the method above to get rid of ants for good and save yourself the headache of dealing with ants constantly.
