2 Causes of an Ant InfestationThere are clear reasons why your house is experiencing an ant infestation. An ant infestation can affect your health in many ways. Certain species of ants can spread typhoid fever while other ants damage, stain or soil clothes. Below are some reasons why your house may have an ant infestation. 1. Food SupplySweet food, pet food, and crumbs are only a few foods that are enticing to ants. When they are lying around your home, they are a great target for ants. They enter your home through crevices, cracks, and openings found on your walls, floors, doors, and windows. It is very important to always keep food in tightly closed containers and seal all cracks and openings that could serve as entryways for ants. 2. The Presence of an Ant NestAnother reason that your house gets infested by ants is the presence of ant nests inside your house or within your immediate surroundings. Wooden fixtures saturated by water from leaks in the house are a great target for them as well. Ants love rotten wood to build their nest in. Check your home for leaks, especially those that might run on to wooden fixtures and fix them right away. How Ants LiveTo be able to eliminate the invasion of ants in your home, it is best to understand how they work. Ants live in colonies with many chambers. A queen whose job is to eat and reproduce is in one chamber. The rest of the population is composed of a few male ants to aid in the reproduction and the rest are female ant workers. They are responsible for finding and bringing in the food. They too are in one chamber. It is important to note that when the ants find food and bring them back to their nest, they leave behind a chemical trail for other ants to trace in order to find the food source. The food that is brought in is stored in another room for times when food is scarce. Since ants are sociable creatures, their membership doesn't stop growing. They constantly need to expand their territory. Suggestions for Ant EliminationFirst, locate their nests so you can destroy them. Use a chemical or natural ant baits that attracts the worker ants, thereby bringing the poisonous food to feed the queen, killing her and subsequently destroying the colony. You have to make sure that the chemical trail is thoroughly cleaned after treatment to ensure safety for the people in the household. If the colony is outdoors, one way to eradicate it is to use a garden hose to flood it down and eliminate it for a period of time. Chemical sprays could also be used but it might be good to note that treating the ant hill with chemicals sprays could sometimes only reach the outer portions of the hill and not the queen's chamber. This would only push them deeper into the ground and not eliminate them at all. It is best to use a sprayer that could penetrate the insides of the colony so that the chemicals can reach the queen.