


In business over 40 years
Since 1984
Ant Removal
Application/Treatment:
Our Mug-A-Bug technicians will treat ant infestation in most Colorado Springs homes with a combination of methods and products. Primarily we choose to bait rather than spray for ants. The reason for this is that sprays are meant to kill the ants you see, and they will act as a deterrent rather than effective ant removal. Most over-the-counter products have no residual, lasting effect. If the ants can enter your home, they will simply find a way around the spray. Plus, their colony will still be intact, producing more and more ants and potentially leading to an ant infestation in your Colorado Springs home. Additionally, some colonies are nearly impossible to reach without special equipment. If a colony or nest is located within your walls, a simple spray that anyone can buy will not be sufficient as an ant removal option to properly treat the colony. Similarly, outdoor colonies can extend far below the surface, which is where most over-the-counter treatments stop working.
This is exactly where Mug-A-Bug steps in! The advantage in using baits is that foraging ants take the insecticide bait back to the nest and feed it to the queen or queens and other colony members. As a result, the entire colony is often destroyed. To address the ant infestation our Colorado Springs team will have treated your home with combination of methods. The worker (foraging) ants need to interact with the ant removal treatment and take it back to the colony. This process, called the transfer effect, works great but it does take a little time.
Our Mug-A-Bug team will place baits (granulated or gel) next to wherever ants are seen, beside ant “trails” (invisible ant trails which worker ants follow between food and the nest). DO NOT SPRAY other insecticides or cleaning agents around the areas that we have treated as this will deter ants from feeing the bait or our products. Ants find their way by leaving a pheromone/scent trail to food supplies for other ants to follow and find their way. Any over the counter ant removal products will contaminate our products, or if you wipe up active ant trails, it will kill the ants before they make it back to the colony or you will interfere with their pheromone trails. Initially, you should see an increase in the number of ants around the bait – DO NOT SPRAY THEM!!! This indicates that the ants are feeding on the bait and transporting the insecticide back to the nest. Watch the ants transfer the bait to their colony!
Ant activity often will subside in a matter of 14-21 days as the number of ants in the colony declines. If you see just a few lingering ants – a large colony may have had some workers in reserve – give the treatment another week before calling our office for a follow-up treatment. We must allow the ant removal products at least 14 days from the day of the initial treatment before we schedule a follow-up treatment to allow time for the baits to take full effect and start to provide the ant control. When addressing an ant infestation our Colorado Springs Mug-A-Bug team suggests that you remain patient and remember that ant treatments are not an instant and overnight kill.
While it is nice to imagine a world without pests, the truth is that there are more ants than there are of us. The fight against ants is ongoing. Some of the problems with any ant removal rest within the ant’s capabilities. For example, we previously mentioned “scent/pheromone trail” may not necessarily just run between the colonies and food sources, it may lead ants to other satellite colonies, providing them with sanctuary from a nest that has been treated. Ants can always come back. It is just a matter of how difficult we make it for them to enter your home and how prepared we are for when they do try to come back. When you notice an ant infestation, our Colorado Springs technicians at Mug-A-Bug will be able to go over all options and maintenance plan information with you to turn your ant problem into an ant removal solution.
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Maintenance Packages
Pest Control
Monthly
starting at
This service is primarily for commercial accounts (restaurants, coffee shops, donut shops, etc.) that require a monthly maintenance. Some residential customers will go monthly based on their tolerance threshold, or they are from the South and they are just used to a monthly service frequency.
Bi-Monthly
starting at
This is primarily for residential customers and the most common service package that we recommend to our residential customers. The reason that we prefer the bi-monthly service is because the products that we use typically have a residual effect that lasts between 45-60 days and that the customer will be due for their next regularly scheduled treatment normally within the next 1-2 weeks.
Quarterly
starting at
This is for customer’s who do not mind seeing the occasional spider or ant and have a higher tolerance threshold. Since these customers are serviced every 90 days, there is roughly a 30-day period where they will not have any “active” product or residual at their home since the products used have become less effective or worn-off.
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additional applications
Rodents
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If a customer has a rodent (mice/rat) issue we typically recommend that they are on a monthly frequency at first until eradication has been achieved, then we can switch them to a less frequent package.
The Works
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Occasional Invaders:Ground Beetles
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Beetles:Carpet Beetles and Cabinet Beetles
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Biting Insects (In-Home Only):Fleas and Ticks
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Stinging Insects:Bees, Hornets, Yellow Jackets, Wasps, Mud Daubers
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Stored Product Pests:Indian Meal Moth, Flour Beetles, Larder Beetles, Drugstore Beetles, Sawtoothed Grain Beetles, Clothes Moths
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Rodents:Mice/Rats
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Exclusions Include:Wood Destroying Insects, Bed Bugs, Clover Mites, Flies, and Gnats
One-Time
Application
starting at
Customers will contact us to provide a one-time application or “on-demand” applications throughout the year. Some will call twice a year (Springs & Fall) for service.
Faqs
Ants are multi-queened, meaning that they have several queens who are working and laying eggs every day, so the colonies can grow in size very quickly. With using baits as our method of treatment, we are relying on the worker ants to take the bait underground and feed it to the other ants and multiple queens. Depending on the size of the colony, it may only take one treatment to gain control, but for larger more established colonies, it may require 1-2 follow-up treatments. We generally recommend ant follow-ups to be either 2 weeks or 1 month after the initial treatment. Our technician will make his follow-up recommendations based on the activity level that they see during their inspection.
Sprays are formulated differently than baits, in that they are used more for repelling insects and offer more of a contact kill. Baits are formulated as an attractant and are meant to act as the food source for the insects (roaches or ants), therefore making the insects take the bait back to their nest or colony and help achieve eradication below the surface, where our technician cannot see or does not have direct access. Spray applications will kill only those workers who are on the surface and come in contact with the spray or repellent, and with baits, all workers have the potential to be exposed to the baits, whether that is directly on the surface when they carry the bait back underground, or if they are one of the workers who are feed the bait underground.
Since we bait for ants, the products that we use will be tagged as the food source for other worker ants which will attract more ants. This is why there may seem like there is a HUGE increase in ant activity after we have treated. The increase in activity should only last 10-14 days after the initial application and should start to die down dramatically after the two-week period. The most important tip to remember is DO NOT SPRAY ANY OVER THE COUNTER PRODUCTS AFTER WE HAVE TREATED. Almost all over the counter products are a “repellent” and will do nothing but counteract the baits that we have put in place. The spray will deter or repel the ants from coming to the bait that we used.
First, our technician will need to properly ID the ant species that are at your home. Identification is the first step for treatment because different ant species have different diets during different times of the year. Ants have two (2) distinct diets, with the first one being sweets/sugars, and the other diet consists of proteins. During the hotter summer months, ants will tend to feed on the sweeter and more sugary foods. Which is why you will notice ants all over a dropped popsicle or even spilled soft drinks. During the winter months, they focus more on protein (food crumbs and food grease). Once we determine the type of ant, we then know which approach to take when it comes to their treatment. Our technicians will use baits (granules or gels) to treat. While ants are out in the field feeding and foraging, they will mark their path or trail (with a pheromone) to the food source, and this path/trail is why you see ants in a straight line. We will place our baits out along this “trail” so that the bait is tagged as a food source and other worker ants to come to the bait to feed on it and take it back to the nest or colony that we cannot get to directly, which is why baiting is the best method and application approach for treating for ants for this very reason. There may be some instances where our technician may use both baits and sprays to treat for the ants, but that determination would be made once the technician has had the chance to inspect your home. To achieve a higher level of control, we want the worker ants to take the baits back underground and into the colony where the queens reside.
Testimonials
I was very happy with them. When I called them up, I told them what my problem was and they said “no problem”. They were prompt and very professional. They came out and told me what he was going to do for the charge that he was going to charge me. They laid their traps and stuff and then within four of five days, the whole infestation was completely gone. I haven’t had the problem with the ants since they applied their bug juice on them. They were to the point, very accurate and very professional. If I had to use a bug company again, I would use them. They were great.
General Pest Control
Rodent (Mice/Rat) Control
Termites New Construction
Termites Post Construction
General Pest Control
Rodent (Mice/Rat) Control
Termites New Construction
Termites Post Construction
General Pest Control
Rodent (Mice/Rat) Control
Termites New Construction
Termites Post Construction
General Pest Control
Rodent (Mice/Rat) Control
Termites New Construction
Termites Post Construction