Ant Exterminator Costs
Last Updated on June 16, 2022
Written by CPA Alec Pow | Content Reviewed by CFA Alexander Popinker
Although ants make for great tv show or cartoon characters and many people know songs about ants as hard-working creatures, not many individuals actually want them inside their homes. Aside from making us uncomfortable and ruining any food they get their tiny feet on, they can ultimately put our safety in danger. One of the best examples is the carpenter ant, which can weaken your home’s overall structure by chewing the wood used to build it. They can also put our health at risk because although tiny, they can still carry disease and they won’t be afraid to bite people or pets. Some species also cause strong allergic reactions with their bites, the fire ants being among the most notable examples. These ants can do a lot of damage to pets, the elderly, and even toddlers or infants.
What’s great is that we have started to figure out how they think and we now understand that they will usually stay somewhere within reach of their food sources. This means that it will be pretty easy to know where will ants be found, regardless of whether they are close to building materials they might find tasty or actual human food that is readily available. It will be a lot easier to exterminate ants when you know where they set their camp and built their colony.
You might also like our articles on the cost of termite, bat, or raccoon removal.
Due to their social personality, it won’t be all that hard to exterminate them. All you will have to do will be to set out bait that will be taken to the colony where it will destroy ants of all ages and types. Even so, estimating the actual cost of ant extermination might prove to be quite tricky.
For example, you will spend considerably more to eliminate carpenter ants or fire ants than the usual small black ants. The methods that will have to be used are also pretty varied, from chemical sprays to poisoned baits and from ongoing or even monthly treatments, to more complex techniques like the two-step approach used for fire ant mounds or the dust and drill technique.
So How Much Will Ant Extermination Cost?
Usually, you will spend between $200 and $1,300 for extermination services that will complete within a single visit. When opting for a monthly ant extermination service instead, you will spend between $60 and $100 for the initial visit, and then $50 for any needed monthly reapplications.
You will find a breakdown of the costs below:
Item | Cost |
Single-visit extermination service | $200-$1,300 depending on the type of ant |
Monthly service |
|
Contractual treatment (monthly/bi-annually/quarterly) | $700-$1,7500 |
Carpenter ant treatment | $600 for initial treatment |
Handyman to seal cracks ants use to enter the home | $130 |
Additional Cost and Other Considerations
An affordable but also really affordable service will infolve cleaning the area and then treating it with spray poison. This is because An ant that finds a food source will lay down a food trail for other ants to follow. If this is not stopped, it will enable all of the colony to find the food source.
A lot of people will tell you that another great way of getting rid of ants is with the help of diatomaceous earth that is placed along the entrances and any cracks on the house walls.
Depending on the extermination company you go for, they might be able to give you eco-friendly and overall green pesticides and baits. These are especially appealing if you have any small kids or pets around the house, but will also be more expensive.
A professional exterminator even has the possibility of removing all carpenter and fire ant nets around the home and in the yard. Most of them will usually charge just a small fee per nest and when they destroy the queen, the colony will slowly perish after that.
DIY considerations
Up to a point, there is an option to turn this task into a DIY project. It might only take an ant or two with a small amount of poison to complete this job. You will have to call in an expert to do a more professional job instead if you notice that the infestation keeps reappearing.
It is wise to at least ask a professional about the toolss to use if the problem is persistent, because there are a lot of different chemicals and baits at home improvement and hardware stores and picking the right ones for the job might prove to be pretty tricky.
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