Ants aren’t the worst pests that can invade your New Jersey home, but they’re still not a welcomed sight. There are hundreds in a colony, and when they find your place fitting to set up house, it becomes pretty uncomfortable for your family. You see them scurry across your kitchen counters, trail down the walls, and they appear from the tiniest holes or gaps they can squeeze their bodies through. But where are they coming from? Believe it or not, checking for ants in driveway cracks might just be your answer. Ants live outside and prefer to set up shop in places where it’s warm and moist. Locations like under your driveway is perfect, and they use the cracks as a way to get in and out of their colony. They’re drawn indoors during the warmer summer months when there’s plenty of food and opportunity with windows and doors open.

These little workers would be just as happy living outside, but they are savvy hunters when it comes to gathering food. You’ve seen the mounds they make in the driveway, and it’s quite an unsightly mess. The real problem isn’t how it appears, but all these ants will look for food, and since it’s so close to your home, it’s the perfect opportunity to come inside. Thankfully, there are a few ways to get rid of these ants for good.

Why Are Ants in Driveway Cracks?

Ants in driveway cracks are found there because they love soil, and the more aerated the dirt, the better. They prefer the soft and moist dirt that’s often found under the driveways and sidewalks near your home. They love the paving slabs so much because there’s quite a bit of warmth that passes through this area, leaving the earth below a bit moist. If the ants are getting ready for their nuptial flights, the heat from the slab can trigger them to emerge. While it’s good for them, it means a bigger problem for you, as there will soon be more ants in their satellite colonies.

All the cracks that form in your driveway allow them to make a quick exit from the ground beneath, which is perfect for foraging for food. If the colony grows too big, some ants will split off and form another satellite colony, which means that they’ve grown in massive numbers. This is widespread among the ant colonies and a giant headache for you. It doesn’t take long before ants in driveway cracks are swarming with these dutiful workers, and soon they will be crawling across your counters and into your pantry.

If you’re wondering how many ants are in a colony, prepare to be shocked. Scientists have found that the average colony has around 5,000 ants, but they’ve also seen them as large as 30,000 members. Since there are so many mouths to feed, they can’t just look for food in the immediate area, so they must branch out a bit.

Ants in Driveway Cracks are Resourceful

Don’t make a mistake and think that your ants in driveway cracks will stay put. These tiny pests can travel up to 900 feet in an hour, and they can carry food 100 times their body weight on their back. Crazy! So, while having them outside isn’t too bad, the problem is that they won’t stay out for long.

The first time you forget to close the lid on those donuts on the counter, they will swarm the box like a buffet. Ants can detect food from up to 100 yards away. No one wants to share their home with an insect that gets into their food. The real question is, why do they want to come inside anyway? Isn’t there enough food outside for them to eat?

The worker ant has a significant job, as it’s his responsibility to feed the queens, all the infants, and any other ants in the reproductive phase. The burden of it all falls on the worker ants, and they must ensure that everyone has enough food to sustain them. When the weather is right, the reproductive ants will take their nuptial flight after they grow wings, but they need substance to go through these processes.

The queens need adequate food as they will mate and then move along to start a new colony. If the worker can’t find sufficient food, then the colony won’t survive. It doesn’t matter what precautions you’ve taken, like sealing gaps around windows and doors and putting down insecticide. They are so small that they can still get indoors.

If you want to get rid of the ants once and for all, then you must go to the source. Pavement ants in driveway cracks live under and around your driveway, so this is an excellent place to start.

Ways to Get Rid of Ants in Driveway Cracks

The first step in reclaiming your driveway from these insects is finding the colonies’ location. It sounds simple, but it’s not always so cut and dry. Since ants aren’t afraid of traveling long distances to get food, they might not be in plain sight.

Additionally, ants in driveway cracks don’t live there, but rather they burrow under them. The cracks only serve as an exit location, but they could be deep within the earth below. It doesn’t make good sense to lift up your driveway and pay to have it replaced over some ants, so you have some other options to consider.

Your first consideration is that you don’t want to hurt pets, young children, or yourself. So, here are some D-I-Y methods that might do the trick.

Remedy No 1: Bring on the Salt

Salt is very harmful to an ant’s system as it dehydrates them. Sodium chloride makes them so thirsty they will drink as much water as possible, so much so that their bodies will explode. If you’re having no luck seeing where the colony resides, then just douse the cracks with regular table salt.

It’s cheap, effective, and will keep them from exiting in your driveway cracks. Now, keep in mind that they will still thrive under the driveway, but they will be forced to find another route to exit. Other household spices that do the same thing include curry, chili powder, black pepper, and even cinnamon.

Remedy No 2: Give Them Some Coffee

The tiny ant avoids coffee as the caffeine content makes them loopy. When exposed to this natural stimulant, they tend to lose their bearings. Once under the power of these substances, they couldn’t find their way back to their colonies.

You can compare the feeling they experience to being drunk. Your bearings are off, and you aren’t fit to drive. When the ants emerge from the cracks and smell coffee, they will promptly return in fear of their lives. When the workers don’t get food for the others, the entire colony will die due to starvation.

Remedy No 3: Boiling Water

This step won’t work in the cracks, it’s only effective if you find the actual colony. Pouring boiling water on top of the ants will kill them all, even the fairest queen. This will take care of one colony, but remember, there can be many more you can’t see. You might need to do this for a few days until you see no more ants around.

Remedy No 4: Try Chalk

While not a complete fix, drawing chalk lines around your sidewalk will deter ants. Ants demonstrate great resourcefulness because they locate a new entrance when you block their primary path. Ants will find another way into your home even when you create chalk lines to redirect them, however, drawing chalk lines can help keep ants away from food items and fruit bowls.

Remedy No 5: Call in the Professionals

Ants don’t give up and they are extremely resourceful. Regular pest maintenance provided by a professional pest control company is going to be your safest and most thorough path to ant-free living within your home. Routine inspections and consistent treatments are vital in keeping those ants searching for a new home and away from yours.

Dealing with Those Unsightly Cracks

If you want to avoid doing this next year and the year after that, then you need to find a more permanent solution. Ants in driveway cracks will always be a problem in the warmer weather as long as the cracks are there, which is why it’s best to fix them.

Since concrete and blacktop crack horribly after time, resin is another option to consider. This product will remain crack-free indefinitely, and it will enhance the look of your property. Now, that can obviously get pretty pricey and it’s understandable if you don’t have the money to put in a new driveway.

There are plenty of kits and companies that can come in and fix these cracks to buy you some relief. Driveway cracks are a welcomed invitation to the pests underneath, and can mess with your curb appeal.

Knowing When to Call for Help

If you’ve tried the D-I-Y methods to no avail, it’s time to bring in Kapture’s professional reinforcement for your New Jersey home. Though the ant is a tiny pest, it can cause a massive problem. When sprays from the hardware store and all the methods listed above aren’t helping, you need someone with expert experience and products to get the job done correctly.

Many people think that pest control services are too expensive when they can do it themselves. However, by the time you add all your time, frustration, and the cost of your store-bought products, you could have had the problem taken care of quickly and had knowledgeable professionals make your life easier. When you see ants taking over, call in Kapture Pest Control—your Garden State experts.