Do ants prefer a specific type of sugar?

We’ve all experienced the dreaded curse of ants in the kitchen. There is nothing worse than opening your pantry cabinet only to find it crawling with ants. It is true that ants love our food, but it also seems that they have a strong preference for some types of food over others. Sweet foods are high on the favorite food list for this pesky crawler.

Sugar is one of ants’ favorite foods, but do they prefer a certain type of sugar? One thing that is interesting to note about adult ants is that they are more often attracted to sugary solutions rather than sugar itself; adult worker ants often have difficulty swallowing something that is not in liquid form. It is more common to see ants attracted to sugary foods rather than a plain bag of sugar. Sticky, sugary items like popsicles and sugar water are more likely to attract ants than plain table sugar, but that doesn’t mean that ants won’t go straight for any sweet item they can get their hands on. To keep ants away from your sugar, it is best to store all open packages in airtight containers.

Using sweets to get rid of ants

Now that you know that ants prefer sugar, you may be able to use that information to your advantage. If your ant infestation is relatively mild, you may want to consider using a sugar bait to trap the ants. Mix a sweetened jelly with boric acid to attract and kill the ants in your home. The jelly attracts the ants and they carry the poisonous boric acid back to their nest. This method will kill off many of your ants, but it probably won’t work at completely eradicating the ants if you have a large pest problem. If you are seeing a lot of ants in your kitchen they have likely built a large nest nearby. They won’t disappear until the nest and its queen is completely wiped out.

Professional ant control

If you have a serious ant issue in your home, you will have the best luck at getting rid of the infestation by calling a pest control company like us, Western Exterminator. A professional company can get rid of pests such as ants and help you secure your kitchen so no more food finds itself in the trash.