As bags of candy get bigger every Halloween, the amount of leftover candy increases. This leftover candy can be a huge draw for all sorts of household pests, especially insects such as ants. Sweet and sugary candy, be it chocolate or gummies, is a lovely feast for the pests that plague your kitchen and pantry. Read on to learn all about how Halloween candy attracts pests and how you can eliminate the issue.
Why Do Ants Like Sweets?
Ants seek out food using their antennae, eyes, and group hunting. There are many theories as to why ants eat sugar, but certain propositions have more credence than others.
- When humans eat sugar, they get a sugar rush. Researchers suspect that ants are attracted to sugar for the same reason. An ant’s life is almost entirely focused on work and maximizing efficiency. A sugar rush can help get a lot of work done for a little ant. Scientists theorize that the knowledge is essentially inherited by passing the information down generation to generation.
- Another idea that has been put forward is that ants are drawn to sugary treats because sugar is so easy to carry. Ants can carry up to 5000 times their own body weight. Due to this, ants can carry a lot of sugar at once. To them, there is not really a big difference between a pile of sugar and a candy bar.
- Ants may like sweets because that’s what humans have made the m accustomed to. As many homeowners know, pests seek shelter in homes because it is temperate and dry. In the pantries and kitchens of most Americans, there are sweet things. While sugarcane occurs naturally, processed sugar does not. Ants may never have acquired the taste for sugar if humans didn’t have so much of it laying around.
How To Solve The Problem
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Keep The Ants Out
It is nearly impossible to keep ants out of a home entirely. However, homeowners can keep ants out of their food. One of the best ways to do that is through air-tight storage containers. The containers lock in the sweet smell of the leftover Halloween candy so it never attracts ants. Remember that once ants find a storage of food they often communicate to the rest of their colony where that food is. Most if not all of the snacks in a homeowner’s cabinet should be safely secured to avoid drawing in pests.
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Store The Candy Cold
Many people love the taste of a cool candy bar from the fridge, or even the freezer. This taste tactic actually helps prevent pests as well. The fridge essentially acts like a giant air-tight container and traps the smells in. If ants are attracted somehow, the cold will stop their pursuit of sugary sweets.
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Get It Out Of The House
Take candy leftovers out of the equation entirely. If there are kids in the house, let them take it to school to share with their friends. Adults can also bring extras into work. Now the house doesn’t have a pull for ants and your family is more popular with their peers!
