Do ants make you want to squeeze both fists as tight as you can, look up into the sky, and scream, “Aaaaaaaaaaaaants!” Trust me when I say, “you’re not alone.” Ants are a pernicious and resilient insect. They breed like crazy, and an ant mound can have more than one queen. This makes them able to avoid all your attempts at do-it-yourself pest control. But you’re not completely without recourse. There are some things you can do to deter them.

Don’t give them a meal. If you have a superhighway of ants, it is because they found a food source. When you see one of these, your goal should be to figure out what they found. It might be a dish of pet food, an apple core that rolled behind the couch, some spilled cereal under the fridge, an open trash can, or any number of things. Sometimes it can be something as simple as a few chunks of toast that fell on the carpet. Whatever the food source is, dispose of it.

Once the food source is gone, find out where those ants are coming in. It will usually be somewhere low. Find the entry point and use a caulking gun to seal.

There is probably a good chance that those ants can find another way in, so it is also important to keep them from picking up the smell of trail pheromones, which allow them to find their way to a food source. Spray soap or window cleaner along the path the ants were taking. You’ll kill a lot of them, and get rid of the scent as well.

Keeping things clean and sealing up entry points are a good first step to keeping ants out. If they don’t have a reason to be in your house, they usually won’t bother to make the effort. But bothersome ants getting into your food isn’t the only issue you have to deal with. The ants also live around your home and can drive you crazy when you’re outside. To stop this, you’ll need a pest control company to pay you a visit and eradicate those colonies. This is especially important if you have carpenter ants. Carpenter ants burrow through the wood of your house, and can cause structural issues that are expensive to repair.

Now that winter is done, ants are going to start building their populations, and spreading. Spring is the best time to stop them before they damage your home and drive you crazy.