Ants will stay in your house indefinitely, potentially for months to years, if conditions remain favorable with food, water, and shelter, because they do not leave on their own once they establish trails and nests. Odorous house ants, which are the most common indoor ant, have colonies that can live for several years with a queen that produces thousands of workers, and once scouts find crumbs, sweets, or grease in a kitchen and lay down pheromone trails, hundreds of workers will continue to follow those trails day after day as long as food remains, even if you clean occasionally, because they can survive on tiny residues. Carpenter ants, which are larger black ants that excavate damp wood to build nests, can stay for years inside wall voids if moisture problems are not fixed, causing gradual structural damage. In heated homes, ants remain active year-round, though foraging increases in spring and summer when colonies grow and seek more food. If you do nothing, ants will not leave because your house provides ideal conditions compared to outdoors. To make them leave, you need to eliminate food by storing food in sealed containers, cleaning crumbs and grease daily, fixing leaks, sealing entry points with caulk and door sweeps, and using targeted gel baits containing fipronil or borax that workers carry back to kill the queen and colony within days to two weeks. Without treatment, odorous house ants can persist for the life of the colony, 3 to 7 years, and new colonies can replace old ones, so professional pest control with quarterly service may be needed for long-term prevention.
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