Ants are notorious for ruining picnics- but they can also be a huge pain in the um, rear, when they make their way indoors. That’s what my wife and I are going through now. Over the last couple of days, we have been fighting back an invasion that makes the Normandy landing look like a stroll on the beach.

If you’re going through the same problem, you might be thinking of hiring a pest control company and then filing a claim with your homeowners insurance provider to reimburse you. Well, don’t count on that plan to work. Ants, termites and other insects aren’t a peril that homeowners insurance covers. In fact, filing too many homeowners insurance claims over small problems could increase the cost of your homeowners insurance policy.

To fight back our invaders, we have deployed multiple defenses. Here are the steps that my wife and I have taken:

1. Clean, clean and clean. Keeping the floors clean of any kind of crumbs, and eventually ant corpses, seems to keep them from striking the same area twice.

2. Find where they are infiltrating your perimeter and stop their incursion. We have put down a couple ant traps where we see them coming from.

3. Search and destroy! There are bound to be a couple heroes who survive the ant trap and avoided the suction of the vacuum to strike out on their own and recon for new spot to invade. For these Rambo ants, a little spray of Raid usually ends their mission. Since we have cats, we are very careful to clean the floor after we spray anything.

Hopefully these tips will help you win your battle against the ants. If you have any tips on how to get rid of ants, please do share.