Ants ruining my home

[thewomaninme]

Advice please. Since last weekend my home especially my kitchen is under attack by ants. There are loads and loads in the kitchen cabinets especially the snack cupboard. A good number of ants entered a jar of maple syrup despite the lid being tight enough. Next they have attacked the jar of honey. So much food going down the drain. I never had this problem before. Is there any specific ant spray?. How do I get rid of them? One is crawling on my foot as I type this🤪

We used to have quite a lot of ants...
I use Indorex - a pet safe flea spray, and spray all window frames and door thresholds. They haven't been seen in years 🤞

Okay - so clear out all of your cupboards of all food. Stick in the car boot properly sealed if needs be.

You can't just start killing them off - you need to remove their established food source.

Chilli powder around doors inside and out, in cupboards, shelves etc. I've used it, they don't like walking on it

Then, when they seem to be waning. Bleach everything.

Bring food back in but make sure there isn't even a few crumbs on floor.

Find the nest also and pour a kettle of boiling water on it 😭 I hate doing that, but one year I had to.

We’ve got rid of ants before now without poison, I don’t like the idea of it around kids/pets.
You have to find out what they want, if it’s the maple syrup you need to move it/chuck it, In fact move every food item out and store in boxes for the time being. Then sweep the little fuckers up with a dustpan and brush and chuck them outside. Then clean and clean some more and then clean again. (I put a little dollop of sweet stuff outside in the garden and they will find that instead). You will find strays for days searching around but just keep sweeping them up and throwing them out. They are quite clever they will tell the rest there is no food in there worth having and they will eventually disperse. It took a couple of days for us to rid our whole bottom floor of them and the house never looked so clean.

If you don’t want to use poisons, diatomaceous earth is good. Also blocking or filling any holes with either liquid paraffin, or washing up liquid will work.

Coffee confuses their scent trails, wipe surfaces including all edges with coffee, then wipe again with normal cleaning stuff.

I agree with the earlier comments about being scrupulously clean. The ants are coming in for good and finding it. Keep sweet stuff in either the microwave or the fridge. Once the ants realise there is no food they will go elsewhere.

Did Combat work on the ants nests in the garden, or only indoors? I would LOVE to reduce the number of nests in my garden as it is unusable at the moment, but everything I’ve tried outdoors (Diatomaceous earth/Nippon powder/Nippon liquid/nematodes/boiling water) has utterly failed.

@Helenahandkart It did but it's too expensive to buy in sufficient quantity. My grass at the moment has anthills all over it. It would get rained on if I put it out now. What did work was putting it around the paths next house walls. That stopped them coming in. Boiling water works but kills the plants. I have a dry stone wall with ant nests in, if I turn over a stone and pour boiling water that kills quite a lot.
People might say leave them alone in garden, but you can't stand still without being covered in ants.

They don’t like cinnamon so sprinkle some powder around where you think they are coming in. Totally safe with a baby in the house but I do use the ant bait traps, they are very safe too and work well. I put one outside the door where they are coming in and one inside.

Find the nest(s). Kettle of boiling water on each one. Job done.

indorex house spray from your vets will sort it and it keeps working for a year.

Raid, it works but has a v strong smell