Ants in my flat kitchen

[Choux]

I've lived here for 10+ years and hardly ever seen an ant before. It's a second floor flat with the kitchen about three metres FoM an external wall. About 10 days ago I noticed a few ants on the kitchen work top. I killed them and kept my eyes open for a few days and noticed they seemed to be coming along the side of the cabinets on the opposite side to where food is stored. I found a number of holes above the cabinets where electric cables come in and filled them all.

The ants immediately stopped but in the last 24 hours I have seen three ants on the kitchen draining board - same side of kitchen as where I saw them before. I don't know how they got in as they were in the middle of the draining board not going to / coming from somewhere . It's above the dishwasher but I keep that closed all the time now.

I don't understand how I have an ant issue now and in a second floor flat. Presumably another neighbour was the food source and is now taking action and I am seeing the scouts? What can I do if I don't yet know how they are getting in and they are in my kitchen so can't use toxic chemicals?

You can buy ant traps that are little plastic boxes with a hole in them that the ants come into and get poisoned bait to take back where they came from and kill the rest. I know it's still not ideal for a kitchen but if you put them right close to where you think the entrance is, it probably help - it's not like putting the powder everywhere or anything.

Also talcum powder is supposed to deter them, though I'm not sure it worked for me, but that would be less toxic in a kitchen. And vinegar.

If you put ant powder anywhere outside, balcony, top of cupboards etc that might help. Even if it's on the ground floor, might be coming from there. And adding sealant to any possible holes, though mine still seem to find a way in from the walls!

A couple of people I know are having odd ant problems this year, us included. The ants are appearing in a section of the homes that has no outside wall or obvious signs of entry. Previous ant problems have always had an obvious route in and been close to a window/door/external wall.

We use ant bait traps. They do contain chemicals to kill the ants, but it's not spread around like ant powder. In theory they also take some of the poison back to the nest too. We've found they work really well and we're ant free after a few days.

It's a very annoying and perplexing problem this year.