Holiday cottage ant invasion

[AntsAntsAntsAnts]

Sitting here in our ££ holiday cottage in overpriced seaside down/honeypot/theme park set up to fleece tourists* and coming to the end of our week where we have been plagued by ants. We noticed them the first morning and reported it and to give the letting agent their credit they were prompt in dropping ant traps round etc etc but we have been plagued night and day with ants all over the kitchen and dining area.

We have had to eat out for almost every meal because even having scrubbed the kitchen, wall and floors the ants keep coming back and it’s disgusting to be eating with ants wandering round. We even resorted to tcp as it was all I could find in the cottage so the place now stinks.

In addition, the place is very tired now with peeling paint and plaster crumbling, random stains on walls, kitchen cabinets, and something that looks like blood on one windowsill.

The rental company are taking the position that the contract is with the owners and that it’s not their problem. It’s really ruined the holiday for us, it’s been so stressful. I’m not talking one or two ants, I’m talking hundreds, multiple times a day.

I’d really like a partial refund, but it doesn’t seem likely. And most of all I’d just like to be at home. Which is a shame because it’s actually a really lovely cottage, or was one once before it became run down.

*delete as appropriate

I’d tell the letting agent if I didn’t get a partial refund (50% minimum) I’d be leaving reviews with photos everywhere I could. They can see what the owner thinks of that.

I say that as someone who had ants in my kitchen when I moved into this house two years ago - it took a new floor being laid down to get rid of the problem despite having pest control out three times and trying everything else you can think of. NOT what I’d want on holiday!

I let a holiday cottage (via an agent) and guests have my number. If there's a problem guests usually phone me first as I'm local and if there was an ant/flea/insect invasion I would have had pest control round straight away. Guests don't always tell me though, one man had an infestation of moth type flies and he tackled it himself with fly spray! He mentioned it when he left and was totally unfazed about the whole thing but I would have preferred to know right away.

I'd also be happy for the agent to make a refund if something seriously impacted a guest's holiday.

Use antibacterial spray (Dettox or supermarket brand). Kills all insects and ants generally don't come back where it's been sprayed. Have had muchos success with it 😃

Thanks @LightSpeeds that’s what I would normally do at home, using dettol spray (or similar), but there was nothing like that in the cottage (and I think actually there should be anyway, disinfectant spray is very useful).

I am now home, in my own bed, in my (so far) ant-free house.

the reality is that the cottage is probably about 250 years old, the basement kitchen is below street level at the wall affected, the ants are appearing at street and at skirting board level. There is probably one enormous ants nest behind the plaster!