Centre parcs- ants in the kitchen

[Christmaswindows123]

We’ve checked in and I was putting food away and there are ants in the drawers, not loads but it’s really pissed me off. We were here for five minutes and saw about ten so I don’t see how the cleaner didn’t notice them. What’s a reasonable response from them?

This is really common , always happens to us when we've stayed before. They say to us it's because they're in the forest it's natural. But it's not nice all over the food area. We reported every time and they send maintenance round and they used a spray , but wasn't very strong as it's being used in food prep areas. Sorry it takes the edge off a nice break doesn't it. I wondered if they half arse sort it so it to makes you eat in the expensive restaurants!

Have you called guest services?

Well I don’t think it’s their fault, you are in a forest after all, but assuming you’ve reported it to guest services they should have sorted it quickly or offered to move you.

Isn’t connecting with wildlife part of the Centre Parcs experience?

But seriously, it’s not very nice and I’d just let guest services know. They’re pretty easily deterred (or killed).

I don't think you'll get much of a response from them, they usually just follow each other around looking for food and can't be bargained with. Get in touch with guest services though.

@didntlikeanyofthesuggestionsThat made me laugh

Get some white wine vinegar and some kitchen towel. Observe carefully and you'll be able to see the entry point through which the ants are getting in. Soak a piece of towel with white wine vinegar and block the hole.

Sadly you'll have to kill the ones that are 'your side' of the barrier, but you shouldn't get any more coming in.

We had this, guest services were really responsive. They had to come out twice but they went in the end. It’s in the middle of a forest, unfortunately these things happen.

I keep getting ants in my kitchen. It is honestly the cleanest it has ever been. All food in jars or plastic boxes. Cupboards/floor wiped daily with white vinegar solution. I don’t think it is a sign of CP not cleaning properly but it still isn’t great, especially as you wouldn’t be prepared with boxes/jars etc to keep your food safe. I’d ask to be moved but as it is school hols they prob wont have anywhere to move you to. If you don’t mind a bit of DIY problem solving white vinegar/lemon juice is great for disrupting the ants pheromone trails. They really are clever little things. All the ones you’ll see looking for food are female and work so hard, they lay down trails to tell their colleagues where they are going, where they have found food. It is really important to stop the trails, then you may just get an odd one or two once a week rather than a swarm. Hope you manage to have a good holiday despite the ants whatever happens

Forests Guest services. Ant trap. Sorted. Unclench.

Why should she have to go to this trouble on her (expensive) holiday? CP costs a fortune at school holiday time. I’d be expecting guest services to sort this out straight away, it’s not hard.

I once stayed in a colleague’s holiday villa and it was crawling with ants, it was so unpleasant and so awkward having to ask him to sort it out. Never again!

Perfect response! 😂

Because the OP wrote as if she wasn’t expecting much help from the staff! I was simply trying to be helpful.

Honestly, MN has an outbreak of oppositional defiance disorder these days 😮

Well fair enough and your advice was great if the OP was at home. But CP is so £££ and it’s such a short break isn’t it - I’d be pretty cross at spending precious annual leave on this.

Well they came out and cleaned and out everything back in the drawers (which had ants in so we had to wash everything anyway) and then we had to be out for two hours today for a treatments and I can only think the treatment was putting more ants in!