Help, there are ants in my kitchen!

[oxfordcomma]

I don't think they live here, I think they've just popped in from the garden .

What can I do to encourage them to leave / never come back?

And is this a reflection of my housekeeping skills ?

Every summer for the last 3 summers we get ants. (We have only lived here 3 years).
A period of dry, hot and sunny days means you will find the little blighters in the kitchen. First bit of rain and they go. Dunno where they live - we're in a flat.
Definately not a reflection of your housekeeping!

I used to live in a house that got them every hot spell - they crawled on to (my painstakingly clean)worktops and some even sort of grew wings eventually and took flight?!- yuk.I tried laying salt along their trails as I read they won't cross this - had limited success. Tried some sticky ant traps that you lay on the ground along a trail and caught a lot. however I read that if you trap them or stamp on them (as the children tried to do) they give off a distress pherenome and others rally to help. A friend swears by ant spray (but I didn't want chemicals in the kitchen near food surfaces).
My MIL hates ants with a passion - in her house she tries to locate their nests outside (cracks in the concrete) and pours boiling water in to destroy them at source, she also loves hoovering them up in her dyson - which they then colonise as she forgets to empty it quite often!

Thanks for the replies, I will consider salt / sticky traps / handheld vacuum cleaners...

try sprinkling cinnamon/black pepper or chilli powder. I had loads of ants a few summers ago near the front door so I sprinkled a trail of cinnamon (DD was crawling so chilli not an option) and it worked within the hour! and made the hallway smell nice too!

apparently the strong smell/chemical compounds in spices deters the blighters.

good luck

nippon traps....they take the contents back to the nest and everyone there dies

Ant powder puffed under/around the skirting boards stops ours.

Its harmless to pets.

Ant powder where the skirting board doesn't meet the tiles.

Ant powder where the skirting board doesn't meet the tiles.

Nippon (the sticky stuff) is great if you have small numbers of random ants just trolling about - they suck it up and take it back to the nest, killing the queen. Ant powder also good, but a bit more messy.

Nothing to do with housekeeping skills, but you probably have a void somewhere which ants will use as a nest every year. My mum gets them under her front step every year; not a lot she can do about it.

I get ants most summers. They apparently leave a pheromone trail for others to follow, so I put something strong smelling around the doorway (bleach seemed to work) to destroy the scent.

Phew, I'm so pleased that my housekeeping skills haven't been called into question!

It's been a little cooler over the last couple of days, so there haven't been any unwanted visitors recently. But I'll be ready when they come back, mwa ha ha .

Thanks everyone, lots of useful replies.

My parents' house gets this and my mother's housekeeping skills are frighteningly good (oh if only that was hereditary... help she's visiting next week), we're fairly sure they've tunneled underneath the entire house. Mum also does the kill-it-outside-with-boiling-water thing, and puts ant powder in places where visiting small children and pets can't reach it. Must say with limited success - mostly learned to live with them. They even come out of the dishwasher sometimes, which is at least easily resolved by turning it on....

Hoover them up and put cinnamon round the perimeter.

Also watch out for food left out in the open, they have a very keen sense of smell.

I heard lavender essential oil gets rid of them however I managed to get rid of mine without trying the other week - I found them in my slightly opened tin of golden syrup all dead! Nice way to go I suppose!

My Dh says draw a chalk line across the door of affected areas. He says that ants will not cross a chalk line. No idea if it works or not but maybe worth a try?!?

Dont bother with trying bay leave's like I did. The fuckers ate it and Im sure more came.

this also happened to me and i didnt fancy putting ant powder in my kitchen,i brought a pack of 2 ant bait stations from wilkinsons small plastic black things that were quite cheap flipping brilliant no sign of ants after 24 hours and they last for 3 months

this also happened to me and i didnt fancy putting ant powder in my kitchen,i brought a pack of 2 ant bait stations from wilkinsons small plastic black things that were quite cheap flipping brilliant no sign of ants after 24 hours and they last for 3 months

They actually hate vinegar and I've got rid of a few small invasions by spraying vinegar over their trail. (put it in a spray bottle, dilute with water and a splash of washing up liquid - it's what I use to clean the kitchen anyway)