we've got ants!

[vitomum]

have been encountering the odd ant in the kitchen over the last two weeks but couldn't work out where they came from. then this morning noticed a pile of dust in the corner (against an outside wall) with ants in it. on further inspection they seem to have burrowed through from outside into the corner of the kitchen - yikes! is this serious? anyone know how to deal with this. i have always lived in flats before and ants can't seem to get 3 storeys up so this is a totally new one on me.

I use one of those round plastic ant thingy from Tescos. Always works.

so there are gadgets to deal with this then! that's good news. i have childhood memories of my mum 'luring' them out with blobs of ribena then pouring boiling water on them all! not appealing

PILs really struggle with ants. They now have some man round who professionally treats the rooms where ants have been. It lasts for ages - at leats a year or two. They have actually just had a redone in the last fortnight. they swear by it, having tried almost every other method over the past xxx number of years.

We get ants in the kitchen occasionally - dh filled up the gaps that they were clearly getting in through. They don't seem to burrow so much as take advantage of the soft mortar, so haven't reappeared.

My dad used to mix borax (a cleaning agent - buy it from a chemists) mixed with sugar

I suspect borax is not an environmentally friendly option - I cant remember

Worth checking out though cos it definitely works :)

We've got moths. Must hoover more.

oh some more suggestions - thank you all very much. i can clearly see the hole they are coming in through. i am not sure if they made it or it was already there but they are leaving piles of sandy dust behind them so it seems they are defintely eating my house. haven't a clue what to do about moths. surely if it is (lack of) hoovering related i would also have them. since we're on the subject of pests i also have a hornets nest in the garden shed on my list of things to do - oh joy