Ants are Back

[bloodybloodyants]

I get ants coming into my ground floor flat every year. I think they may be nesting in the cavity walls by the door as I can't see any outside in the garden.

There were quite a few last night by the door and I sprayed some bleach cleaner around the area. Someone told me bleach seems to get rid of them.

I'm reluctant to spray with pesticides as I don't want to walk it into anyone else's home. The ant bait things haven't worked before.

Anyone had any luck with bleach? Thanks

Diamataceous earth (can buy on Amazon) is good at getting rid of them - pet safe and human safe. Best to treat them early before they get up to speed

I always find the Nippon bait traps are good. They don’t work immediately but so seem effective. In fact thinking about it, we didn’t get any last year for the first year in ages.

Put a couple of spoonfuls of jam or honey on an old lid and put it outside the wall where the ants are. Add nippon. They will stop coming into the house and all be dead shortly.

Just blatantly jumping on this thread because I get ants marching about in my lounge from destination unknown. I'm going to try the jam lid idea when they start putting in an appearance.

I've not seen any ants yet *whispers, but I have had a few woodlouse creeping about. I like those, though. Mini dinosaurs! I always take them back outside.

I can see where they are coming into the flat and I'm going to have all gaps filled up or whatever the technical wording is. I hope that is going to resolve the problem because I have had year after year of relentless ants 🤞

Good suggestions on here I will give these a go to hope you get sorted op

Hi all. I got the areas where the ants were coming in sealed up. Since then I've just had a couple of ants on my window sill.

Have any of you noticed that that you haven't been getting as many ants in your homes than usual this year? I'm not sure if that is what has happened or if sealing up the access has actually worked. If it has then yahoooooo

Yes well done OP but keep your eye on it. It hasn't been warm enough for them to swarm yet so if you see any scouts, get em quickly. Hope there will be none.

Not to piss on your parade OP but I thought I'd had success filling all the gaps, but sadly slowly but surely they still got in. Only thing that worked was having a professional company come and spray around all the crevices inside and out. I found that where there's one or 2 there'll be more! I'm really phobic about flying ants and wasn't prepared for flying ant day a few years ago - I'd seen a few regular ants in my hall, thought they'd got in on our shoes from outside or whatever and just put the bait traps down, but the blighters mustn't have touched a bit. All of a sudden one hot day they must have hatched or whatever they do and a huge mass swarmed up from the cracks under my hallway floor and near the front door, I'll never forget that sight, the absolute horror! Since then I've had every area sprayed once a year, when it starts getting warmer, sometimes Easter or a bit later. Not had flying ant day yet (usually end of June) but I'm bracing myself for it soon. I'd recommend looking for pest control services in your area.

Ants were a problem in our house until the vet suggested spraying the house as well as treating the cats for fleas. We used Indorex. Cats are long gone, and I don't like using chemicals, but needs must, and Indorex really does work against fleas and ants. It's supposed to be good against dust mites too.

Oh crap .... I thought I'd finally solved the ant problem.

Anyone had loads of ants in this year? Usually at this time of year I'm having to spray near the front door. I haven't see many outside this year.

I've used a pest controller before

I came on to see if you had a solution, we have lots of ants and I found eggs in a border at the bottom of the garden, they are fascinating to watch but I don't want an army taking over. I'm not sure what to try, proper ant bait or bleach and boiling water. It says if they take bait back to the queen that will kill it and no more eggs will be laid, but then what is the cycle for the leftover ants.
Can ants bite?

@NippyCrab - I suppose you would have to consider if any other animals that go in the garden like foxes or cats could be affected by what you use.
I have never known ants to bite.

Maybe someone will be along to advise or you could ring a pest controller for advice

Just in case anyone is interested in the ant saga there was suddenly a load of flying ants and small ants outside my property the other day. I haven't seen any in my flat. Fingers crossed sealing up where they were coming in has worked 🤞