How Do You Get Rid of Ants in an Edgware Kitchen?

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Step 1: Remove the Reward

An ant trail exists because it leads somewhere worthwhile. Remove the reward and the trail loses its reason.

• Wipe every sticky surface — the worktop, the ring under the honey jar, inside cupboards
• Store sugar, honey, jam and cereal in sealed containers
• Rinse recycling before it goes in the box
• Empty the bin and clean the rim and lid
• Lift pet bowls between meals
• Check under the toaster and along the unit plinth
• Deal with over-ripe fruit
• Clean under the fridge, where a spill ran and dried

Step 2: Follow the Trail

Free, and it tells you more than anything else.

• Watch which way they are going — the loaded ones are heading home
• Follow it to where it enters the room, then the building
• Go outside and pick it up on the other side of the wall
• Follow it across the patio, path or soil
• Look for fine heaps of excavated soil between slabs — that is the nest
• If it goes under a fence, the nest may be next door — which is usually fine, see below

Step 3: Seal the Entry Point

• Silicone sealant at a gap in a door threshold or window frame
• Filler at a mortar crack at low level
• Seal around a pipe penetration
• Check the extension join, if you have one
• Fit a brush strip to a gappy external door
• Reseal a worn bead at a patio door

Sealing is genuinely effective for ants because, unlike mice, they will not chew through it. It is also the step that works when the nest is on someone else's property.

Step 4: Bait, Do Not Spray

• The ants you can see are perhaps 10% of the colony. Killing them changes nothing
• Bait is carried home and shared, including to the queen
• Which is why it works on a nest you cannot reach — under a shared patio, or next door
• Expect more ants for a day or two as they recruit to it
• Do not clean the trail up during that period
• Never spray pharaoh ants — spraying splits the colony and makes it far worse

Read nextIs Professional Ant Control Worth It in Edgware? →

When the Nest Is Next Door

Common in a terrace, and less of a problem than it sounds.

• Bait works through the colony, so you do not need access to resolve it
• Seal your own entry point — that alone usually cuts indoor activity sharply
• A friendly word is still worth having; they may have the same trail indoors
• A shared patio or path is worth mentioning to them before anyone lifts a slab
• Unlike rats, you do not need them to act for your problem to be solved

What Does Not Work

• Spraying the trail. Covered above, and worth repeating
• Boiling water into a nest. Kills some, moves the rest, repeat next week
• Chalk, cinnamon, vinegar, lemon. Disrupt a trail briefly; the colony is unaffected
• Ultrasonic repellers. No credible evidence
• Sealing the entry while ignoring the food. They will find another way in
• Lifting a patio slab to find the nest — you will find it, and scatter it

Flying Ants

• A mating flight — winged males and new queens leaving established nests
• Synchronised by weather, which is why it happens everywhere on the same day
• Lasts hours, not weeks
• Needs no treatment. Close the windows
• It is not a sign of a problem in your property

Related Questions

Do I need to treat ants in the garden?

No. Black garden ants outdoors damage nothing.

Why do they come back every summer?

Because the nest is still there and the entry point is still open.

Do ants damage the house?

Black garden ants do not. They do not eat wood or damage structure.