How Do You Get Rid of Ants in a Kenton Home?

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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, the inside of a cupboard
• 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
• Clean under and around a high chair — a very common source in a family kitchen
• Check under the toaster and along the unit plinth
• Move the fruit bowl or deal with anything over-ripe

Step 2: Follow the Trail

Free, and it tells you more than anything else you can do.

• 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
• Note it, and take a photograph

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 of sealant at a patio door

Sealing is genuinely effective for ants because, unlike mice, they are not going to chew through it.

Step 4: Bait, Do Not Spray

The single most useful thing on this page.

• 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
• Expect more ants for a day or two — they are recruiting 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 nextWhen Do Ants Actually Need Professional Treatment in Kenton? →

What Does Not Work

• Spraying the trail. Covered above, and worth repeating
• Boiling water into a nest. Kills some, moves the rest, and does it again next week
• Chalk, cinnamon, vinegar, lemon. Disrupt a trail briefly; the colony is unaffected
• Ultrasonic repellers. No credible evidence
• Bicarbonate of soda and similar internet remedies
• Sealing the entry while ignoring the food. They will find another way in

Pets and Children

• Shop-bought bait stations should go where a crawling child or a dog cannot reach them
• Do not scatter powder along skirtings in a house with a crawling baby
• Tell us who is in the house if you book treatment — placement changes
• Our gel goes into cracks and at entry points, not on surfaces
• Ants do not bite or sting in any way that matters here — black garden ants are harmless to children and pets
• We will say when a treated garden area can be used again

Flying Ants

One or two afternoons in July or August, everywhere at once.

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

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. Sealing is what changes that.

Do ants damage the house?

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