Ants

They don't need a lot of food-they're pretty tiny, but the search for food is what sends them out of their nests and into your house.

I feel for you because I once lived in a house on top of a ant-hill!

Since moving however, I haven't seen a single one either in or outside in my new home. I think the environment matters.

I used a variety of things to keep them out of the house, including artificial sweetener like Stevia and Canderel which they take back to the nest.

We think the ants are nesting under the house and coming up in the cupboard under the stairs.

Update on ants. They have been awful this year. So much for it being flying ant day in a week or two we have had them for over a month. We have put down bait traps etc but still they come. They then die on the carpet and leave black marks. We were due to have a new carpet laid tomorrow, (after 36 years), so we have postponed and had an exterminator in. To say I am unimpressed would be an understatement. He vaguely waved the nozzle of the applicator around parts of the the skirting board. ( I had moved all the furniture away from the walls. ) I offered to pull up the carpet in the offending corner which is easily done but he rejected this.) we are now £132 poorer.
It had better work!

Oh and it took all of ten minutes!

We built a conservatory onto a small reception room, before the conservatory went up there used to be ants on the patio. My DH dug out the footings for the new structure and removed all signs of the ants nest. He dug down extra deep in order to put very thick insulation under the flooring.

The ants come back every year in exactly the same spot! There is no food there for them but they still persist.

We have used various liquid sprays and bait traps but I find the powder really works best they won’t cross it - but it is very visible and looks like I haven’t dusted the edges of the floor.

This has been going on for 15 years.

I’ve just been in the back garden to spray some furniture and there are ants everywhere; some flying. Now back in the house and I’m finding some crawling on me! I have had ants coming into the house but have never had them swarming all over my lawn. And me…

They’re really difficult to kill, too. Just squashed one on my iPad and it kept coming back. Don’t want to go back into the garden to finish the painting…

This year in consistently scorching temperatures, we suddenly had Ant Hell. We've had the odd influx before, not in the house and easily controlled with one or more of those small bait tins. This year I walked into the Kitchen one evening and half the floor was alive with them. I decided to wait until morning, after killing loads. Kitchen empty and then later, many more ants.

Inspected outside where there were many ants nests poking through our gravel path. No sign of obvious route into house or kitchen. Kitchen floor actually scrubbed and disinfected. No worries, ants just arrived en masse, often mornings and evenings, didn't appear to do much except run around. A huge selection of tiny ants, loads of flying ants, and large ants carrying stuff! All sorts!

I read that you shouldn't squash them, this releases a pheromone signalling alerts to others which arrive to investigate or removed the bodies! Saw this to be true! Resorted to creeping up on crowds of them with vacuum cleaner. This worked better.

Tried painting lines of lavender oil which they will not cross - thus re-directing them along some sort of ant autoroutes. Interesting, but didn't reduce the numbers. Decided, as they were never near food cupboards that we would just try to ignore them. Food preparation could be difficult with having to vacuum worktops first, but we coped. We mostly had to ignore them.

After a month we had a day of rain. Insects and animals often appear inside if facing a deluge of water. But in this case, and when the sun returned after 24 hours, we had a whole day without ants. It seemed to good to be true. We haven't had any rain for about 3 weeks and none forecast for a further fortnight - and yesterday it was 35 degrees at 7pm. But, no more ants.
They've just disappeared as mysteriously as they arrived.

It helped me to feel that they weren't dirty and not after food, nor did they make me feel threatened as do mosquitoes or wasps, but do hope that this year was simply a One-Off.

Blow me. They've all gone now!

Hooray !

…they might be on their way to you…

We had an invasion a few weeks ago... came downstairs one morning and wondered what the black patches were on the hall carpet. Hundreds of ants! First time this had happened. I decided to give white vinegar a try. Drenched a length of cloth and wedged it all around the gaps under the front door where they were all trooping in, heading for the kitchen. Inconvenient opening the door and it took a while for them to get the message but they finally decamped.
A cheap and cheerful solution which worked for us.

Peppermint oil worked for me when camping once ( on ant hills)
Put across entry points .

Diatomaceous earth is a good barrier if you know where they are coming from.

...and not toxic to anyone/anything

For some years we have had ants nesting under our front door step. The amount of sandy detritus they were shifting with their efforts was alarming. We tried all manner of commercial remedies to get rid of them, all of which failed. We left them alone in the end - we never saw any in the house. I thought they had gone away this year, but no, they have simply moved their mining activities to the paving slabs at the side of the house! There must be a very large colony.
We’ve seen some very large anthills when walking in the Peak District. They have specific ‘highways’ running between them that the ants never seem to stray from. Some run up the trunks of trees which obviously have some sort of food source. But, fascinating though ants are, I would sooner they stopped undermining my property with their activities!

I read somewhere that sodium bicarbonate mixed with sugar works……….supposedly, the ants are attracted to the sugar, eat that but as it’s coated in sodium bicarbonate it swells in their insides and kills them. I have no idea if it works…..we have zillions of ants in the garden but none indoors…….long may it stay that way.
Here’s hoping that anyone with an ant infestation indoors does find a solution to be rid.

I sympathise with all of you! A house I lived in had ants nesting in the wall under the living room window. On flying ant day, they all swarmed into the living room. It was horrible. Nothing deterred them until the harming needed replaced and they never came back in.