Ants in the house

[dogfonos]

Would appreciate any ideas or guidance...

My neighbour has very persistent ants in three adjacent rooms on one side of her bungalow. The ants invade her home for several months each year, rising up at different points (often, not on an outside wall) and its been going on for a good few years new. I've seen the problem and I would describe the infestation as serious. She's at her wits end.

Several times reputable pest control companies have visited, squirted and puffed all sorts of unpleasant chemicals (including the gels that the ants are supposed to take back to the nest) but the ants are back within months. She needs a permanent solution.

I believe a true expert in pest control should evaluate the situation and recommend a plan of work (I suspect some invasive building work/destruction may be required to really see what's going on). I've searched the internet for pest control expert but all I get is the usual general pest control companies and some of them have already failed to solve the problem. The council don't want to know, I'm told.

How can I find an expert with sufficient knowledge to help my neighbour with the ant invasion? Does such a person even exist? Thanks in anticipation.

 

[foxhole]

Gels don’t work , bog standard ant powder kills them just dust any exit/entry points. This needs doing on regular basis as you can only kill current infestation and impossible to prevent further nests .
You can only control ants not eliminate them .

 

[dogfonos]

You can only control ants not eliminate them

That's depressing to hear but thanks for your views.

From what I've seen, and been told, I suspect the main nest has never been killed off because the ants come back in large numbers too quickly - could be wrong though.

I'm thinking that recent refurbishment of one room may have given the little critters better underfloor access which allows then to spread out beneath one particular floor and come up through small gaps. Worst infestation seems to be in an internal cupboard. And it's not as if the neighbour leaves food debris sprinkled about the place or uncovered, she's very clean, tidy and sensible, so I don't understand the ant's motives for invading her home. That's why I was thinking along the lines of an ant expert - someone who could explain the likely reason for the ants' interest in invading her property. If we could understand the reason, perhaps we stand a chance of eradicating the buggers.

I guess older buildings can't easily be made ant proof?

 

[foxhole]

No building can be ant proof , you could kill every ant for 5 miles and still get them return, they fly .
Motivation same as any creature food .

 

[bernardgreen]

A few years ago Nippon liquid proved very effective in wiping out a nest of ants.

If it is the only ( most accessible ) source of food then the worker ants collect it and take it back to the nest as food and this poisons the queen ant. Without a queen ant the nest is no longer viable.

 

[foxhole]

A few years ago Nippon liquid proved very effective in wiping out a nest of ants.

View attachment 167560

If it is the only ( most accessible ) source of food then the worker ants collect it and take it back to the nest as food and this poisons the queen ant. Without a queen ant the nest is no longer viable.

I tried that for years will nil success .OP also .

 

[opps]

My current client lives in a house with concrete floors. They had put up with the ants for a couple of years but weren't too happy when they found a mouse in the kitchen.

On inspecting the outside of the house I found a mouse friendly hole, I filled it with wire wool and then expanding foam, I then decided to use the rest of the foam to fill the gaps in the kitchen to garden door that they never, ever open. The ants haven't been back since.

If I lived in a house with suspended wooden floors and was sufficiently concerned about ants, I would lift all carpets, apply plywood to the floorboards (sealing the joins and then sealing the joins where the ply meets the skirting. Ain't cheap though and you have to empty each room out as you go along.

I did have a client in Chiswick that had a rat problem. The rats were living in the foundations (terraced house). Although there was no evidence of them getting up on to the ground floor, after loads of rat bait, sewer grafting, etc, she decided that moving out for 3 months so that the foundations could be backfilled with concrete was cheaper than selling up and moving on.

Oh, and when I said she had a rat problem, i wasn't exaggerating. Half an old fashioned sweet jar of poison was put down by the council's rat man. He told me it would take over 2 weeks for them to eat all of the grain. Nope, 3 days later it was all gone. In those days the service was free, nevertheless after a few months he warned the customer that the poisoned grain might be attracting new families of rats that were being displaced by local building works.

I get the impression that most pest infestations are solvable, it just depends on how much one wants to, or can afford to pay. The likes of RenatKillAll are happy to take your money, leave you pest free for a few months and then to return to repeat the process (adfinitum). That said, if your local pest control turned up and said "well you are looking at £500 per room to lift carpets, etc., I would imagine that they would get pretty short shrift from their customers.

 

[foxhole]

That's depressing to hear but thanks for your views.

From what I've seen, and been told, I suspect the main nest has never been killed off because the ants come back in large numbers too quickly - could be wrong though.

I'm thinking that recent refurbishment of one room may have given the little critters better underfloor access which allows then to spread out beneath one particular floor and come up through small gaps. Worst infestation seems to be in an internal cupboard. And it's not as if the neighbour leaves food debris sprinkled about the place or uncovered, she's very clean, tidy and sensible, so I don't understand the ant's motives for invading her home. That's why I was thinking along the lines of an ant expert - someone who could explain the likely reason for the ants' interest in invading her property. If we could understand the reason, perhaps we stand a chance of eradicating the buggers.

I guess older buildings can't easily be made ant proof?

No building can be made ant proof, they fly so can nest anywhere, including in brick walls, concreted all my garden, no nests for a couple of years then they set up nests in my plant pots.