Ants
This section provides information and advice on dealing with the eradication of ants from your home.
In their own outdoor environment ants have an important part to play and can generally be left undisturbed.
If ants invade your home, however, they can make life a misery.
In this section you can find out what makes ants invade, how they get in, whether they are harmful and what you can do to prevent an ant invasion.
About Ants
While there are an amazing 36 species of ant to choose from in the UK, there are two kinds - the Black ant and Pharaoh's ant - which attract the most attention, when they invade homes and buildings.
Black Ants
Black, or Garden Ants are about 4mm in length and are a very dark brown, almost black.
During the summer large numbers of both winged females and males are reared in the nest or colony, usually underground.
On one or two warm summer evenings they swarm from the nest entrances and take flight.
During this brief flight they mate and on returning to the ground the males soon die.
They females shed their wings and dig into the ground forming a small cell in which to lay the first of many eggs. They spend the winter in hibernation before starting in earnest the following spring.
In favourable conditions the queen ant and her colony may survive several years.
Pharaoh's Ants
Pharaoh's Ants are only 1.5 - 2mm long and yellow-brown in colour.
They are thought to have originated in Africa and did not spread northwards until buildings became better heated. They first appeared in Britain in the 19th Century but are now widespread throughout the United Kingdom, although rarely encountered locally.
Unlike Black ants, flying swarms of Pharaoh's ants are never seen as mating takes place inside the nest.
An interesting feature they do share is that the ones doing the foraging, nest building and rearing - the worker ants - are females. They are also excellent communicators when food is found.
Why ants invade
When ants invade your home it's for one reason only: food! They have a sweet tooth and are partial to syrups, jams, preserves and sugar.
Pharaoh's ants like protein rich foods such as meat, cheese and fats. They will also forage for a source of water such as around sinks or where there is condensation.
Ants can be seen making a trail between their nest entrance and the food source as they transport food into the colony to nourish the workers and the queen inside.
Are they harmful?
Black ants do not transmit disease to humans but they do travel over dirty ground in their search for a food source and so could transfer bacteria, etc. to food and work surfaces.
Pharaoh's ants pose a greater risk to health as they are attracted to a wider range of food and sources such as drains and waste matter.
Unless food is badly attacked by ants, the risk of infection is probably small, nevertheless most people find it unacceptable having ants indoors.
How to deal with an ant infestation
Where ants become an indoor pest, the only real method of control is to locate the nest or colony by following the trail of ants.
The nest can then be treated with an insecticidal dust or spray which is carried into the colony.
Likely entrance points include holes in walls, possibly around drainage and waste pipes; air bricks; and beneath poorly finished work surfaces and kitchen units, baths and was basins.
These should be properly sealed with mortar or mastic.
If the nest cannot be located because it is beneath a concrete floor, for example, it may be impossible to completely destroy the colony and thus achieve effective eradication.
In these situations, treating foraging ants will be largely ineffective although some insecticides are available which provide a residual barrier against them.
These insecticides can be applied at points where ants are seen emerging into the building.
A special insecticide treatment for Pharaoh's ants are available but only to professional pest controllers. This is mixed with food that the foraging ants take back to their nest and is passed onto the rest of the colony.
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council
Town Hall
Castlefield Road
Reigate
RH2 0SH
01737 276000
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