The first step to ridding yourself of an ant infestation is to identify it. Black ants and garden ants are usually quite straightforward, but other smaller species such as Pharaoh Ants are more than likely living in the cavity walls, hollow bricks and around underfloor heating pipes in your home.

We have the expertise to identify and control all types of ant infestation. Whether you have hordes of ants beating a path across your premises or other types of insects making a nuisance of themselves, we have the technology, skills and experience to solve your pest problems.

Ant problem?

Nearly every household, at one stage or another, will have a problem with  ants coming into their kitchen. Normally, the first ants that come in are simply looking for a food source such as little bit of  juice spilt on the work surface or on the floor.Crumbs are a treat for our little friends so good housekeeping and clearing debris away after preparing food can be the start of getting rid of them.

These are the sort of things that ants coming into the home, will come searching for. The first ants are workers who will then go back and tell the nest, where there will be thousands of ants ‘There’s a good food source here’. Before you know it, you’ve got thousands of ants following a trail into your kitchen and finding anything that you haven’t cleaned up.

The first thing to do is get rid of those food sources straight away such as anything sweet and sticky, or crumbs that the children may have left underneath a chair or the settee. Clean over the ant trail with some bleach – you may be able to follow that trail back to the ants nest.

The ants will be coming in through gaps around window frames or doors. You may find a little pile of sand near to where the ants are exiting from a hole. This is where the ants have been excavating to make their nest.  If you have a dig around, you may see lots of little white eggs and frantic ants. This means it’s definitely the nest! Most people will go and grab their trusty supermarket spray can and blast away with far too much insecticide that it will get on your chest and the smell will linger for days !! It doesn’t have to be like that !!

The nest can be sprayed with a modern insecticide that the ants cannot detect, and by touching this insecticide, they become infected. The good thing is that they don’t just turn over and die,but the way the poison works is that they have enough time to return to the nest and by the effects of natural grooming and touch, one ant can affect hundreds more. This then starts the eradication of the nest, bit by bit until it is gone. Who hasn’t, as a child ,gone and boiled a kettle of water to pour over the hole where the ants are coming out from? That will kill a few,but boiling water goes cold and doesn’t reach deep into the nest to do any lasting good. Another area likely to experience an ant infestation is your patio. The ants will dig below the slabs to create a well hidden nest that is protected from predators. The sandy soil that they excavate unfortunately, is unsightly and makes the patio look untidy. In this instance ,we can again treat the entrances to the nest to ensure that every ant that exits,is affected by the insecticide and transfers the poison to the rest of the colony. Any treatment is not an instant “magic wand” fix, but our work is guaranteed to eradicate the problem in the shortest possible time.

 

       FACTS ABOUT ANTS

 

  • Ants exist on every continent apart from Antarctica
  • The sense of smell of an ant is just as good as that of a dog.
  • People think they have flying ants in their home when they could be Subterranean termites. The flight season for the adult reproductive termites is generally around April to May time. They look like flying ants but are certainly doing a lot more damage to your home than an ant could ever do. The worker termites will be devouring the wooden door frames , window frames and wooden skirting and floors on a 24/7 basis.
  • Ants can carry 50 times their own weight.
  • Leafcutter ants are understood to form the second most complex societies on Earth after our own. Scientists discovered an ant colony that spread over 500 sq.ft. and 26 ft. deep below the surface in Brazil. Scientists said that it was the ant equivalent of building the Great Wall of China. In total, over 40 tonnes of earth was excavated to form this nest.
  • The total biomass of all the ants on Earth is the same as the biomass of all the humans on Earth.
  • Scientists estimate that there are 1.5 million ants on Earth for every human being.