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So I moved into my new property last month.

It's a purpose-built flat in a building of 6 flats spread over 2 floors.

It seems there is an ant invasion problem developing coming in from the ground floor.

Is anyone able to recommend some stuff I can buy to kill the little bastards off or at least stop from invading my flat?

It looks like the management company has not been doing a good job at pest control previously and i would rather avoid using them as they will just pick the most expensive contractor and not care if works or not and then charge the owners..

You to find their entry point. That done Ant Powder should get the job done.

Meantime? Be up to date on your washing up. And double bag foodstuffs.

Ant poison near nest, theres some that are basically looking / smelling like food for them which then poisons the whole hive and eliminating it.

If you are rural tho be prepared to redo that again and again

I'm not sure if it has some strange name in the UK, but borax always worked for me. Ants will eat it up like crazy but it's a desiccant so it'll kill them off. And since it's not a poison it's safe for use around pets.

yeah seconded, find the entry point and fill it up. I used some bathroom silicone on the crack near my kitchen door and that seemed to stop them

I've recently heard that talcum powder apparently works as a barrier against them. So again it would be plugging up the hole and seeding the area around with the powder as a barrier.

There use to be a poison that you could buy that was like a sweet syrup. It was designed to be taken back to the nest where it was fed to queen and younglings which effectively killed off the nest.

The problem with powder/filling the holes is it tends to kill workers not the main queen. They aren't just invading you property but a lot of others as well and hence killing a few workers relatively or blocking the hole doesn't really help (as in the latter they will just try and chew a new one).

 ScarletRose wrote:
I'm not sure if it has some strange name in the UK, but borax always worked for me. Ants will eat it up like crazy but it's a desiccant so it'll kill them off. And since it's not a poison it's safe for use around pets.

Desiccant is lethal just because it's not a poison doesn't mean it's safe around pets! That stuff literally will dry out your organs.

Keep your place clean so nothing attracts them and there's many products to deal with ants, you know Wilkinsons in the UK? (Wilko) they do a pretty nice ant killer in a small disc which is pretty safe.

 The Regulator wrote:

 ScarletRose wrote:
I'm not sure if it has some strange name in the UK, but borax always worked for me. Ants will eat it up like crazy but it's a desiccant so it'll kill them off. And since it's not a poison it's safe for use around pets.

Desiccant is lethal just because it's a poison doesn't mean it's safe around pets! That stuff literally will dry out your organs.

A couple grams of borax will kill ants, animals and human have far too much water in them for it to dry them out.

For reference the LD50 (the amount that kills half those subjected to it) is 2.66 g/kg. Humans would need to eat a hundred+ grams, and pets proportionally would need to eat a considerable amount.

I believe they are coming through he communal door to the flats which I cant really seal. I don't see what attracts them in to the building as the hallways are all pretty much sterile with only concrete/thin layer of office like carpeting. The bins are some 30-40 yards away from the building in the car park so i don't get why they dont just go there..

Likewise my entire flat is all wood panel flooring and tiles in the kitchen with a solid waste bin and certainly no lack of cleanliness. I live on the first floor so the blighters are making their way all the way up the stairs...

The certainly are coming in via the front door as its not particularly sealed and its a bit old.

As its a communal building any product needs to be relatively un-intrusive/overpowering. I don't want to poison me neighbours if I can help it!

Specifically I am after recommendations for products and brands I can use to try on the outside entry point as well as my own flat hopefully I can break their damn pheromone trails.

Poor ants! They're quite nice creatures really and it's quite fascinating to watch them at work.

If you want a natural solution, venus fly traps eat ants. In fact most varieties don't really eat flying insects despite their name!
You need to pick the right variety though as some are more sensitive than others.

 Argive wrote:
I believe they are coming through he communal door to the flats which I cant really seal. I don't see what attracts them in to the building as the hallways are all pretty much sterile with only concrete/thin layer of office like carpeting. The bins are some 30-40 yards away from the building in the car park so i don't get why they dont just go there..

Likewise my entire flat is all wood panel flooring and tiles in the kitchen with a solid waste bin and certainly no lack of cleanliness. I live on the first floor so the blighters are making their way all the way up the stairs...

The certainly are coming in via the front door as its not particularly sealed and its a bit old.

As its a communal building any product needs to be relatively un-intrusive/overpowering. I don't want to poison me neighbours if I can help it!

Specifically I am after recommendations for products and brands I can use to try on the outside entry point as well as my own flat hopefully I can break their damn pheromone trails.

Thats a tricky one. They don't like vinegar apparantly. Although the ones in my house a few weeks ago didnt seem too fussed about walking over vinegar i spritzed on the floor

If you google “ant traps” they’re little puck-shaped tins with holes on the sides. Ants get in, eat the poison, take it back to the hive... dead ants.

Unobtrusive, you can put a few on the ground where you see them entering the building.

Bayonet charge. Or nukes, but that might impact your security deposit.

 ScarletRose wrote:

 The Regulator wrote:

 ScarletRose wrote:
I'm not sure if it has some strange name in the UK, but borax always worked for me. Ants will eat it up like crazy but it's a desiccant so it'll kill them off. And since it's not a poison it's safe for use around pets.

Desiccant is lethal just because it's a poison doesn't mean it's safe around pets! That stuff literally will dry out your organs.

A couple grams of borax will kill ants, animals and human have far too much water in them for it to dry them out.

For reference the LD50 (the amount that kills half those subjected to it) is 2.66 g/kg. Humans would need to eat a hundred+ grams, and pets proportionally would need to eat a considerable amount.

Fine but don't leave it around for little buster to eat that gak it says DO NOT EAT on it for a reason!

I deal with this in the mid Atlantic US every spring. Ants come in after a good rainfall - kitchen, office, bedroom, doesn’t matter how clean.

I use a mixture of water, borax, and sugar. Mix it together in a jar. There are several different recipes for amounts of each available with a simple google search. Take a piece of paper towel, put it in a metal jar lid, pour mixture into the jar lid until soaked. Put on floor near where ants are walking. Ants get attracted to it, swarm all over it (May take a day or two), they eat it, take it back to the anthill, and they all die. Works a treat for me.

Sometimes I have to to it again in spot applications when new ants decide to come in.

We have two cats and have never had a problem with them fussing with the mixture or the jar lids.

 ScarletRose wrote:
I'm not sure if it has some strange name in the UK, but borax always worked for me. Ants will eat it up like crazy but it's a desiccant so it'll kill them off. And since it's not a poison it's safe for use around pets.

Borax is a mineral. It gets dug out of the ground. You can get it in the UK under the name sodium tetraborate decahydrate.

When Borax mixes with water, it creates crystals (very pointy sharp crystals). Insects don't have lungs, they breathe through spiracles and they get trapped inside and "grow". It basically shreds them from the inside.
It's not toxic (like poisons) so it's safe to use around other animals.

I'll throw in on the Borax and sugar method, really works.
The bigger question is what kind of ants are you getting?
Not sure what ants you have over there so I'll just give you what applies where I'm at.
Medium sized? Probably just garden ants. Eliminate food source, Borax poison.
Little smaller? May be carpenters, call a pro.
Tiny? May be moisture ants, call a pro. Could be a small leak in a wall somewhere.
Oh, most sprays are repellants. I don't recommend. They change their routes and you'll see them again, in bigger numbers soon.

PourSpelur wrote:
I'll throw in on the Borax and sugar method, really works.
The bigger question is what kind of ants are you getting?
Not sure what ants you have over there so I'll just give you what applies where I'm at.
Medium sized? Probably just garden ants. Eliminate food source, Borax poison.
Little smaller? May be carpenters, call a pro.
Tiny? May be moisture ants, call a pro. Could be a small leak in a wall somewhere.
Oh, most sprays are repellants. I don't recommend. They change their routes and you'll see them again, in bigger numbers soon.

They're little black ants. Very common.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will look into making some "traps" or buying some pre-made ones with borax.

https://preview.tinyurl.com/ycbsy9cn

I guarantee that one of these will get the job done. It's hideously effective and I do feel guilty for using them occasionally, whilst at work. That said I'd feel differently if I was dealing with the problem at home, not such a laughing matter.

We always used to use this stuff:



You put a drop of the liquid down and the worker ants carry it back to the nest. Very effective.

We've had to deal with this a couple of times in our current house. Several years apart.

We bought a couple of those plastic disks with the poison inside. You can get them from any supermarket.

Very effective, ants gone within a few days.

We had ants in one room of our house. very early on I got some of those raid ant baits, the plastic ones, and put them nearby on surfaces, but tht didn't seem to help. I actually taped one to the wall RIGHT next to their little entry hole, and the next day found a ton of dead ants both inside and outside. Then I caulked up their hole, and for good measure picked up some outdoor ant poison and spread it in a perimeter like 3" around the house.

Haven't seen an ant since.

 Argive wrote:
So I moved into my new property last month.

It's a purpose-built flat in a building of 6 flats spread over 2 floors.

It seems there is an ant invasion problem developing coming in from the ground floor.

Is anyone able to recommend some stuff I can buy to kill the little bastards off or at least stop from invading my flat?

It looks like the management company has not been doing a good job at pest control previously and i would rather avoid using them as they will just pick the most expensive contractor and not care if works or not and then charge the owners..

In Texas you don't get rid of ants. Ants get rid of you!

For little ants, we use these liquid traps. Works better than anything I've found for the little ones.



Dunno if you have that exact product there, but I'm sure there must be an equivalent.

Now, carpenter ants is whole 'nuther story. It's good you don't have those. Those can be handled also, but you need different stuff.

I got stung by an ant last year. something dropped out of a tree onto my neck. I thought it was a bit of bark or something, tried to brush it off. few minutes later my neck is all inflamed and itchy, with 3 neat puncture marks. I didnt even know there were stinging ants, much less in the UK!

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
I got stung by an ant last year. something dropped out of a tree onto my neck. I thought it was a bit of bark or something, tried to brush it off. few minutes later my neck is all inflamed and itchy, with 3 neat puncture marks. I didnt even know there were stinging ants, much less in the UK!

Went to Asia 11 years ago and got bit by fire ants... little sods.

I had the ant problem a long time ago. My wife hates bugs, so we went full nuclear option (short of calling a pro)

1. We fumigated our home twice, two weeks apart using those soda can sized do it yourself foggers. We went a little heavier than recommended.

2. Ant traps inside AND outside. We used the kind that poisons the ant, then kills the colony.

3. We sprayed the base of every wall (inside and out) with Ortho insect killer/repellant and around the trim of every outside door and window. Then we sprayed a grid pattern on our garage floor.

4. Diatomaceous Earth sprinklings around the outside of the house and along inside walls.

5. We made dang sure to be as hygienic as possible and to not leave any unused food/sugar available. This included rinsing out soda cans.

This stopped the ants dead.