April 14th, 2020 by Becky Calvert

The warmer weather has finally made an appearance and although this means sunshine, blue skies and lovely fresh air, it is also the time when ants creep into many people's households. Ants enter our homes and workspaces looking for food and once they've got in, there can be hundreds! However, there's no need to worry - we have everything that you need to know about why they're in your home in the first place, to how to get rid of them, to how to keep them away for good!

Why Are Ants in Your Home?

Although ants mostly create their homes and colonies outside, they'll often look inside for a food source. Once they've found a way inside and food, hundreds of ants will start to enter your home and collect food, before carrying it back to the colony to feast on. However, in some cases, ants will build their nests inside walls, ceilings or small cracks and this can make the problem much worse. Ultimately, ants are always trying to find food when they’re inside your home and therefore, it's important to make this as hard as possible for them as if they can't find food, they'll be less likely to want to stay.

Ants love anything sweet - sugary drinks, desserts, sugar itself and anything else with a high sugar content. This is why you'll often find ants overtaking dropped fruit outside as the high natural sugar content is something they love and thrive off of. Therefore, it's important that you never leave out sugary good (or any food for that matter!) in your home on a night or throughout the day as an ant infestation will love nothing more than feasting on it and coming back for more.

How Can I Remove Ants From my Home?

If you've spotted ants in your home, you'll want to get rid of them as quickly as you can. Xterminate offer several products to remove ants from your home easily - all of which are super easy and simple to use. Our Ant Killer Kit has everything you need to remove the ants and stop them from coming back. It's made up of three products - Protector C Dusting Powder, Protector C Insect Killer Spray and our Ant Bait Stations.

The dusting powder is great to put around places where the ants are walking over, as they'll be tempted ingest some of the powder on their travels (which will ultimately kill them) and is great for placing around electrical equipment where liquids aren't suitable.  The powder is also great for using between crevices where ants may be gaining access to your property. This could be between brickwork and the floor outside the home, where it can be hard to use other pest control methods to get deep into the crevices. The powder can also be used on carpets and hard floors - perfect for placing on the trail of ants to make sure that they pick it up to take back to their nest.

Residex P Insect Killer Powder 100g

Residex P Insect Killer Powder is to be used around the home in all areas where liquid use may not be suitable, such as cracks, crevices, skirting boards, light fixtures and plug sockets. 

Price: £11.99

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The Insect Killer Spray can be sprayed directly onto the ants to make sure you've covered all of the ones that you can see - you can also spray on the surrounding areas. This ant killer spray also contains Cypermethrin and will stay active for up to 8 weeks - perfect for peace of mind that once you've sprayed this product, it will help to protect your home for many weeks to come!

2 x 1L Protector C

Price: £16.99

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Lastly, our Ant Bait Stations. These attract the ants as they smell and taste sweet to the ants and therefore, a large amount of the ants will want to feast on the bait. They will then take this back to the colony and this will start the process of killing the ants to stop them from coming back in the future!

How Can I Stop Ants from Coming Back?

Now that you've successfully removed ants from your home, you'll want to make sure that they stay away for good. To do this, take note of where the ants were entering your home (whether it be a crack in the wall, a window, or any other crevice) and make sure that you seal this up. This will make it difficult for the ants to re-enter your home using the same passage.

It's also important to make sure that you empty your bins and keep them covered. Ants love nothing more than searching in rubbish for something sweet and an open rubbish bag will give them easy access to what they need. Similarly, to stop them from infesting your outdoor space, make sure that your rubbish bags are tightly shut so that ants can't get inside the bag and set up their home near yours!

As previously mentioned, make sure that no food or drink - especially sugary ones are left out in your home. So many people go to bed without ants and wake up to an ant-covered biscuit or piece of fruit because they forgot to throw it away the night before. Ants are extremely good at finding and seeking out food, so you can never be too careful!