Black ants (Lasius niger) are common all around the world and though they generally nest outside they are regularly found inside houses causing a severe nuisance. They are social creatures and live in colonies containing workers (infertile females), males, queens and grubs (larvae). Ants friend on the wing, so the “flying ants” are either males or immature queens.
You will find ants nests in dry earth around plant roots, with sandy soil especially tempting colonies. The sand employed in house foundations, garden paths and terraces forms a good site for the queen ant to start a colony. Nests are increasingly being found within the walls of properties (cavity walls, for instance ). One a colony develops it can be hard to get rid of.
The ants found inside are usually worker ants, which are scavenging for food for the queen and the grubs. They have revealed that buildings inhabited by humans are a superb source of provision, particularly sweet or sugary items.
Worker ants are scavengers and collect seeds, nectar, and even dead insects to take back to the nest. They also prey on greenfly, blackfly and other tiny insects, so can’t be thought to be all bad. While it is unpleasant and a nuisance to find a large number ants in your home, black ants don’t broadcast any serious diseases.
However, you should remember as well the ants may have travelled through unpleasant or dirty places during their scavenging and before entering your home. This means that they can taint food, making it unsuitable to eat.
Do not leave food revealed if accessible to ants.If they have contaminated food, dispose of in the dustbin ( wrapped first to stop it smelling in the warmer weather). They can bite and they are able to squirt formic acid as a defence mechanism which can irritate those with sensitive skin.
There is no single method ready to the general public which is guaranteed to succeed in erasing ant issues. Regularly it’s better to rely on professional pest control companies.
You can try the proprietary powders available at DIY stores and hardware shops however this often proves only to be a short-term answer, firstly thanks to the low doses of important components permitted in domestic insecticides.
Secondly, there can be so many ants in one nest that it is not easy to eradicate the entire colony in one go. You will often find the problem re-occurs year after year and it’s regularly worth spending a few pounds to have the issue professionally treated.
The most prevalent treatment a professional pest control company will carry out is a spray treatment of the infested area. This can sometimes have the consequences of reducing or removing the problem for a period of some weeks or maybe months. The operative should spray inside the property where ants are seen and try to get insecticide into the nest itself though this isn’t possible.
The most successful, but also most costly system of curing an ant infestation is to drill holes into the cavity walls of the property and inject insecticidal dust into the cavity itself. This forms an impenetrable barrier, that the ants can’t cross, and is 99.9% successful in removing ant infestations. Though the treatment is more costly it lasts for many years depending on how dry the cavities are and has the benefit that once the holes are drilled it is a simple and relatively inexpensive matter to re-inject the cavities with insecticidal dust every few years.
