How to get rid of Ants

Ants - Home Call Out Service

Our Call Out Service for ants offers professional, convenient solutions to get rid of your ant problems fast:

  • 24 hour response (mon - fri) with appointment times convenient for you
  • Friendly and knowledgeable local technicians, ensuring the highest level of safety for your family and pets
  • Call us NOW on 0800 218 2210 to arrange for a Rentokil technician to visit and get rid of your ant problem quickly and efficiently.

For more information on how to keep ants out of your property please see below.

Protecting your Home and Family from Ants

Although ants are an irritant when they come into the home the most common species, the Garden Ant, is not thought to carry disease. However, as it is impossible to know where the ants were last foraging for food, it is sensible to take steps to prevent them entering your home and food cupboards.

Ants in your house and garden

There are thousands of different species of ant but the most common ones in the UK are:

Image of a Garden Ant (Lasius niger)| Rentokil Pest Control UK

Garden Ants (also known as Black Ants) - worker ants 4-5mm but the Queen can be as big as 15mm. Queens lay their eggs in the spring in nests that are typically in soil but can be in brickwork or under bark. Garden Ants are attracted to sweet foods and leave a pheromone trail back to their nests for other ants to follow to the food source.

Image of a Pharaoh Ant (Monomorium pharaonis) | Rentokil Pest Control UK

Pharoah’s Ants – worker ants are 1.5 -2mm long and the Queen is 4 - 6mm long. Both workers and the Queen are a yellow-brown colour. Pharoah’s Ants originate from the tropics and require artificial heat in order to survive and reproduce and tend to live in large heated buildings such as hospitals, hotels and blocks of flats. This ant’s diet is largely of decomposing foodstuffs and it carries harmful germs picked up from when it has been feeding.

Image of a Fire Ant (Solenopsis spp) | Rentokil Pest Control UK

Red Fire Ants - workers 3mm long and the Queen up to 6mm long. These ants are a reddish brown colour and live in colonies of up to 100,000 or more ants! Each colony is led by a Queen who lays between 150 and 200 eggs per day. Fire ants build mounds of up to 2 feet high to live in and these are usually built in open, sunny spaces. Fire ants sting both animals and humans and their sting is extremely painful.

How to keep Ants away

The majority of black or garden ants will only come into your home to forage for food and are attracted by sweet and sticky substances. Ensure that there is no readily available food source in your home by:

  • Always covering food – we do not know where the ant has been before it crawls across your food!
  • Clear away food and liquid spillage's immediately
  • Clean food debris from under kitchen appliances
  • Make sure all rubbish bins have tightly sealed lids
  • Keep compost enclosed and covered
  • Clear away your Pet’s food immediately it has finished eating

You can help prevent Ants entering your home by sealing access points such as cracks and crevices in door and window frames.

How to get rid of Ants

Whilst a wide range of DIY Products are available to kill Garden Ants, an established problem with Pharoah’s Ants or Fire Ants may require professional pest control to ensure that it will not reoccur.

DIY Pest Control Products for Ants

Rentokil offers a range of ant products for amateur use, including ant sprays and ant powders to get rid of ants and other insects in the home, quickly and efficiently. These should be applied where you see signs of ant activity and spray any surfaces, cracks and crevices, where ants have been seen.

The Rentokil Ant Killer Gel can be used to destroy ant nests as the ants carry the gel deep into the nest to deal with the ant colony from within. As with all pest control products, please read the instructions carefully before use.

Pest control products from Rentokil are available to buy from all leading supermarkets, DIY stores, garden centres and hardware stores.

For more serious ant problems and signs of a large ant infestation, we recommend that you seek professional ant control services.

Professional Ant Control Services

While DIY products can deal with smaller ant problems or with garden ants, a professional pest control service will be required for larger or multiple infestations of ants and particuarly if they are Pharoah’s Ants.

Rentokil technicians understand the habits of each species of ants and also have a range of powerful insecticides to deal with ants and provide the reassurance that the problem has been fully dealt with.

Rentokil offers a call-out service to deal with ants and other pest problems in the home. Our service is fast, effective and offers the highest level of safety for your family and pets.

If you would like further advice on ants or to arrange a visit by a Rentokil technician, call us free on 0800 218 2210.