• Home
  • Main Website
  • Commercial Pest Control
  • Property Care
  • Pest Reviews
  • Contact Us
deBugged
  • Home
  • Main Website
  • Commercial Pest Control
  • Property Care
  • Pest Reviews
  • Contact Us
Home  /  Ants • Insects • Pest Control  /  When black garden ants go from nuisance to pest
Ants on a cup cake
23 May 2019

When black garden ants go from nuisance to pest

Written by Jackie
Ants, Insects, Pest Control garden ants Leave a Comment

Black Ants in gardenI’m never quite sure where the ‘black’ or the ‘garden’ elements relate to Lasius niger. In our garden these ants look more of a very dark brown and are to be found under the patio slabs, in the flower pots, creating small piles of earth along the edge of the lawn or most often as not, attempting to tunnel their way into our kitchen!

Out of about 11,000 ant species worldwide there are about 50 that are common in the UK. The common black garden ant is one of the most robust and prolific to be found on our shores. Colonies can grow to around 15,000 workers, but the average is between 5,000 to 7,000 ants.

During the winter an ant colony will remain dormant. Only when the weather starts to warm will the worker ants set out to forage. Garden ants will eat a variety of food, from nectar, soft fruits and small insects to honeydew from aphids and anything sweet and sugary they can find in the kitchen.

As the queen lays more eggs and the colony grows over the early summer months, worker ants will forage further afield to find new food sources. This will often bring them inside properties. They will also use these explorations to test new areas to see if they are suitable new nests the following spring. Such explorations can be very extensive. We returned from holiday once, to discover a trail of ants marching down the hallway into the kitchen. They had burrowed a tiny tunnel, through the mortar between the brickwork and the plasterboard wall!

When worker ants find a new food source they will leave a pheromone path (a trail of chemicals) that other ants will follow to the food from the nest. At this point, as garden ants are marching into the cupboards and all over the food they go from a nuisance to a pest.

How to deter ants from entering your home:

  • Clean up food & liquid spillages, using disinfectant will help remove the pheromone trails ants follow
  • Sweep up food crumbs from under kitchen appliances & units, removing any easy food source
  • Store foods in airtight containers wherever possible, to protect food & deny ants access
  • Block off entry points by sealing all cracks & crevices around your doors and window frames.

Usually prevention is enough to deter garden ants from entering a property. However if the nest is too close to a building or inside the wall voids, garden ant control will need to be done by qualified professionals. As destroying the nest, eggs and queen, rather than just the foraging worker ants is much more difficult to achieve.

Garden Ants

Rentokil has a range of DIY Ant control products that assist in removing smaller infestations of ants.  But if you need a professional exterminator, contact our team today.

 

Share On
Jackie

I joined UK Marketing for Rentokil Pest Control in January 2009. What an enlightenment that has been - cheese mites, bed bugs and confused flour beetles, I never knew such things existed but I have certainly learnt how Rentokil expertise and experience eliminates them. Now my mission is to use the website to show the UK that whatever their pest problem, Rentokil have the solution. Life outside of work revolves around my husband and kids, so life is pretty hectic!

Leave a Reply

Cancel reply

Need some advice?

Talk to one of our experts:

For your Home

0808 231 5834

For your Business

0808 231 7897

Checking...

Ouch! There was a server error.
Retry »

Sending message...

Quick Form

Fill in the form below and we will be in touch soon


Find us on Facebook

Find us on Twitter

Find Us on LinkedIn

Rentokil Pest Control

Rentokil Pest Control is part of Rentokil Initial — one of the world's largest providers of business services. Formed over 80 years ago, the company has grown to become UK's longest-established, best known and most trusted pest control service provider.

Camberley. 3,500+ employees

Rentokil Pest Control

Categories

  • Pest Control
  • United Kingdom
  • Property Care
  • Rodents
  • Birds
  • Pestaurant
  • Flying Insects
  • Crawling Insects
  • Spiders
  • Other Wildlife

Subscribe to the debugged blog


Category Posts

  • Tis the season… for un-festive Christmas pests Countries, Insects, Mice, Rats
  • How to Stop Flies Being Bad News for Your Business Countries, Flies, Flying Insects

Latest Video

Recent Posts

  • how to get rid of ants in the house
    Top tips and remedies to get rid of ants May 5, 2022
  • Damp problems in the home
    Damp Problems in Houses November 19, 2020
  • Rentokil technician servicing RadarConnect
    Tips for Preventative Rodent Pest Control November 16, 2020
  • Hiring Apprentice Technicians – Application Info November 16, 2020

© 2020 Rentokil Initial plc and subject to the conditions in the Legal Statement.

  • Latest News
  • Careers at Rentokil
  • Woodworm Specialists
  • Damp Proofing
  • Pestaurant
  • Noises in the Attic
  • Pest Control Customer Reviews
  • DIY Consumer Products
  • Manage Cookies
  • Company Information
  • Modern Slavery Statement
  • RI Gender Pay Gap
  • RI Supplier Code
  • Cookie Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • eBilling
myRentokil
myLearning
TRUSTPILOT