TashaAndBump

I wrote before, with a picture of an ant bite that I had...

Well we've since had three separate occasions of flying and normal ant infestations. I have had to put ant killer down 3 times, and have been quite thorough in doing so, and even scouted the drive and back garden for 'ant holes', pouring boiling water down all suspicious-looking holes and dust-piles.

Well, we went out today for what couldn't have been more than 4 hours, and came home to find the entire kitchen swarming with massive flying ants. Where the hell are they coming from, and WHY?! I'm not embarrassed to mention that I'm quite house-proud and keep a very clean and tidy bungalow.

I can't understand what they could be foraging for in here??

Well we've had to call the council out today to exterminate them properly as I'm sick of putting poison down around our home and garden. They say they cannot guarantee coming out tonight AND we have to pay £40 for them to send someone out! This just seems so unfair: It's not our fault they keep infesting our home - It's a council maintained property so they should take some responsibility. We do all that we can in keeping the place clean and putting ant killer down each time they appear... We can't use our kitchen until they are gone and we can't get rid of them ourselves - the infestation is out of control! It's only going to get worse!

I can't believe they won't come out right away and they want us to pay them to do their jobs!

Stupid ants.

Mynxie

we used to get alot of ant infestations in our old home - was awful

Jessa

I've got some small black ants that keep cropping up under the bay window in our guest room. Not sure where they're coming in. The weird thing is that they're all dead every time I look. I vacuum them up and then a week later there are more dead ones. I've never seen a live one at all. Weird!

I hope you get your ants under control! They're pesky little things!

sam's mum

I can't believe they won't come straight out! That's awful

Just been out in our garden and there are flying ants everywhere. They're usually only around for a day though aren't they? Hope you manage to get rid of the rest soon...I once drank a can of coke with hundreds of ants in it...they must have spent all day crawling in there from somewhere in our kitchen! Got rid of a few though (that wasn't my plan) x

TashaAndBump

I've just said screw it to the ant pest control guy from the council and sorted them out myself - again!

Swept them down and dysoned them up! Last thing I needed today - Feel like crap (cold and cough) and have so much to do without sorting out another ant infestation! Now I've gone off of using our lovely kitchen and don't think I can eat anything from in there now. I had some lovely nuts, seeds and raisins that were open, but I've just been imagining them crawling with ants and I can't touch them now

On top of that it has put hubby into a foul mood and things were already tense (nothing serious, we're both just really exhausted and tetchy).

Stupid ants

TashaAndBump

OMG! I don't think I would have stopped chucking up if that happened to me!

sam's mum

I didn't for quite a while! It was when I was living with my mum years ago and didn't help that she found the whole thing hilarious while I was trying to wash ants out of my mouth and down the kitchen sink

leeanne

Sarahkka

Here is some helpful and nerdy naturalist advice:
The flying ants are the generation of ants that are capable of reproduction. They have wings so that they'll fly away and start a lovely ant nest of their own somewhere, without competing with the current queen's colony. They are only laid once in awhile and are just trying to mate and find their own nesting spot.
The presence of these ants indicates that the queen is alive and kicking and is pushing out eggs galore.
If you are spraying the worker ants with poison, you aren't really getting to the real problem: the queen and her egg-laying prowess. To get to her you need to trick the worker ants to bring home something toxic and feed it to the rest of the colony. I have used a combination of borax and sugar. I sprinkle it all over the place and let the ants bring their exciting discovery home. The sugar tastes great and the borax dessicates them from the inside out. Grim for the ants, but far less toxic for you and your family and any other helpful garden insects. It's also cheap.
I would try that and see how it works.
It sounds like a very well-established colony, so you may need to be patient and try this a few times.
Good luck!

spoo

London and Bromley were infested with flying ants yesterday afternoon / evening. I'd left all the washing drying in the garden and have to rewash the lot

I didn't know that they bite until today either, my boss told me she'd been bitten on both hands last year! Not nice