Ants in kitchen

SUPERGIRL2020

housebuyer143 said:

SUPERGIRL2020 said:

I had a nest of flying ants on my doorstep last year and in my house bricks outside. I got a pest control guy out who put some powder down but they are coming back this year 😡 No food source for them! I always empty my bins so I don’t understand why they are back 🤷‍♀️

Are they not something different to normal ants? I don't think the powder or anything stops them forever when you consider there are billions under the ground and can just move to your area from another? 
I get the flying ants every year, just one of those things - they normally only last a few days.

I don’t know the difference 🤷‍♀️

They look like normal ants at the moment but this is what happened last summer then all of a sudden millions of them got wings 🤷‍♀️ I wouldn't be as bothered but they are all in my main door entrance where we walk in and out off all day millions of them I wonder why I never had them before till last year 😕

twopenny

I've got them in my living room. No food there.
Made their way through the air brick. I haven't had this for 5yrs as they had eaten through the concrete floor under the patio doors.

I put ant traps down on the trail to the nest. Douse with powder and I'm off to get spray to go inside the airbrick. 
I'll reseal the floor and around the air brick.
Also use a bleach or vinegar spray to stop the trails to it.

I did check this spot only a week ago and no ants there.

A lot of small birds have been eating my ants this year. I think these were looking for a safer place. It's a nest they want to make.

Flying ants are the new queens etc of our black ants flying to mate and die. 
Happens 1st week July ish on a humid night around 6pm. Very predictable as the gulls are in the roads picking them off before their flight

housebuyer143

My husband also jokes I am at war with the ants, but clearly it's not just me 🤣🤣

itsthelittlethings

Are your cupboards or surfaces sugary?

MouldyOldDough

We also have many ants nests in the lawn.,.
On "flying ants" day last year we had millions of the critters around the house 

chrisw

MouldyOldDough said:

We also have many ants nests in the lawn.,.
On "flying ants" day last year we had millions of the critters around the house 

I don't mind them outdoors. It always strikes me as one of nature's marvels how they all know to come out under particular conditions on specific days and are gone again shortly after. Not to mention their work ethic which a few humans could learn from.

MouldyOldDough

Worker ants live for an astonishing 7 years on average - Queen ants live for 15 years whereas reproductive males live for just 2 weeks - I guess that that'll have to change if I don't want them back year after year ?

twopenny

"Worker ants live for an astonishing 7 years on average"

So that's why they found their way back after 4yrs!

Keep_pedalling

All ant species go through a flying stage, newly emerged queens and males are winged. They leave the nest, mate and the males die. The queens find somewhere to set up a new colony where they loose their wings. Every garden will support a number of colonies and probable a number of different species as well. Most go unnoticed until the all the new queens and males take their maiden (and only) flight in a mass emergence which only lasts one day. 

Chloe_G

We had a swarm of flying ants in our downstairs toilet a couple of years ago.  It was a bit of a shock!  Had to spray a lot of Raid in there and then swept up the bodies.