A trail has two ends
Every ant on a kitchen worktop is walking a route it has already reinforced with scent, back to a nest somewhere outside. Wiping the ants away deals with the ones you can see; watching where the trail goes tells you where the actual problem is.
Finding the entry point
Pick a warm, still spell of the day when activity is at its highest, and trace the line back to wherever it enters the room - a gap under the back door, a crack around a pipe, or the edge of a patio door frame are the most common points on the estate's terraced houses.
The estate's long back gardens
Becontree's houses were built with generous back gardens by London standards, and a patio laid against the rear wall of the house gives a colony exactly the warm, sheltered spot it favours. The nest itself doesn't have to be near the house at all - the joints in older paving further down the garden, or the base of a fence, can send a trail the whole length of the plot.
What to avoid
- Spraying the visible trail, which kills foragers but leaves the nest untouched
- Pouring boiling water onto paving, which rarely reaches the colony and can crack the slabs
- Sealing the entry point before the nest itself has been dealt with
- Scattering loose powder along the trail, which can split one colony into several
Closing the gap afterwards
Once the colony has been treated, go back and seal only the specific gap the ants were using - a threshold, a pipe hole, a crack in old pointing. Leave any weep holes or airbricks clear, since sealing those traps damp inside the wall instead.
Booking ant control in Barking and Dagenham
Ant control in Barking and Dagenham runs £190 for a flat and £220 for a house, and because around Marks Gate, where a small residential pocket in the north of the borough, it helps to say roughly whereabouts in the garden the nest might be when you book ant control, with the rest on the Barking and Dagenham ant control page.
