A trail leads two ways
The trail thickens the longer it's left, since every worker making the same round trip reinforces the same scent path, true near New Addington too, where a mid-20th-century estate on the borough's southern edge. Wiping the trail away only clears what's visible, following it instead shows where the colony really is, much as it does near Addiscombe, where victorian and Edwardian terraces east of the town centre.
Locating the entry point
Pick a warm, settled part of the day when activity peaks, and watch the line as it runs away from wherever the food was found. A back-door threshold, a gap around pipework, or the edge of a patio door frame are the most common entry points across Croydon's suburban houses.
The leafier suburbs around Selsdon and Shirley
Ants come into kitchens through gaps at patio doors and garden edges especially often in the leafier suburbs around Selsdon and Shirley, where a patio built up against a rear extension gives a colony the warm, dry conditions it favours. The nest doesn't have to be close to the house either - joints in older paving further down the garden can still send a trail the whole way indoors.
What to leave alone for now
- Spraying the visible trail, which kills foragers and leaves the colony untouched
- Pouring boiling water into paving, which can crack mortar and rarely reaches the queen
- Filling the entry gap before the nest itself has been treated
- Scattering loose powder along the trail, which can split one colony into several
Sealing the gap afterwards
With the colony dealt with, go back and close only the gap the ants were actually using, a threshold, pipe hole, or crack in old mortar, as anyone near New Addington will recognise, where a mid-20th-century estate on the borough's southern edge. Weep holes and air bricks should stay clear, sealing them shut only traps moisture inside the wall, as anyone near Purley will recognise, where leafy 1930s suburbia in the south of the borough.
Booking ant control in Croydon
Ant control in Croydon runs £190 for a flat and £220 for a house, and because around Shirley, where suburban streets and gardens on the eastern edge 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 Croydon ant control page.
