Follow the trail rather than wiping it
Every worker ant that reaches food and returns safely strengthens the same scent trail for the next one, which is why a line seems to thicken the longer it is left. Wiping it away only means the ants lay a fresh one; following it back tells you where the colony actually is.
Step one: find where they enter the room
Warm, still weather brings out the most activity, so watch rather than break up the trail as it runs back from wherever the food was found, just as near Surbiton, where handsome Victorian and Edwardian villas. A back door threshold, a gap around patio pipework or a window frame edge are the usual entry points - mark whichever it is rather than wiping it down.
1930s suburban gardens in New Malden and Tolworth
The gardens attached to the 1930s semis across New Malden and Tolworth commonly have a patio built up against the back of the house, and it is exactly this warm, dry paving that a colony favours, whether or not the nest itself sits right against the wall.
What to leave alone for now
- Spraying the trail, which kills the foragers and leaves the colony intact
- Pouring boiling water into paving, which can damage mortar and rarely reaches the queen
- Filling the entry gap before the nest is dealt with, which sends the ants to a new gap
- Scattering powders along the trail, which can split a colony into several smaller ones
Closing the way in afterwards
Once the colony has been cleared, go back and seal just the gaps the ants were actually using, whether that's a threshold, a pipe hole or a crack in the mortar, whether that's near Tolworth, where postwar and 1930s suburban housing along the A3 corridor, or elsewhere in the borough. Weep holes and air bricks should stay clear, sealing them shut only traps moisture inside the wall, true near Tolworth too, where postwar and 1930s suburban housing along the A3 corridor.
Booking ant control in Kingston upon Thames
Ant control in Kingston upon Thames runs £190 for a flat and £220 for a house, and because around Chessington, where the borough's southernmost suburb, it helps to say roughly whereabouts in the garden the nest might be when you book ant control, with the rest on the Kingston upon Thames ant control page.
