Follow the trail instead of wiping it clean
The scent trail strengthens with each ant that follows the same route, so a line left running only appears to get bigger, true near Wallington too, where leafy commuter streets of semi-detached houses close to the station. Wiping the worktop only removes the smell briefly, an hour or two at most; following the line is what actually leads back to the colony, much as it does near Carshalton, where a mix of Victorian houses near the ponds and interwar semis further out.
Where it usually enters the kitchen
Pick a warm, still stretch of the day when ants are most active, and watch the line move off rather than breaking it up, true near Carshalton too, where a mix of Victorian houses near the ponds and interwar semis further out. In Sutton's semis, common entry points include the patio door edge, a gap in the paving nearest the kitchen extension, or the back door threshold.
Cheam and Wallington's suburban gardens
The comfortable gardens typical of Cheam's 1930s semis, and the leafy commuter streets of Wallington, give ants exactly the warm, dry conditions they favour, often settling under a patio built up against a rear extension or along the base of a garden 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 crack slabs without reaching the queen
- Sealing the entry gap before the colony itself has been dealt with
- Scattering household powders along the trail, which can split a colony into several smaller ones
Closing the way in afterwards
After the colony's gone, the last step is sealing just the specific gap the ants used, a threshold, a pipe hole, or a mortar crack, whether that's near Sutton, where the town centre mixes Victorian villas with newer housing close to the high street, or elsewhere in the borough. Don't seal weep holes or air bricks, doing so just locks damp inside the wall structure - the same pattern holds near Worcester Park, where interwar semis and later housing straddling the border with Kingston.
Booking ant control in Sutton
Ant control in Sutton runs £190 for a flat and £220 for a house, and because around Belmont, where quiet residential streets of semis and bungalows near the racecourse, it helps to say roughly whereabouts in the garden the nest might be when you book ant control, with the rest on the Sutton ant control page.
