Follow, don't wipe
Every ant that completes the round trip to food and back reinforces the scent trail for the next one, which is why a line seems to grow busier the longer it's ignored. Wiping the worktop only resets that day's trail, the colony behind it is untouched, as anyone near Westminster will recognise, where government and institutional buildings sit alongside residential streets and mansion blocks.
Basement flats in Pimlico and Bayswater
Basement and lower-ground flats common across Pimlico and Bayswater sit closest to ground level and the small front or rear light-wells that come with it, and a colony nesting in the gap between paving and foundation wall can send a trail straight through an old airbrick or door threshold.
Old sash windows across the borough
Westminster's Georgian and Victorian terraces still hold plenty of original sash windows, and the gaps around a worn frame or sill are a common entry point that's easy to miss, since the trail can look like it starts at the worktop rather than the window.
What to leave alone for now
- Spraying the trail, which kills the foragers and leaves the colony intact
- Pouring boiling water into paving or light-wells, which rarely reaches the queen
- Sealing the entry gap before the colony is dealt with, which sends ants to find a new one
- Scattering powders along the trail, which can split a colony into several smaller ones
Closing the way in afterwards
With the colony dealt with, close only the gap the ants used, air bricks and weep holes should stay clear or damp gets trapped inside the wall, as anyone near Victoria will recognise, where mixed commercial and residential streets close to the station and the coach terminal.
Booking ant control in Westminster
Ant control in Westminster runs £190 for a flat and £220 for a house, and because around Pimlico, where stucco-fronted terraces and squares close to the river, it helps to say roughly whereabouts in the garden the nest might be when you book ant control, with the rest on the Westminster ant control page.
