Upping the Anty

All over the UK, armies of ants are on patrol, looking for sugary treats – and the office kitchen is a common target at this time of year.

It can be disconcerting to find hundreds or thousands of ants have colonized your tea-making facilities overnight, but it’s a common problem, especially in older buildings.

Here are some tips to get rid of any unwanted visitors that may be ant-agonising you!

• Keep your kitchen worktops – and also your desk – free of sugar granules. They need to be mopped up immediately to stop your ant invasion. Ant scouts are sent out from the nest to look for food, and they leave a trail of pheromones as they go. When the scouts find food, they follow the scent back to their nest, leaving even more pheromones to create a stronger trail to guide other ants to the food. So, keep your worktops really clean, and put all sweet treats into airtight containers
• Make sure everyone washes up their cups and plates straight away, as dirty dishes are ant-heaven
• When you get an anty-social invasion, follow the trail back to the nest to see where they’re getting in. Fill in any small cracks in brickwork or around doors and windows with a suitable sealant.
• Use natural ant deterrent substances, like curry powder, pepper and cinnamon around doors. If that doesn’t work, try a commercial ant powder.
• The last resort is to destroy the ants’ nest. Only use this option if you’ve tried everything else, because ants are very useful in controlling other pests in the ecosystem. To destroy a nest, dig it up and pour boiling water on it to kill all of the ants (including the queen), or call in pest control experts to do the job professionally.