Fighting ants' nests

One ant does not form an ant infestation, but when you see a few dozen of them walking through your kitchen or on the counter, it becomes a different story.
Most of the time, people want to get rid of these pests quickly because they are present in large numbers.
Fortunately, ants are not as persistent as, for example , cockroaches or bed bugs.
Tackling the pest at the source, the nest, is often the only solution.
Want to know if it’s time to call us?
Then read the points below carefully and determine whether an ant nest exterminator should come by.

• You see ants – The most logical reason to call the pest control company is when you see ants.
  Of course, you don’t call when this is just one, but when it comes to multiple ants.
  Ants have the ability to follow each other.
  When you suffer from an ant infestation, you often see a characteristic garland of ants that go back and forth to the same place.
  The place they go to is often a source of food.
  Small crumbs and other food sources are brought to the nest by the ants.
• Dead ants – A symptom that is less common, but does indicate an ant infestation, is when you find large numbers of dead ants in, for example, a kitchen drawer or a closet.
• Prolapse – Ants can cause subsidence to occur.
  Paving stones or even parts of a road can subside due to an ant’s nest.
  In these cases, it mainly revolves around larger nests, which is often problematic.
  This large ant nest ensures that the queen can be hidden deeply, which makes fighting the nest less easy.
• Ant bite – Black ants are fortunately relatively harmless and usually don’t bite much, if at all.
  The red ant, on the other hand, is known for its strong jaws and painful bite.
  Children in particular can suffer a lot from this while playing in the garden.
• Damage to your garden – Ants actually eat anything organic, and as cleaners of nature, they have an important function.
  But, when there is little to clean up, the ant often grabs fresh green plants and shrubs.
  Grass, flowers, vegetables in your vegetable garden, in the end nothing is safe from the ant.

If you suffer from any of the above symptoms, we recommend that you call a professional ant exterminator.

Fighting myths about ant nests

There are many stories about the best ways to get rid of ants.
Boiling water, vinegar, coffee grounds, pepper, copper, and many other remedies are offered on the Internet as solutions.
The truth is that all these solutions only help partially and in the end do not make the ant colony or the ant nest disappear.
This only happens when the queen is killed.
The nest dies when it is taken away.
This is often the only solution to solve an ant problem once and for all.

What really works against ants and ant nests?

As you have read, the only thing that really works is fighting the queen.
When the queen is dead, the nest dies of its own accord, because the other ants no longer see the point of maintaining the nest.
Others say that lavender, yeast, cinnamon or nutmeg works.
However, this doesn’t work, because then you don’t know if the queen is dead.
You have to tackle ant control at the source of the nest, and that is the queen.

What kills ants?

We at bestrijdingsdienst.nl only use professional and sustainable pesticides, which you normally can’t buy in the store. The pesticide is more persistent, which ensures that the ants and the queen are dealt with more efficiently. You can also try to control the ants yourself by, for example, filling a plant sprayer with washing-up liquid and spraying it on the ants. However, that only causes a number of ants to die. It’s really most important to deal with the queen, but it can be way underground.

What to do about ant nests between tiles?

Ants walk where they want, but there are ways to keep them from crawling under your tiles as much as possible:

• Place herbs next to the patio: Ants generally dislike strong-smelling herbs, such as nutmeg, mint, and rosemary.
  If you put these herbs in pots on the patio or next to the patio, there is a good chance that the ant will stay at a distance.
• Clean up your food scraps: ants are looking for sweet food all day long, and like to enjoy when food scraps fall on the floor during a barbecue in spring and summer, for example.
  Clean this up as soon as possible.