Ants
There are thousands of ant species worldwide, but only a handful commonly become pests in and around homes. Some, like black garden ants (Lasius niger), prefer to stay outdoors, nesting under paving slabs, in lawns, or at the base of walls. Others, such as pharaoh ants, Argentine ants, or ghost ants, are far more likely to invade houses in search of food and water, especially in kitchens, bathrooms, and pantries. The vast majority of household ants are simply nuisance pests—they don’t bite, sting, or destroy property; they just march in long trails across your worktops looking for crumbs and sweet spills.
Getting rid of ants effectively almost always requires treating both the inside and outside of the property at the same time. If you only kill the ants you see indoors, more will quickly replace them from the nest, which is usually outdoors (under slabs, in soil, behind brickwork, or even inside wall voids). Likewise, treating only the garden leaves the foraging trails inside the house untouched. A combined approach breaks the cycle.
Professional pest controllers usually rely on two complementary methods that together give fast knockdown and long-term colony elimination:
- Residual insecticide spray
A professional-grade liquid insecticide is lightly sprayed along ant trails, entry points (around doors, windows, pipes, and cracks), skirting boards, and external perimeter walls. Modern residual sprays (usually containing synthetic pyrethroids, neonicotinoids, or fipronil) remain active for weeks or months. Foraging ants walk through the invisible film, pick up a lethal dose on their bodies, and carry it back to the nest on their legs and antennae. This “transfer effect” helps kill ants that never even entered the treated house. - Ant bait (granules or gel)
Baits are the real colony killers. They contain slow-acting, non-repellent insecticides (commonly indoxacarb, fipronil, boric acid, or hydramethylnon) mixed with an attractive food source—sweet, protein, or oily—depending on the ant species. Worker ants eagerly consume the bait and, crucially, carry it back to the nest in their stomachs to feed the queen and larvae through trophallaxis (mouth-to-mouth food sharing). Because the active ingredient is slow-acting, workers have time to recruit more foragers and distribute the poison widely before any die-off is noticed. Within days to a couple of weeks, the entire colony—including the queen(s)—is wiped out, and the problem disappears at source.
Why this combination works so well:
- The spray provides immediate reduction of ants indoors and creates a protective barrier around the house.
- The bait eliminates the colony outdoors so the trails never restart.
- Using both together avoids the common failure of DIY ant sprays alone, which simply scatter the colony and create multiple satellite nests.
This two-pronged approach (residual barrier + baiting) is widely regarded by pest-control professionals as the gold standard for safe, effective, and long-lasting ant control in domestic properties.
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