Ants eating through my kitchen floor
Discussion
Not through the floor exactly, they're breaking through the grout between the ceramic floor tiles and getting into the kitchen. They're obviously doing more than eating the grout, presumably destroying the cement, asphalt and tile adhesive.
I've had this problem in the past, however last year I ripped out the kitchen and took up the old tile floor. It's a concrete floor with asphalt on top, then tile. Before I re-tiled I filled any gaps in the concrete where ants had got in before. I also had the asphalt to about 1/3 of the floor area replaced. I thought I had got a sound base but the buggers are back.
I've been putting ant powder down the 5mm gap they're using to get in
but this is only slowing them up and I guess they're causing damage to the cement and asphalt.
Any experts out there?
I've had this problem in the past, however last year I ripped out the kitchen and took up the old tile floor. It's a concrete floor with asphalt on top, then tile. Before I re-tiled I filled any gaps in the concrete where ants had got in before. I also had the asphalt to about 1/3 of the floor area replaced. I thought I had got a sound base but the buggers are back.
I've been putting ant powder down the 5mm gap they're using to get in
but this is only slowing them up and I guess they're causing damage to the cement and asphalt.
Any experts out there?
some things you could try:-
1) find the nest or destroy the tunnels - pouring boiling hot water over the area seems to f*k them up real bad. equivalent of an ant tsumani i guess.
2) divert the ants to a big bowl of syrup. BUT do NOT as my stupid mum did - but the syrup bowl inside the house - put it away from your kitchen, in the garden.
hopefully a combination of the two will meean they will establish new chemical paths, away from your kitchen. try not to leave any smelly sweet foods out in your kitchen for a while.
Two years ago I was noticing maybe half a dozen ants a day in the kitchen. Bought one of those tubes of sticky stuff from the local hardware place and thought that was an end to it.
Then, one cool night, I put the heating on around 10pm. When I wandered into the kitchen there were literally thousands of the things. Black ants and the flying variety. The floor and ceiling were both covered and they were crawling all over the walls. They seemed to be coming out from the door frame that goes from the kitchen to the dining room. I dashed out and bought two cans of Raid before starting my own personal massacre.
The next morning, I started taking up the floor boards in the doorway (I was amazed to find this 5-6 foot deep void, all brick lined with the heating pipes running from the boiler all through this hole). Anyway - I didn't see a single ant. Nothing. So, I decided to call rentokill.
Very nice, and seemingly knowledgable, chap came out and told me that ants weren't something that particularly caused a nuisance, and I agreed, but I pointed out a few thousand of the buggers in one's kitchen at midnight might change one's perspective.
He peered in between the floorboards; checked the walls of this void; borrowed my maglite; then, told me that under my house was the biggest ants nest he'd ever seen!
Now, by this time, I could see a few ants crawling around but it took this guy to point out to me just what evidence there was there of a nest. There were little holes in the mortar between the bricks. Tapping the wall produced a little dust and a lot of ants.
He treated it with an insecticide spray (from one of those back mounted pump dispensers) that wouldn't be harmful to the cats wondering around. Every week for the next two weeks, he came back and re-sprayed the area. After the first application, we saw a few ants (and I mean 100 or so over the week). After the second, there was nothing. The third was just to make sure that everything really was dead.
The whole thing cost a couple of hundred pounds and we've never had a problem even close to that since.
(Don't know if that helps, or just makes you feel like pulling up a few floorboards
)
Then, one cool night, I put the heating on around 10pm. When I wandered into the kitchen there were literally thousands of the things. Black ants and the flying variety. The floor and ceiling were both covered and they were crawling all over the walls. They seemed to be coming out from the door frame that goes from the kitchen to the dining room. I dashed out and bought two cans of Raid before starting my own personal massacre.
The next morning, I started taking up the floor boards in the doorway (I was amazed to find this 5-6 foot deep void, all brick lined with the heating pipes running from the boiler all through this hole). Anyway - I didn't see a single ant. Nothing. So, I decided to call rentokill.
Very nice, and seemingly knowledgable, chap came out and told me that ants weren't something that particularly caused a nuisance, and I agreed, but I pointed out a few thousand of the buggers in one's kitchen at midnight might change one's perspective.
He peered in between the floorboards; checked the walls of this void; borrowed my maglite; then, told me that under my house was the biggest ants nest he'd ever seen!
Now, by this time, I could see a few ants crawling around but it took this guy to point out to me just what evidence there was there of a nest. There were little holes in the mortar between the bricks. Tapping the wall produced a little dust and a lot of ants.
He treated it with an insecticide spray (from one of those back mounted pump dispensers) that wouldn't be harmful to the cats wondering around. Every week for the next two weeks, he came back and re-sprayed the area. After the first application, we saw a few ants (and I mean 100 or so over the week). After the second, there was nothing. The third was just to make sure that everything really was dead.
The whole thing cost a couple of hundred pounds and we've never had a problem even close to that since.
(Don't know if that helps, or just makes you feel like pulling up a few floorboards
)i came down one morning to find a line of ants going from my front door to the back door. Out came the hoover!! i managed to track down where they were coming in filled the holes with a mix of different and killer stuff and then sealed them with bathroom sealent i havent seen them since and that was summer 2004
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