Ants!

[Tim Lamb]

It is that time again:-)

The annual trickle of queen ants tromping across our carpeted dining room to the West facing window has grown to an invasion leading to a management conflict.

The strips of masking tape blocking off the usual routes have been by-passed as the scouts have dug/discovered a convenient corridor between the skirting and the carpet gripper.

Repetitive clearings with the vacuum cleaner identified the likely source and the reluctant decision to lift the carpet and take off a section of skirting was made. 6" MDF secured with 3" hard nails!

Rolling back the carpet revealed a settlement crack in the floor screed although the ants were appearing from a gap between screed and wall plaster.

The crack and gap were opened out and filled with *one coat* plaster as the only filler to hand. In retrospect I am wondering if ant jaws are capable of quarrying this in time for next year.

The other concern is that the access point is at least 2m from the nearest outside wall. Floor screed over 50mm polystyrene insulation may provide a comfortable home:-(

[Tim Watts]

On the odd occasion I find an ant trail in the house, one end gets a dusting of ant powder which seems to do the job.

Nippon might be helpful as it has always claimed the workers carry it back to the colony and kill the rest. However, you need to watch to see if they actually take it or avoid it - some reviews suggest mixing some sugar in with the liquid works.

[tony sayer]

In article , Tim Lamb scribeth thus

You have to give it to them there're clever robust little bu^^ers;!....

I've found in the past you can sometimes buy them off with a few lumps of sugar near their nests.

A soft of protection payment;!..

[Bob Minchin]

An equal mix of icing sugar and borax* is usually effective. The ant take back to the nest on their boots and it kills the rest of em.

*genuine borax is still available on ebay. I've not tried the borax substitute sold for laundry use but I think it best to stick with the 'real thing'

[stuart noble]

Sounds like the ants were there before the screed. I've only ever experienced them when there's been a sugary incentive, but maybe they like to overwinter in the warm

[Tim Streater]

We've got Strawberry Seed Beetles.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , stuart noble writes

Bit of a bodge really. The builder was supposed to take up the old quarry tile floor and put in a new base before insulation and screed. The argument centred on whether the Victorian brick foundations were deep enough for this work to be safe. In the event, they sealed the quarries (Synthaprufe) and left them.

The nearest known Ant nests are under stone slabs which are away from the wall by the width of the French drain. I have upped the slabs and dosed with a powder insecticide.

None yet today but not warm enough for the queens to hatch out.

[dennis]

8<

IME the trigger sprays work far better than the powders. The so called ant traps keep the population down if you have somewhere dry to put them.

[Huge]

Thank you for answering the question (albeit unwittingly) of what the beetles are that we get zillions of in in the summer. I run a bead of Nippon along the bottom of the integral garage floor, otherwise we get dozens of them in the house. Since we're entirely surrounded by wheat fields, I suspect their name may be a little inaccurate, though!

[DerbyBorn]

I was once told to deal with ants outside the house. I am now obsessive about putting powder on any that I see. I don't want them digging up my block paving or getting into the house. I had problems at a previous house where the floor screed seemed very sandy.

[Huge]

My previous house had a large patio made of slabs laid on sand (or a very sandy mortar mix). After a few years, the whole thing was one enormous ant's nest and we ended up taking the whole thing up and relaying it on a stronger mix to eradicate them.

[Tim Streater]

We too are surrounded by fields. Wheat this year, and I think Barley across the road. The small portable Dyson has proved invaluable for hoovering the buggers up, I think they get in behind the kitchen units where I suspect the wall to be less than completely solid.

They appear to scavenge, here, drinking at any drop of water of the kitchen floor, and making off with the cats' dry food.

Nippon, eh? Ta, I'll propose that to the Insect Eradication Committee.

[Huge]

They eat all the peanut butter in the mousetraps, thereby making themselves double irritating. What would be excellent would be if the mice ate the beetles, but since we get beetles in the summer and mice in the winter, it seems unlikely.

You do end up having to clear up a charming mixture of Nippon and corpses at the end of each beetle season.

[John Chance]

I tried that and it?s a lot easier said than done. Nothing I did made any real difference outside.

I am now obsessive

Some summers I have a hell of a problem with an immaculate concrete slab with a very good surface on it with concrete blocks laid directly onto that and quarry tiles on top of the slab.

[Dave Liquorice]

Not that robust, we don't have ants. B-)

[Vir Campestris]

That sounds more like thrips. Really tiny things, only 1mm or so long and much thinner.

Andy

[Tim Streater]

Thrips are another pest. The Strawberry Seed beetle is about 12mm long. I had one crawl up the back of my ankle and nip me, the swine.

[newshound]

An old acquaintance of mine is an genuinely internationally renowned expert on fluid sealing. Apparently he studies thrips as a sideline. But last time I spoke to him he still hadn't got one named after him.

[Huge]

Err, no. These are large (well, I think they're large) black beetles.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Vir Campestris a écrit :

Those we call corn flies. They make me crawl in around August, when they are about. I'm told they are attracked to yellow coloured washing hanging on the line.