The ultimate scavengers, ants will travel considerable distances in search of food, often leading them directly into homes and business premises. While ants are not known to transmit disease directly, their foraging habits mean it is impossible to know where they have travelled or what surfaces they may have come into contact with along the way.

There are thousands of ant species worldwide, but the UK’s climate limits the number that can survive outdoors. The most common species encountered is the black garden ant, although several more tropical species are also capable of thriving indoors, taking advantage of the warm environments we create in our homes and workplaces.

Ants are highly organised, social insects. The ants you typically see are worker foragers, sent out from the colony to locate food and resources. They are particularly attracted to sweet foodstuffs, making outdoor dining and summer picnics a prime target for infestation.

A common misconception is that pouring boiling water into an ant nest will permanently resolve the problem. While this may kill a significant number of ants on the surface, the water cools before reaching the deeper parts of the nest where the queen resides. Ant colonies can contain up to half a million ants, and the queen is capable of rapidly repopulating the colony—meaning the problem quickly returns without proper treatment.

For effective, long-term control, professional intervention is often required to eliminate the nest at its source and prevent reinfestation.