How Ants Get Into a Modern House
Bracknell grew as a post-war new town, and much of its housing is from those decades or later. These homes usually have a concrete ground floor on a slab, cavity walls and large glazed doors to the garden. There are fewer crumbling joints than in an old cottage, but there are plenty of deliberate gaps, and ants treat a gap as a door.
The nest itself is normally outside, under the patio, the path round the house or the paving at the front. Workers come in looking for food and use whatever line of weakness is nearest.
The Patio Door Threshold
The single most common way in is under or beside a sliding or French door. The door sill sits on the edge of the slab, the patio meets it from outside, and the bedding sand under the patio runs right up to the gap. A colony under those first few slabs has a short, sheltered route straight into the kitchen or living room.
- Ants appear along the inside of the door track.
- Sand or grit builds up in the track that you did not bring in.
- The trail runs along the skirting either side of the door.
- The outside joint between patio and sill has opened up.
The one thing that matters most: look at the outside of the door first. The patio slab nearest the threshold is where the nest very often is, and treating there does more than anything done inside.
Slabs, Skirting and Expansion Gaps
A concrete floor is laid with a small gap around its edge so it can move, and the skirting hides that gap. Ants use it as a corridor, which is why they seem to come out from behind the skirting in several places at once. The same happens where a kitchen floor meets an extension, where a garage abuts the house, and around pipes that come up through the slab to a sink or radiator.
Outside, look at the joint where paving meets the house wall, at weep vents in the brickwork, and along the mastic round window and door frames. Mastic that has pulled away is an easy way in. Where the ants seem to come from the walls themselves rather than a gap, the Hungerford page covers nests in walls and under floors.
Treating the Route
Outside, a residual insecticide is applied at the nest entrances under the paving, along the wall base and across the threshold the ants use. Inside, gel bait placed in the gaps behind skirting and in door tracks, out of reach, is carried back to the colony by the workers and shared with the queen. How the two work together is explained in how professional ant treatment works.
Expect ants to keep using the route for a few days while the bait does its work. Do not vacuum the door track or mop along the skirting where bait has gone for as long as you are told. Children and pets stay off treated areas until dry and as instructed on the day; tell us at booking about children, pets, fish tanks or anyone vulnerable. Ant control is a fixed £240, confirmed before anything is booked, and what it involves in your home is explained before you commit.
Sealing Up Once They Have Gone
When the colony has stopped sending workers in, the gaps are worth closing so the next one finds the house harder to enter. Run a bead of sealant along the skirting where it meets the floor, renew failed mastic round door and window frames, re-point the joint between patio and sill, and seal round pipes where they come through the floor. Leave weep vents open; they are there to let the wall breathe and drain, so fit insect guards rather than filling them.