Only the unfortunates who have experienced it will know the true horror of winged ants in their home. Having an infestation of ordinary wingless ants is bad enough but when they go through their yearly mating phase the situation can become insufferable. Ants often build colonies under the floors and in the cavity walls of our homes and these colonies will live for many years if left untreated getting progressively more troublesome each year. Our dwellings are warm and dry and provide the perfect places for a thriving ant colony; even ‘solid’ concrete floor is not a deterrent to an ant. Our room heating systems maintains their metabolism even in winter and my earliest ant call-out was on my birthday, in early January! Ants prefer a sandy soil and there are many areas in Lancashire, Cheshire and Manchester which tend to provide more ant infestations than others, Southport, Blackpool, Bolton, Sale & Altrincham leap to mind as hot ant towns. Unfortunately it is during their mating phase that they are most problematic. Here in Lancashire, Cheshire and Manchester this tends to be pretty regularly around the third or fourth week in July. Ants mate in-flight and around mid-summer they produce winged immature Queens and winged males which in nature would fly off and mate in-flight. Many thousands of these winged ants are produced per nest and nests tend to synchronise their release so that they mate with ants from other nearby nests.
Invariably this process starts after a few days of very hot, dry weather and will usually go on for about a week although isolated releases will continue throughout most of June, July & August. Unfortunately when the nest is hidden below the floor of the home the results can be traumatic, literally thousands of flying ants are released into the lower rooms, collecting on windows as they make for the light. This can be extremely distressing for some people leading to extreme emotional trauma to the extent that people learn to fear the summer and have actually sold their homes to escape the invasion of ants which they know is coming.
The wet summers of 2007 & 2008 meant that ant infestations were down on previous years but ants seem to have a way of catching up and 2009 looks set to be a very troublesome year. most people who have this problem opt for DIY solutions with powders from hardware shops etc but usually these efforts are doomed to failure as they are not tackling the heart of the problem which is the colony itself, safely hidden in the cavity wall or sub-floor area. Fortunately for many people the solution is at hand. At Harrier Pest Control (subject to site survey) we are able to cure this problem and give an extendable three year guarantee.
The treatment which is done mainly from the outside of the house, is perfectly safe for animals and children and has no smell, involves drilling small holes into the cavity walls of the property, not unlike a damp-course injection and blowing an insecticidal powder into the cavity wall under pressure. This forms an impenetrable barrier over which the ants cannot go and together with a precautionary internal spray treatment (if deemed necessary) will gradually bring the situation under control. The holes, which are only 8mm in diameter stay open so it is a simply matter of topping up the cavities every three years to extend the effectiveness of the guarantee by three years. This procedure is best performed in the early spring however it can be done at any time of year. As a special offer before our busy period starts we are offering 25% off the normal cost until April 30 2009. Whilst we usually cover the whole of Lancashire, Cheshire and Greater Manchester