Only those unlucky enough to have experienced it will know the true horror of winged ants in your home. Having an infestation of common wingless ants is bad enough, but when they go through their annual mating phase, the situation can become unbearable. Ants often build colonies under floors and in cavity walls in our homes and these colonies will live for many years if left untreated and become more and more of a problem each year. Our homes are warm and dry and provide the perfect places for a thriving ant colony; even ‘solid’ concrete floor is not a dig for an ant. Our room heating systems maintain their metabolism even in winter and my first ant call was on my birthday in early January! Ants prefer sandy soil and there are many areas in Lancashire, Cheshire and Manchester that tend to provide more ant infestations than others, Southport, Blackpool, Bolton, Sale and Altrincham spring to mind as hot ant cities. Unfortunately, it is during their mating phase that they are most problematic. Here in Lancashire, Cheshire and Manchester this tends to be fairly regular around the third or fourth week of July. The ants mate in flight, and in midsummer they produce winged immature queens and winged males that, in the wild, would fly and mate in flight. Many thousands of these winged ants are produced per nest and nests tend to time their release so that they will mate with ants from other nearby nests.

Invariably, this process begins after a few days of very hot, dry weather and will typically continue for about a week, although isolated releases will continue through most of June, July, and August. Unfortunately, when the nest is hidden under the floor of the house, the results can be traumatic – literally thousands of flying ants are released into lower rooms and accumulate on windows as they make their way to the light. This can be extremely distressing for some people, leading to extreme emotional trauma as people learn to dread summer and have, in fact, sold their homes to escape the ant invasion they know is coming. .

The wet summers of 2007 and 2008 meant that ant infestations were down compared to previous years, but the ants seem to have a way of catching up and 2009 looks to be a very troublesome year. most people who have this problem opt for DIY solutions with powders from hardware stores, etc., but these efforts are usually doomed to fail as they don’t address the heart of the problem, which is the cologne itself, hidden securely in the cavity wall or subfloor. area. Fortunately for many people the solution is at hand. At Harrier Pest Control (subject to site inspection) we can fix this problem and provide an extendable three year warranty.

The treatment that is carried out mainly from the outside of the house, is perfectly safe for animals and children and has no smell, it consists of drilling small holes in the walls of the cavity of the property, similar to a wet injection and blowing a insecticide powder on the cavity wall under pressure. This forms an impenetrable barrier over which the ants cannot pass and, together with an internal spray preventative treatment (if deemed necessary), will gradually bring the situation under control. The holes, which are just 8mm in diameter, remain open, so it’s just a matter of refilling the cavities every three years to extend the three-year warranty. This procedure is best done in early spring, however, it can be done at any time of the year. As a special offer before our active period starts we are offering a 25% discount off the normal cost until 30th April 2009. Although we generally cover all of Lancashire, Cheshire and Greater Manchester