Ants in the house: how to get rid of them and keep them out

3 min read · 7 steps · Updated 3 October 2026

The ant in your kitchen is almost always the black garden ant, a worker 3 to 5 millimetres long looking for sugar to take back to the nest. Killing the ones you see changes nothing, because the nest sends more. The trick is to use their habits against them: let them carry the poison home.

If you rent, tell your landlord about plumbing problems and pests that keep coming back before you try anything beyond these simple steps.

Step by step

1. Find the trail

   Watch for a few minutes. Ants walk in lines between the food they have found and the crack they came through: along a skirting board, a pipe, a window frame or a door threshold. The nest is usually outside, under paving or in a wall, marked by small piles of fine soil.

   Done

2. Remove what attracted them

   Sugar, honey, juice, fruit, pet food and crumbs. Wipe surfaces, store sweet things in sealed containers, rinse recycling, empty the bin and clean under the toaster. Without a food source the trail dies out.

   Done

3. Wipe out the scent trail

   Ants follow a chemical trail laid by the scouts. Wash the route with hot soapy water or a vinegar and water mix. New ants then have to find the food again from scratch.

   Done

4. Put down a sugar bait

   Buy an ant bait station or gel labelled for ants (the liquid, sugar-based kind for black ants). Place it on the trail, near where they enter, out of reach of children and pets. Do not spray the ants around the bait: you want them to eat it and take it home. Expect more ants for a day or two, then almost none within about a week.

   Done

5. Treat the nest if you can reach it

   If the nest is in the garden or under a paving slab by the door, a kettle of boiling water poured into the entrance is the traditional first aid. It kills part of the colony and may move it; bait is what reaches the queen.

   Done

6. Seal the way in

   Once the trail is gone, fill the crack with silicone or filler: around pipes, under the sill, at the edge of the door frame. Fit a brush strip under an outside door if ants walk under it.

   Done

7. Know when it is a different ant

   Very small, pale yellow-brown ants in a centrally heated block of flats, especially ones that go for meat and grease rather than sugar, may be pharaoh ants or ghost ants. They have many hidden nests inside the building and sprays make them split and spread. That is a job for a professional pest controller, usually arranged through the landlord or building manager.

   Done

Good to know

Flying ants in July or August are the males and new queens of the same garden ants leaving to mate. They do not bite, they are gone in a day or two, and closing the windows that afternoon is all you need to do.

Garden ants outside are not a problem worth treating: they eat other insects and do no direct damage to plants. The RHS advises leaving nests alone unless they are in the way, because a destroyed nest is quickly replaced by a new queen.

Ants on a plant usually mean aphids above them: they farm the sticky honeydew. Deal with the aphids and the ants leave.

Other kitchen visitors: how to get rid of clothes moths and how to deep-clean a fridge.

In short: Follow the trail, remove the sweet food, wash away the scent trail, put a sugar bait on the route and leave it alone, seal the crack. Tiny pale ants in a heated block: call a professional.