Sometimes. Often not. Here is the line we actually draw, including the enquiries we turn away.
Not for garden ants outdoors, and not for a few days of flying ants. We turn those enquiries down every summer.
Yes for a trail that keeps returning after a week of proper cleaning, for ants in a food cupboard, for a nest inside the building fabric, and for pharaoh ants — where DIY makes it measurably worse.
| Situation | Our answer |
|---|---|
| A nest under a patio slab, ants staying outdoors | Leave it. Not a pest |
| Flying ants for a few days in July | Wait. It is a mating flight and it stops |
| A single trail with an obvious food source | Clean it. Detergent and sealed food usually ends it |
| Ants in a garage or shed only | Rarely worth treating |
| A few ants after heavy rain | Usually temporary |
| Ants on a compost heap | Doing their job |
We would rather tell you to wipe the worktop than take £220 for something a cloth would have fixed.
Published prices, and honest advice about when treatment is not needed at all.
View Ant Control Pinner →| Approach | Cost | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Detergent and sealed food | £0 | Ends most kitchen trails |
| Supermarket bait stations | £8–£15 | Sometimes works on a small outdoor colony |
| Supermarket spray | £5–£10 | Counterproductive. Scatters, does not reach the queen |
| Professional treatment — flat | £190 | Colony-level, follow-up included |
| Professional treatment — house | £220 | Internal and external, follow-up included |
Shop bait is worth a try on a straightforward outdoor colony. It is not worth a month of trying when the nest is under the floor.
This is where treatment earns its price more often than in a modern house. The reason is structural rather than about the ants.
It ends that colony. A new colony in a future summer is a new job.
With an outdoor colony, often yes. With a nest in a subfloor void, no.
Yes, and it is the most common outcome of an ant enquiry here.
One job where the answer is always yes — a wasp nest at £90 fixed in Pinner, guaranteed for 30 days.
Not for garden ants outdoors or a few days of flying ants. Yes for a trail that keeps returning after proper cleaning, ants in food cupboards, or a nest inside the building fabric.
No. Black garden ants outdoors are not a pest and we will tell you so.
Worth a try on a straightforward outdoor colony. Not worth a month of trying when the nest is under the floor.
It kills only the foragers, disperses the route, leaves the queen producing replacements, and with pharaoh ants causes the colony to split.
A suspended timber floor gives the colony a permanent warm nest site you cannot reach or seal, and it does not clear over winter the way an outdoor colony does.
Trail tracing, nest location, species identification, gel baiting, external treatment on a house, a follow-up visit, and advice on what must not be sealed.
It ends that colony. A new colony in a future summer is a new job.
Yes, and it is the most common outcome of an ant enquiry.
Describe where they are and what you have tried. If a cloth would fix it, we will say so.
Prefer to talk? Call 0203 151 6640 or WhatsApp us.
