How Can You Tell Where Ants Are Coming From in Duxford?

The most reliable way to tell where ants are coming from is to draw the route as you watch it. Note where they appear, at what time, and where they vanish. In a Duxford house the pattern usually points to one entrance within a metre or two of the first sighting.

Two Kinds of House, Two Starting Points

Duxford has a mix of old cottages and newer houses, and the starting point is different for each. In a cottage, begin with the ground floor walls, where old pointing, air bricks and gaps under doors give ants an easy way through. In a newer house, begin with services, door thresholds and the edge of the patio.

The Sketch Method

1. Draw a plan of the room where you see them, with doors, windows, sink and appliances.
2. Mark each sighting with a cross and the time you saw it.
3. Join the crosses. A pattern usually emerges, often running along a wall or skirting board.
4. Look at the point where the line stops. That is where they are going in or coming out.
5. Repeat for a second day, because a single sighting can mislead.

Clues Outside

When you have found the entrance, go outside and look at the matching spot. Black garden ants often nest close to the house, so check:

• Soil at the base of the wall and under any plant pots
• Joints between paving slabs
• Under a doorstep or beneath a shed floor
• Along the line of a garden wall

If the trail seems to lead nowhere outside, the nest may be in a cavity. Ants entering from under a floor or from a gap in an outside wall are more likely to be using a hidden route.

Seasonal Sense Check

Garden ant colonies are mostly dormant in cold weather. Ants indoors in winter suggest a nest in a warm spot inside, such as near a boiler, a hot water cylinder or behind a fridge. Say so when you call, because it changes where we look.

What DIY Does Not Reach

A sketch tells you the route. It does not remove the colony, and treating the ants you can see leaves the queen untouched. A professional treatment relies on the workers carrying it home, which is why the trail should stay in place until we have been.

Near the Airfield or Down a Lane

Duxford properties range from cottages on narrow lanes to newer houses with small, tidy gardens. The layout matters less than the question of what sits against the wall. A log pile, a stack of pots or a pile of paving slabs makes a sheltered nest site, and moving one is a good test of whether the trail changes.

Ant control in Duxford is £240 fixed, with the details in our cost guide. If you want the pest confirmed first, a pest inspection and survey is £120.

Call 01223 902388 or WhatsApp us a photo of your sketch and the entrance, and we will tell you what we think.