During periods of rain or warmer weather, ants are known to make their way into people’s homes. Ants in your home can be incredibly frustrating, not to mention unhygienic if they make their way to surfaces where you prepare food.

How can I prevent ants from getting into my home?

Food in bins or crumbs on floors and work surfaces can lure ants into your kitchen.

To prevent an infestation in the first place, carry out good hygiene practices by cleaning up food crumbs and spillages immediately.

Make sure your bins are closed and not overflowing, and use a tray under your pet’s food.

READ MORE: How to get rid of ants – natural methods to remove ants

Spray the solution around entry points, and after an hour you can wipe up ants with a paper towel before disposing of it.

The site states you can repeat this once daily until the problem goes away.

For a few ants, natural remedies may do the job, but if ants have made a nest in your home you may need to take more action.

Many people rely on ant-killing remedies you can buy in stores, and some suggest slow-acting pesticide products work better at removing entire ant communities.

These pesticides can be mixed with sweet bait, which ants may bring back to their nests.

Michael Potter, a University of Kentucky entomologist, told the Washington Post: “Oftentimes the squeezable gel formulations are more versatile in that you can put out lots of small dabs of bait wherever ants are trailing (along cracks, edges, both horizontal and vertical surfaces, etc.)”.

If you cannot deal with your ant problem, or have a large number of the insects in your home, you may need to call a pest specialist to deal with the problem for you.