The kitchen in spring: where ants get in, and where to spray

The first warm week of spring is when the kitchen ants appear, and the usual response is to spray the ones you can see. That clears the counter for an afternoon. The trail is still there, the gap they came through is still there, and by the evening so are the ants.

It helps to know what the product in your hand actually does.

Follow the line, not the ant

Watch for two minutes before you do anything. Ants move in a line and the line has two ends: the food and the way in. The way in is almost always a joint rather than an opening you would call a hole. A gap behind the skirting. The seam where the worktop meets the wall. The point where a pipe passes through a cupboard back. The threshold of the terrace door.

Wipe the trail with soapy water first. That removes the scent line the rest of the colony is following, and it also cleans the surface so the treatment has something to bond to.

The edges worth treating in a kitchen

• Skirting boards and the floor to wall junction, all the way round, not just near the sink.
• The threshold and frame of the door to the garden, balcony or terrace.
• Window sills and the frame, particularly on the sunny side.
• The gap behind and under the fridge, the dishwasher and the oven.
• Inside the base of the under-sink cupboard, where the pipes come through.
• The seam where the worktop meets the wall, if it is not a food preparation surface.

How to apply it

A thin, even layer along the edge. Not a puddle. A wet patch takes longer to dry, does not last longer, and is product you have paid for sitting where nothing will walk on it.

Move along the edge with a slight overlap between passes so there is no gap in the line. Ants are very good at finding the centimetre you missed.

Keep it off food preparation surfaces and off anything food touches directly, and read the label before you start. On raw wood, untreated stone or an unusual finish, try a hidden corner first and let it dry.

Then leave it alone

Let the treated edges dry fully with a window open, and keep children and pets away from them until they are. After that the coating does the work, quietly, for a while.

Wet cleaning is what shortens it. A wipe with a damp cloth is fine; scrubbing an edge with detergent takes the coating off with the dirt, so treat that edge again afterwards.

What to do about the gap

The treatment holds the route. Sealing the gap ends it. Once the traffic has stopped, fill the joint behind the skirting or around the pipe with a flexible sealant, and you will not be having this conversation with yourself next spring.