How to Get Rid of Ants in the House
Benefit Pest Management treats ants in homes across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and the Hunter. Getting rid of ants means reaching the nest at the end of the trail and the queens inside it. We work out which ant it is, then treat with a product the workers carry back to the colony. An ant treatment generally lasts three months at most. Our head technician holds pest management technician licence 5083379.
We get back to every enquiry within one business day.
Licence 5083379
NSW EPA, pest management technician
$10 million
Public liability
AEPMA member
Industry association
Pest Technician
of the Year 2025
5.0
Rated 5 star on Google
Pests we treat
To get rid of ants, find the nest
The trail is back on the bench a week after you sprayed it, running the same route to the same sugar bowl as if nothing happened. As far as the colony is concerned, nothing changed.
It’s an annoying thing to come back to. Spray reaches the ants it lands on, and the ants on the bench are the smallest part of the problem. The colony that sent them is somewhere else: in a wall, under the paving or out in the garden. The queens are in there laying eggs, and losing a few foragers doesn’t touch the part of the colony that makes more ants.
So getting rid of ants comes down to reaching the nest. That means knowing which ant you’ve got, working out where the trail is coming from and using something the workers will carry home without noticing.
Which ant is it?
Australia has more than 4,000 species of ant, and only a handful cause trouble in houses. These five turn up in and around homes:
Black house ant. About 2.5 to 3mm, intensely black, and it gives off a strong smell when crushed, though not everyone can pick it up. It nests outside around paths and paving, and commonly indoors too, in ceilings, wall cavities and the subfloor.
White-footed house ant. About 2.8 to 3.5mm and shiny black, with pale feet you’d need a magnifying glass to see. It’s more active at night, comes in through small cracks and lays a busy trail to food or water.
Argentine ant. Slender and brown, 1.5 to 3mm, travelling in slow, well-defined trails three or more ants wide. It mostly nests outside and moves indoors in wet weather.
Coastal brown ant. Small shiny brown workers, plus soldiers with oversized heads. It goes for meat, grease and dead insects. It nests in walls and behind skirtings as well as around paths.
Sugar ants. Size varies a lot, up to about 14mm, and they’re mostly nocturnal. They rarely come inside, and when they nest in timber they go for damp, rotting wood.
Different ants tell us where the nest is likely to be and what the ants are after. Two on that list, the Argentine and the coastal brown, also keep several queens to a nest.
One ant, close up and in focus, is the photo to take. Send us a photo and we’ll tell you what it is.
The trail, the nest and the queens
An ant trail is a scent road. A forager that finds food lays a pheromone trail on the way home. Other ants follow it, and every ant coming back loaded reinforces it. One sticky spot on the bench is enough to start one.
At the far end is the nest. A colony can be a few dozen ants or millions of them, and much of it stays home: the queens laying and the workers feeding and tending the young.
Some species run one queen to a nest. Others, the Argentine ant among them, have several, and their nests can link up and swap queens and workers between them. A single Argentine ant colony can spread over several hectares, which can put the ants on your bench a long way from head office. Argentine ants can also move back in from a neighbouring area within two weeks.
Then there’s budding. In some species a group of workers leaves the nest with a queen, carrying the young with them, and sets up a new colony a short walk away. If you’ve ever seen a column of ants carrying white specks along the path, that was a colony on the move.
Why the supermarket spray can make it worse
Some supermarket sprays are repellent, so they move the problem rather than end it. The ants steer clear of the treated patch, and the colony carries on.
With some species it can get worse than that. The Victorian Department of Health advises that Pharaoh’s ants should not be sprayed, because spraying fragments the colony and the pieces bud off into new nests. One problem becomes several.
Spray also spoils bait. Spraying the ants or the area around a bait contaminates it and drives them away.
None of that makes the can useless. For a nest you can actually see and reach, a spray is a reasonable tool. For a trail coming out of a wall, it’s the wrong treatment, and a heavier dose on the bench still gets no closer to the nest.
Ant control, and what we do when we get there
It starts on the phone. We ask where you’re seeing the ants and how many, because that tells us how active they are and where to look. A photo sent ahead saves a lot of guesswork on the day.
On site we inspect to find the trails and the active nests. Then we treat with a spray, a gel or granules, depending on which ant it is. The products are non-repellent, the same kind we use on German cockroaches: once they’re dry the ants don’t notice them, so they track them back to the colony themselves. Our general treatments are water-based and safe once dry. The detail on kids, pets and the veggie patch is on our residential pest control page.
Where the trail disappears into a wall or under the paving is the most useful thing you can tell us on 0467 561 548.
One of oursA hose and spray gun set up against a house wall, on one of our jobs.
“He helped us to get rid of an ant and cockroach infestation from our new house we bought. Have continued to use his services. Couldn’t be happier!”
Eily, Localsearch review
Getting rid of ants in the kitchen
No ant treatment finishes the job while the food and water that drew them in are still there. Taking those away is a big part of integrated pest management, and most of it can start tonight.
- Wipe up sugar and grease the day it lands, including the floor under the toaster and the sticky ring under the honey jar.
- Keep sugar, honey, cereal and pet food in sealed containers, and don't leave the dog's bowl out on the back step overnight.
- Fix a dripping tap. Ants that find water lay a trail to it, the same as they do for food.
- Check the appliances. Black house ants can set up inside kettles, microwaves and clock radios.
- Once ants are feeding on a bait, leave the bait alone, and don't spray anywhere near it.
If the trail is still running once the kitchen is sorted, or ants are turning up in several rooms at once, ring us. Control gets harder once several nests are established, so earlier is easier. Most jobs can be quoted on the phone, and you get a fixed price before anything starts.
Where we do this
We work from our base at Caves Beach across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, the Hunter, Port Stephens and the Central Coast, with no call-out fee.
★★★★★
Rated on Google
Google reviews
Localsearch reviews
localsearch
Facebook recommendations
Tell the next person how it went. A review helps them decide, and it helps us more than you would think.
FAQ
Ants: the usual questions
Why have ants suddenly turned up in the kitchen?
They’ve found food or water and laid a trail to it. Workers come in through small cracks, and once one finds something worth having, its scent trail brings the rest. Argentine ants also move indoors in wet weather, which is why a run of rain can bring them in all at once.
Will ants damage the house?
Ants rarely cause structural damage. They seldom tunnel into sound, dry timber, and the sugar ants that nest in wood go for damp, rotting pieces. Power points are another matter. Ants can nest inside walls and like being close to heat, power points included, and their nesting material can sometimes short out a power point or even start a fire. If the frame itself is being eaten, look at termites instead. What people call white ants are termites, not ants, and they’re a different job: see our white ants page.
Can I buy the gel you use?
We generally sell you a tube of it rather than booking you in for return visits, so you can treat a new nest when one turns up, and sooner or later one will. Put it where the ants are travelling, then leave it alone. Wiping it or spraying near it puts them off.
Why are there still ants around after a treatment?
They’re taking it home. There will usually still be ants about for a while, and they should be left alone so they keep walking over the product and carrying it back to the nest. Resist the urge to wipe them up.
What are the big ants with the gravel mound in the yard?
Probably meat ants. They build wide, gravel-covered mounds, usually a metre or two across with 20 to 35 entrance holes, and they’re widespread throughout New South Wales. A photo will settle it if you’re not sure.
How long will an ant treatment last?
The treatment and its warranty both generally last three months at most. Products the ants can’t detect are very low toxicity, and the trade-off is that they don’t last long. That’s also why the six month warranty on our general treatments doesn’t apply to ants.
Next step
A straight answer before we start
You’ll know how long a treatment should hold before we start, and it won’t be forever. A colony can move back in from next door, so you’ll hear it from us on the phone rather than from the next trail across the bench.
A quote costs nothing, and neither does the advice.
