[Pebbles82]

Are red ant habits the same as normal ant habits? Asking as you mentioned them coming from a nest. I had a problem with this (normal ants) in a rented house. They were living in the wall cavity. Eventually found the way they came in was a tiny crack in the wall next to a window ledge. They can get out through the tiniest crack. Every evening they would come out and there’d be this long line of masses of them traipsing into the kitchen and they got into everything! Especially sweet things. Under jam jar lids etc.

Anyway we used nippon. You had to put it on a coin - a few drops - next to their exit into the house (the wall crack). It tastes sweet to them - they eat it and take it back to the nest and it basically poisons all the hatchlings and the ants. They were all gone very quickly with that. However it depends what time of year it is - if it gets to the hatchlings hatching you get flying ants and Queen flying ants and they will all come out - too late for the nippon to work - it only works before the flying ones hatch. The wings drop off eventually and they become normal ants.

People think they come in from outside but sometimes they nest in wall cavities and come through wall cracks. Sealing there crack doesn’t work - they just find another one (or break down the filler!).

So if you can find where they are appearing from in the evening - then you can put something like nippon down (assume it’s works in red ants). But if you say you have the flying ones too then there isn’t anything you can do but Hoover them up, open the windows and let them fly out. Or spray the room regularly (which isn’t good for humans or hamsters).

If you move the hamster cage and set a sweet trap near where the ants are coming from they may not go for the hamster cage (like a dish of honey or something). That might work for the ground ones - the flying ones will be anywhere.