A woman in south-west France has told how she has had ants pouring into her home for months and, despite her utmost efforts, is still faced with the insects falling out of light fittings and onto her dinner plate.
Homeowner Ms Bénédicte Eyquem first noticed the problem in December 2023. There had been several weeks of bad weather on the Atlantic coast of France where her commune, Hourtin (Gironde) is located, which she believes has played a part.
“At first I only noticed a few around the sink, which seemed odd, because it’s not normally a place you would see them,” she told The Connexion. “I wondered if they had gotten into the pipes.
“Then I started noticing them around the front door. One day, I looked up at the ceiling and saw that they were coming out of the light fittings.”
Ms Eyquem, 54, who is unemployed due to a disability, called an insect specialist. The specialist identified the pests as Mediterranean ants Crematogaster scutellaris, which - unlike carpenter ants - do not damage a home’s structure.
“The insurance company won’t do anything about the problem so I have been spending a fortune on insecticides. Every day I find more clumps of ants inside the house and destroy several nests,” she said.
“I’ve killed so many and set traps everywhere but I still see them walking along my computer screen and on my dinner plates.
“But it’s strange. The ants inside the house all seem dozy and half-dead. They don’t bite or steal crumbs.”
There is a constant stream of Mediterranean ants marching up the outside of the house and, left, on the ceiling insideBénédicte Eyquem / Tomasz Klejdysz / Shutterstock
Ms Eyquem said that the professional she had contacted initially - who, due to illness was unable to continue the job - told her that the high water table might have driven the ants to seek refuge in colonies just beneath her home.
Local pest control company Gironde Antinuisible confirmed that this may be the case.
“Ants are a common problem in the Gironde,” they said. “We hear about ant invasions all the time in the sandy areas of the coastal lakes and the Arcachon bay,”
“The problem is by no means new, but it does happen in seasonal cycles. Ultimately, the only solution is to trace them back to the source and eliminate them there, which usually requires a professional.
“Sometimes people can get help from their insurers, but this is usually only when they have complete cover against insects, and this is typically just for carpenter ants or termites”
“It’s not unheard of for a mairie to intervene for ants, although it is rare”.
Ms Eyquem has not yet contacted the mairie, but says she is aware of some other ant problems in the village.
“I’ve been fighting this on my own so far - I’m becoming obsessed! I’m still destroying several nests everyday, but they keep coming. Hopefully, now that the problem is getting more attention, more solutions will present themselves!”
