Gqeberha: An ant trail appearing beside a skirting board can send a homeowner looking for something to spray. For True Clean owner Diederik Visser, that point of emergence is a place to start investigating.
The nest may be somewhere else. His inspections follow the visible activity around the house and outside, looking at the building and nearby ground together.
A review of True Clean’s records from October 2025 to September 2026 found that 54% of its recorded ant-control work fell in December, January and February. That describes one company’s activity over the period, rather than infestation levels across the city.
Visser’s recorded explanations describe ants making use of small cracks and seams. His published account of local inspections adds the places he commonly checks: gaps at skirtings, window areas and cracks in walls. Outside, paving and foundations can provide further clues.
A colony close to the house and ants already travelling through kitchen cupboards can be different parts of the same job. Treating only the point where someone first sees them can overlook activity against the building or within it.
That is why the customer is asked where the main problem is. A kitchen with a busy trail may need a different assessment from a house where ants appear in several rooms. Activity higher up a wall can matter too; an inspection should not stop at floor level.
Visser uses bait where appropriate, with the aim of reaching the colony through the ants carrying it back. University of California ant-management guidance (https://ipm.ucanr.edu/home-and-landscape/ants/) explains why that process needs time. It depends on more than the immediate disappearance of the insects on the counter.
What happens after placement also gives useful information. Bait may be taken quickly in a heavy infestation, and the response can show where more attention is needed. Visser’s service information describes returning to check progress, commonly with a follow-up planned about two weeks later.
Some jobs respond to the first treatment. Others require more work. Continued activity should be assessed from what is happening at the property, rather than automatically assigned to a new nest or dismissed as something that will sort itself out.
The customer needs to recognise the bait as well. Visser describes the small droplets as looking like dewdrops, making them easy to mistake for something to wipe away. He explains where they are and which treated areas should be left undisturbed.
Cleaning instructions depend on the treatment used. Customers should also check before adding another aerosol spray over an existing treatment. The operator needs the planned approach to remain usable long enough to assess its effect.
Outside, the inspection can reveal a leak supplying moisture or a tree offering another route to the roof. Extensive activity around paving needs its own assessment, particularly where reaching the colonies is difficult. Sinking paving also needs examination rather than an assumption that ants explain every movement.
Visser’s preference is to treat an actual problem. His published advice says ants outside that are causing no difficulty can be left alone. An occasional ant getting indoors is also different from a home that remains heavily infested.
That distinction gives the homeowner something useful to report: where the ants are, how much activity is being seen and how it has changed. It helps the follow-up focus on the remaining problem without turning every sighting into the same diagnosis.
More information about ant control in Gqeberha and Port Elizabeth (https://www.trueclean.co.za/pest-control/ant-control/) is available on True Clean’s website.
Enquiries: WhatsApp True Clean – https://wa.me/27619050514.
Submit your Press Release to MyPR here: MyPR Free Press Release Submission.
