A family's back garden has become a no-go area because of a two-pronged invasion by thousands of ants.

The Cresdee family says red ants laying siege to their home in Denton Drive, Brighton, are biting them, covering the children's toys and flying into the house.

Sandra Cresdee, 34, said her two daughters, Jamie, five, and six-year-old Courtney, can only play outside when it is cooler.

And drug-using tearaways have worsened the situation by throwing their joint ends, beer cans, wine bottles and used syringes over the fence.

Ms Cresdee and her partner have collected five hypodermic needles and have to check the garden every morning before they let their children or their greyhound outside.

One cheeky youth came to the house asking for the needles to be returned.

The family wants Brighton and Hove City Council to dig up the garden to unearth the ants' nests and install a higher fence to make it harder to use the garden as a dustbin.

Four large ants' nests deep in the garden are linked by a network of smaller nests.

More have been established since the family moved in two years ago.

Two pest controllers, including one from Brighton and Hove City Council, have tried to eradicate them but the nests were too deep for the spray to work.

Ms Cresdee has poured boiling water mixed with chemicals and petrol into the nests, while her 48-year-old partner has turned over half the garden's soil, to no avail.

Ms Cresdee said: "It's a no-go area. If the children leave their toys out they're smothered by ants.

"Once they start flying later in the summer we have to shut all the windows and doors but they still get through the air vents.

"When it gets really hot the kids can't go out there.

"Even now, with all that is going on in the alleyway, we have to check before they go out."

Police Inspector Steve Curry said he had never heard of people dumping needles in such a dangerous manner.

He said high-profile policing would continue and officers would search anyone suspected of possessing drugs.

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokesman said officers would contact Ms Cresdee to discuss the antisocial behaviour problems.

But he said: "While we're sorry to hear about Ms Cresdee's ant problem, we don't recognise garden ants as a health hazard so our pest control team would not be available to deal with the problem."