As soon as spring arrives, a menace one faces in home maintenance is the problem of ants crawling into your space. Isn’t it? So how to get rid of ants?
This is a major irritant and needs proper pest control management techniques. Just like humans, ants too are social pests.
The intention could be to earn their food and bring to the queen or to protect themselves from enemies and your territory could just be a safe haven for them.
For many, the sight of the ants scuttling down the wall from the source point is enough to send them into an all-out ant hunt until they can relax.
Either way, there’s no need to turn to insecticides or pesticides, there’s plenty of natural deter nets you can use to keep ants away from your home.
In order to get rid of ants, it is necessary to find as to which species of ants have invaded your territory.
There are two such types, out of a myriad variety: the odorous tiny black ants, and the carpenter ants.
The first one is attracted to sweets and starches while the latter nests in moist woods.
You would have to use your investigative capabilities to know where to find its nest, what sources of food are attracting them and which management methods will be most attractive to get rid of these little buggers.
Both have different behaviour and preference for food, hence there are different remedies to be done away with them.
Regardless of the reason that provoked ants’ occurrence, they become a major menace for any homeowners, and knowing how to get rid of ants’ army, you can manage to repel it in a few days.
Here are 7 home made ways on how to get rid of the ants naturally –
Peppermint
As peppermint spray becomes your saviour while in distress, so also it acts as repellent on getting rid of ants.
Just add dried pepper in all the source areas where you see them coming out of.
You can also mix drops of peppermint essential oil, some 8 – 10 drops to a cup water and spray in the areas where ants are present until they are completely flushed out of your homes.
Essentials oils have smells, as much as we find it intensely pleasant, the ants finds is unpleasant and overwhelming. Do it twice daily.
Lemon
Its acidic property removes the scented trail left by the odorous ants and deters the ants from coming again.
Just as peppermint, add lemon essential oil to cotton balls and wipe it in the affected areas.
You can also add raw lemon juice in the source areas, like the doors, windowsills and this is how you would get rid of sugar ants.
Food grade Diatomaceous Earth (DE)
Completely natural and organic, it is the best way for eradicating carpenter ants.
Diatomaceous earth consists of the fossilized remains of marine phytoplankton. The powder sticks to the exoskeleton of the ants, causing them to dry out.
The diatomaceous earth can also cut up the exoskeleton of the ants. Sprinkle dry DE to the areas where you see the ants coming from. Once the ants ingest it, dies instantaneously.
Sprinkle it in their colonies and the lethal dust kills the insects.
Cinnamon
The cinnamon essential oil acts as a repellent and is an effective remedy to get rid of ants.
Add a tea spoon of cinnamon oil to a cup of water and rub it in the areas where you see the ants trailing. This rubs off the scented trail and prevents the ants from searching the food.
Repeat it once on a regular basis and place it in such a way that you do not sprinkle it all over.
You can also scatter whole cinnamon cloves to prevent the ants from coming.
White vinegar
Another effective remedy to get rid of ants is white vinegar.
To make this mix, all you need to do is add equal proportion of white vinegar and water. Put it onto a spray bottle and sprinkle in it the entry points.
You can also add, in the mix, few drops of cinnamon essential oil.
Do it once daily, until the ants completely stop coming.
You can also use this spray to wipe the floors or kitchen countertops to prevent the ants from trailing there.
Borax
Borax is another remedy that keeps the ants away. Add one teaspoon of borax with a cube of peanut butter and 1 tablespoon of sugar.
This acts as bait for the ants, but once ingested it kills them. Put the mix in the areas where you see the ant trails.
Another way is to use granulated sugar and add borax to it, keeping the ratio 3:1. Add a cup of water to make it syrupy and put in the entry points to keep the ants away. Use it twice daily.
Baby powder
Sounds bizarre! But yes, it does acts a repellent to get rid of ants. Sprinkle it around your home and some more in the source points.
Ants dislike the smell of baby powder and it could deter them from coming.
All you need to do is figure out is where these little buggers are coming out of and sprinkle it in the vicinity.
They would lose their scented trail and get killed.
Get rid of ants using these home remedies!
As they say, prevention is better than cure, the best way to get rid of ants is to prevent them coming, in the first place.
These methods are natural do-it-yourself techniques which deters the ants from coming.
A proper pest control management is needed to completely eradicate the menace. It is also necessary to maintain hygiene to prevent the ants.
Often, due to negligence we call for it ourselves. Hence, it is important to keep our homes and yards clean, so as to keep the ants at bay.
Store sweet substances in an air- tight container and clean the debris or the leftover crumbs and the keep the garbage clean.
At detecting the entry points, always seal them off.
Try these natural ant repellent remedies at home if you want to avoid the perimeters of any chemical insecticide and get an ant-free home.
This post was last modified on January 14, 2020 8:08 AM