A. How To Get Rid Of Ants In Your Home Once And For All
Detecting pests in your home is just the worst. And if you find an ant, you can bet there’s more where it came from. (Super disgusting!) But don’t panic if you see a steady stream of ants marching across the kitchen counter or resting on a windowsill (we know this is easier said than done!). You can get rid of these ants – and put them in the mounds (ants) – by following these simple steps to get rid of ants permanently.
Whether they’re attacking your home from the inside or out, we’ve researched the best ways to get rid of ants once and for all. Follow these additional links to learn how to get rid of fruit flies, mosquitoes, bed bugs and carpenter ants before the damage is done (talk about destructive!).
1. How to get rid of bedroom ants
Use peppermint or lavender spray to repel those pesky ants. These are two smells that ants hate!
- Play detective. The first step is to find out what attracts ants in the first place. Whether it’s a sticky drop of honey on the rim of a glass or a spoon lost in the sink, there’s always a fountain. Clean up everything that attracted your new tenants, and if you’re lucky, they can move on their own.
- Take out the patrol. Teams of explorer ants use pheromones to search for food. These pheromones leave a trail that other ants can follow, so simply sweeping them won’t cut them. You have to destroy your small traces, and you can do this with a mixture of one part vinegar and three parts water. Just spray anywhere you’ve spotted ants.
- Prepare, aim, reject. To eliminate ants naturally, mix peppermint oil or lavender oil (two odors that ants hate) with water and spray the mixture at entry points such as window sills or doorframes. If you choose the chemical route, look for a boric acid product and read the instructions carefully. (Some can be harmful to pets and young children.)
- Count to three. With repellants in place, avoid the temptation to kill ants. They will do all the hard work for you and bring the poison bait back to the nest.
2. How to get rid of outdoor ants
- Send a hunt group. Look for anthills in your yard or the foundation of your home. Carpenter ants tend to hide in damaged or damp wood. Therefore, examine tree stumps, wood piles, damaged trees, old garden furniture, and all outside areas.
- Get attention, get attention. Once you’ve found the nest, pour boiling water over the anthill or treat it with an external insecticide.
- Go to work (farm). A well-kept property is the easiest way to keep ants away. Look for branches, shrubs, or shrubs that touch your house and allow ants easy access to the house.
3. How to keep ants out of your home forever
Food crumbs can attract ants, so be sure to clear dishes quickly.
- Seal all entry points. Seal and seal all exposed cracks or crevices in doors and windows.
- Hide the candy. Black garden ants (fun fact: they’re actually dark brown!) are the most likely invaders. Keep food—especially honey, maple syrup, and sugar—in airtight containers or tightly wrapped with aluminum foil or plastic wrap.
- Do your chores. Regularly clean countertops, floors, cabinets and pantries where crumbs are most likely to hide. Store your pet’s food properly between feedings and clean food bowls regularly.
Take out the garbage. Make sure the trash cans (especially in the kitchen!)
4. When should you call the professionals?
If a handful of ants turns into an army and you’ve tried everything, you may have only one infestation on your hands. Hire an expert to inspect your home. You can identify the ant species and eradicate them accordingly.
B. Top 5 Diy Ways To Get Rid Of Ants
If you own a house, you’ve probably already had some unwanted visitors, and while you may not be able to scare all the unfortunate guests that easily, in the case of ants, you can! There are a few different types that commonly invade the house, and although most are seemingly harmless, they can still contaminate food, destroy parts of the house, and even bite. Here are some ways to get ants out of the house and keep them from coming back.
1. Make a do-it-yourself ant spray
An insecticide alternative, and one of the easiest solutions to your ant problem, uses just a few ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen. By combining equal parts of vinegar and water, you can create a mixture that ants don’t like. Sprinkling vinegar on problem areas frightens them, as it breaks the traces of pheromones the ants leave behind. These trails allow other ants to follow their scent, which is why you’ll often see ants walking along long trails. Cleaning the scent trail will help prevent other worker ants from finding it. However, this solution is temporary and will not prevent them from returning in the long term, but it can keep them away from certain areas of the house if you use them regularly. Remember that the ants you see around the house are the workers. The colony will continue sending new worker ants.
2. Use ant bait
Liquid baits are usually made from a combination of sugar and borax and are used to attract the ants to the bait first, and then the worker ants bring enough poison back into the colony to kill them. I have had great success with these liquid earth ant baits available online or at your local hardware store. These baits usually attract a lot of ants on the first or second day and I rarely see any after that. While setting traps or baits is easy, be careful with this option if you have small children or pets that might grab them or try to play with them.
3. Sealing of entry points
One of the most effective ways to minimize ant problems is to minimize entry points into the house. It is impossible to seal all microscopic gaps, but treating as many areas as possible can significantly reduce infestation. Using caulking and sealant to fill in problem areas, both inside and out, can help stop the problem before it starts. You can also adjust the color or paint most stamps so that the correction is not visible.
4. Keep things clean
This may seem a bit obvious, but keeping your home as clean as possible is one of the best ways to prevent an infestation and keep it from happening again. If you’ve forgotten to take out the trash for several days, leave food scraps in the kitchen, or expose dog food, worker ants can signal that your home is privileged property. Take out the trash often and keep the compost clean or throw leftover food into the trash can. In hot, dry climates, ants may have a tendency to enter homes to find water, which is why the infestation is often worse during the summer months and in watery areas such as bathrooms and kitchens.
5. Eliminate the source
The most important thing you can do to keep ants out is to find where they come from and care for them at the source. The source could be an outdoor trash can near the house or a bush that needs to be trimmed because the branches reach the windowsill. Follow the trails to see where the ants are coming from, then use some of the other suggestions to help you get rid of them. Preventive measures are important so they don’t come back. If you see anthills near your foundation, spray a mixture of washing powder and water over them. You might also consider spraying a pest control spray, such as Home Defense, around your foundation, at least every few months, to prevent them from getting in before they enter your home.
6. You are ready!
So that’s it for this list, hope you enjoyed it and hope it helps you manage your ant problem. Check out the video above to see how I step through each step and leave a comment if you think of other ways that could help people get rid of pests.
C. Brilliantly Easy Way To Get Rid Of Ants Overnight
There’s absolutely nothing worse than going to the kitchen to make tea or coffee in the morning, only to find a trail of ants coming out the door or a crack in the floor somewhere, even a crumb you forgot the night before. Ants spoil everything! They are so small, but they all appear in such large troops that they can take complete control. I’m not a fan of insect sprays and the usual repellents that smell so strong – I get nervous about all the chemicals they contain, especially when my pets are snooping around – so I looked for some natural help to keep the army out of nature. I found the answer on the borax. Borax is a natural mineral used in most insect sprays. So why not go straight to the source?
Mix all the ingredients and dip the cotton balls into the borax mixture. So all you have to do is place those balls where the tiny soldiers come in and appear to be moving. The next morning you wake up with dead ants and a happy smile! Yalesafe’s idea.
1. Here are some other simple natural remedies to keep these annoying creatures out of your home:
- Vinegar – Ants hate vinegar, so this one is very simple: make a mixture of half vinegar and half water in a spray bottle. Just spray all the areas they come from with your mixture and you won’t see those suckers anymore! You can also spray directly on the ants to kill them if they’re already inside.
- Chalk – A normal piece of street chalk can protect your home from ant invasion. All you have to do is draw a thick line with chalk in front of the door or wherever they are and the ants won’t cross that line.
- Cinnamon – use cinnamon the same way you use chalk – draw a line around the outside of your house, as well as any interior dots to keep it out. Your house will smell good too!
- Lemon juice – a simple solution of half lemon juice and half water can be sprinkled inside your home to keep ants out – the strong citrus aroma will deter pests.
- Essential Oils – These aromatic oils may smell good to us, but ants feel different. Mix 10 drops in a glass of water and spray on affected areas. You can use lemon oil, lavender oil, peppermint oil, cedar oil or eucalyptus oil. Note: Eucalyptus oil is highly toxic to cats, so don’t use it if you have a kitten.