This morning I woke up to Ants- not just a few, but the long trails that go room to room. It’s not that I hate ants, they are just annoying. But it’s not just ants, for some reason, my condo attracts spiders, cobwebs and other annoying types of bugs. No matter how much I clean, they show up the next day. Kinda embarrassing when people come over and they have spiders crawling all over them!
Of course I want something that is non- toxic and readily available materials, (that means right in my kitchen)- See below some great ideas on natural, non- toxic, in your kitchen, homemade Ant Deterrents.
Of course the first line of defense is no food, clean and to stop points of entry. Natural Pest Control has a great list of pest control ideas- these are just a few
- Keep a small spray bottle handy, and spray the ants with a bit of soapy water.
- Set out cucumber peels or slices in the kitchen or at the ants’ point of entry. Many ants have a natural aversion to cucumber. Bitter cucumbers work best.
- Leave a few tea bags of mint tea near areas where the ants seem most active. Dry, crushed mint leaves or cloves also work as ant deterrents.
- Trace the ant column back to their point of entry. Set any of the following items at the entry area in a small line, which ants will not cross: cayenne pepper, citrus oil (can be soaked into a piece of string), lemon juice, cinnamon or coffee grounds.
- Mix a half teaspoon each of honey, borox, and aspartame (Equal, Nutrasweet, etc.), in small bottles. Place bottles on their sides, with lids off, in areas of most ant activity. Ants will carry the bait back to their colonies. Important: use indoors only; must be kept away from pets and children.
- Leave a small, low wattage night light on for a few nights in the area of most ant activity. The change in light can disrupt and discourage their foraging patterns.
- Ants on the deck? Slip a few cut up cloves of garlic between the cracks.
- Liquid peppermint soap, diluted in a squirt bottle will kill them. It will also prevent them from coming back
- Citrasolve works wonderfully! Just mop or wipe with it and spread it around at entry point. ants will die in house, and won’t come back in again.
- Ring your house with used coffee grounds and other acidic natural byproducts.
- Spray bottle with vinegar works too
- Dr. Bronners peppermint soap,
- Try Boric Acid. It’s natural, safe and it works. BORIC ACID Is Harmful to Animals. We don’t recommend this if you have pets or wildlife.
- Peppermint oil–a few drops in a spray bottle of water.
- Pouring lemon juice around areas ants frequent
- Baking soda can deter ants – pour a solid line in areas of activity and they won’t cross it.
- A puree blend of orange peel and water can be applied to an area to discourage ants from crossing.
- Baby powder stopped them dead in their tracks.
- Use a piece of chalk to draw a line over trails – again, the ants won’t cross it. Chalk also has the advantage of being able to be used on vertical surfaces
- We up here in alaska work alot with carpanter ants. i use the original listerine the brown one. full strength and we spray it in there tracks and this kills them. I also find that they do not like the pepermint castile soap.
- Several readers have had success with using powdered yeast. The ants usually disappear within one day!
- A few readers wrote in and said they used Bay Leaves.
Use W.D. 40 outside. works on any insect instantly.
That’s great for when those little darlings cross the threshold and enter your home but what about your yard ? I have never had so many ant hills in my backyard. They have started eating the floor of my above ground pool. Cost me over $300 to get a guy in the fall to enter my pool and put patches. He said there was over 100 tiny holes. Ants are drawn to a sugar base substance that they now make I guess some pool liners with, or so I was told. I tried corn meal and that seems to work but I think they just move and go to another area. I have two grandsons, one with autism and I HAVE to have a safe product to use. Any ideas?? Thanks all.
Thanks for finally writing about >Top 21 Ways
To Get rid Of Ants Naturally | Green Eco Services <Liked it!
I bought bottles and bottles of cheap bay leaves and set them everywhere that I could see them and they were gone… I still continue to use bay leaves.
I have heard to use club soda on the ant home, will finish them off for good
If you suspect that your home is infested with cockroaches,
then it will be a very good idea to get in touch witrh a pest control company
trained and skilled in roach control. This gel can be squeezed in places where the cockroach might travel and will kill them eventually.
Additional info abgout , you may discover on the web.
Can’t wait to try some of these ideas. But just wonder if you have any ideas on how to get rid of German Roaches. The little brown roaches that just won’t go away.
Pour boiling water on those nest outside in your yard. The ants will ball up and die right away.
Diatomaceous earth: sprinkle it around the foundation of your house once or twice a year and you will never have ants in the house. The silicate in the earth (from a gazillion little prehistoric microscopic critters) will damage the exoskeletons of the ants, and they will desicate and die. I never heard of using it for fleas, but it seems like it would work. Diatomaceous earth is not toxic and is fed to cattle as a dewormer. When I use it for ant control, I sprinkle it around my house foundation just before a rain so that it mixes in w/ the soil.
I use grits, I sprinkle them around the ant hills and viola they take it back with them and no more ants. Works for all ants
We use bugRIGHT it is all natural and worked .
Thanks for these wonderful tips. i have 3 different kinds of ants in my area. carpenter, red and a flying ant which I think is a carpenter ant. I have renovated recently and thankyou for advice on the elimination of the ants return
All these remedies everyone of them I HONESTLY TRIED even paying extermination. They only work for a few days maybe a week at most…then the ants come back!. Its all too frustrating. these black flying ants keep coming. I’ve treated all areas around their nests all the way up to the whole backyard wall with NO success. They go away for a bit then come back. These remedies everyone says is ONLY temporary. I am still aggressive with treatment for a long time now….that’s all I can do. But its tiring to maintain treatment and getting costly.