If you have ants or other bugs around the house, pour a 50/50 mixture of Blue Dawn dish soap and water into an empty spray bottle and keep it handy. When you see the insects, spray them with the mixture.
Dish Soap. The scent trails that ants use to follow each other into your home can be disrupted with nothing more than ordinary dish soap. Fill a spray bottle with water, add 1/4 cup of dish soap, and shake the bottle to dissolve. Spray the mixture liberally near access points like doorways, windows, and other cracks.
Ants can be attracted to the sweet smell of laundry detergent or other soaps. Yes, ants can be attracted to laundry detergent. Anything with a sweet smell might bring ants around. Despite this being true, ants can actually get poisoned by laundry detergent.
Combine water, soap, and oil, and either leave it out in a dish or spray it directly on ants. The ants will be attracted to the oil, but the soap will kill them. (“Oil does attract some ants, but not necessarily all ants,” Pereira says.) Another perk: Soap helps destroy the scent trail left by ants, Hottel says.
Having a minor ant problem can be remedied in a more natural way. One of the most popular ones is using soapy water, like washing up liquid. This will kill a large amount of the colony and the remaining ants will move on.
Washing up liquid sticks to the bodies of the ants and dehydrates them. Get yourself a spray bottle to catch the little creatures in flight and mix two generous squirts of dish washing liquid with water.
A pile of laundry also resembles their tunnels. Clothing soiled with food particles or oils can also attract foraging ants. Any room in your home with these conditions can attract fire ants.
Soapy water is a natural insecticide that kills most insects, not just ants. Try it on roaches, too.
Salt, baby powder, lemon juice, chalk, vinegar, bay leaves, cinnamon, or peppermint oil are a few items that you have around your home that will stop ants from coming inside. Lay these out in areas where you see ants, and they'll stop using that area as an entrance into your house.
White vinegar, available at all grocery stores, is a cheap and effective way to kill and repel ants. It is also a natural cleaning agent. Try using a 1-to-1 vinegar/water mixture to clean hard surfaces, including floors and countertops, wherever ants are likely to travel.
Sweet Smelling Things Attract Ants
It is no secret that one of the things that attracts ants more than anything else is sugar.
The most common food sources that draw ants inside your home are the sweetest: spilled drops of soft drinks or fruit juices, candy, jellies and jams, cookies and other sweet baked goods, honey and syrup, and over-ripe fruit are some of their favorites.
Access to food is the most common reason why ants choose to nest in your home. Although ants are attracted to almost all types of human food, they are particularly drawn to sweets such as honey, candies, jellies, or syrup. Food spills, scraps, and messes are also tempting sources of foods.
A white vinegar and water solution is a common method to wipe out ants for good. Ants don't like the smell of vinegar. It not only repels them; it can also kill them. Depending on how much you can bear the smell, mix at least one part vinegar and three parts water.
White vinegar
If you see ants in your home, mix up a solution of 50-50 vinegar and water and wipe the ants up with it. This kills existing ants and repels future ants by leaving a lingering scent of vinegar that works as a natural ant repellant.
On the other hand, plain table salt does not. It is only effective in intercepting the ants. This should not be applied on heavy ant-infestation.
Fragrant shampoos, soaps, and lotions may also attract ants, so keep bottles sealed and do not leave residue behind. The best way to keep ants out of your bedroom is to keep food and sugary drinks out too. Ants will come looking for it.
A line of chalk will stop ants in their tracks
Draw a line in chalk along the exterior of any external doors that lead into your home. Chalk is made from calcium carbonate, which ants hate, so they will be deterred to cross.
The Ants Are Looking for a Source of Water
Sometimes, ants aren't interested in the food you have in the house, but a reliable source of water, especially during the hot season, when temperatures are extreme. Ants can use a leaking pipe or a faulty faucet to drink water, so make sure your plumbing is ok.
Soap and water
Provided you really saturate those little critters, the soap actually breaks down their exoskeletons, and they die almost immediately.
Almost everyone has dealt with house ants. These uninvited and unwelcome guests will invade even the cleanest, healthiest homes. They get in through even the smallest openings in windows, doorways, and floors in search of provisions to replenish their colony's food and water supply.
How to get rid of them! Ants can't stand washing up liquid because it attaches to their bodies and dehydrates them.