Use fresh herbs To humans, there's nothing better than the smell of fresh pungent herbs like sage, mint and bay leaves. To ants, there's nothing worse!
Some herbs that will keep ants away are catnip, pennyroyal, peppermint, sage, and spearmint. Scattering the leaves of these plants in areas of your house where you've seen ants may keep them away. Tansy will work on sugar ants — the ones you see in your kitchen.
Ants hate the smell of strong citrus fruits. Save your orange, lemon and grapefruit peels and scatter them around entry points. It's a natural way to deter ants without harming them.
Peppermint is a natural insect repellent that may effectively deter ants and other bugs, such as mosquitoes. To use peppermint essential oil as an ant deterrent, complete the following steps: Mix 10 to 20 drops peppermint essential oil with 2 cups water in a clean plastic spray bottle.
Rosemary
Once you learn how to grow rosemary, you'll get so much pleasure out of this wonderfully aromatic plant, and not just for its power to repel ants. While rosemary may not seem particularly pungent to the human nose, it does, in fact, release an intense smell that ants hate.
Better Than Hopscotch: Ants will not cross a chalk line. Draw a chalk line in front of exterior doors, to prevent ants from coming into the house. You can also draw a chalk line around tables on the porch or patio, to keep pesky ants away while dining outdoors.
Natural deterrents.
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.
Sweet Smelling Things Attract Ants
It is no secret that one of the things that attracts ants more than anything else is sugar.
A simple eucalyptus oil solution or a concentrated garlic spray have both been known to put ants off and the best part it is this won't harm your harm your plants, or you!
Cayenne pepper / Black pepper
How it works: The spicy, strong scent of cayenne pepper (or black pepper, if that's what you have) irritates ants, and they try to avoid it. Pepper's scent also masks the ants' pheromone trails that lead them to food sources in your yard and home.
Simply boil a kettle of water, locate the ant hill and pour it right over the top. The water will gradually trickle through the entire maze of tunnels and flood the colony; the heat of the water will be enough to eliminate any ants that come into contact with it.
Basil has certain aromatic oils which are known to repel creepy crawlies, such as ants, spiders, summer houseflies and mosquitos. It can actually be used to make a DIY bug-repellant spray if you mix it with witch hazel. Evie recommends simply spraying the mix onto a surface and then wiping it down.
Step 1: Combine 1 tablespoon of liquid dish soap or ¼ cup of Castile soap for every quart of water. You can add canola oil, olive oil, or vegetable oil to make the mixture even more effective. Step 2: Spray soapy water directly on any ants you see outside the nest to kill them on contact.
Repel ants
Leave coffee grounds where the ants are and they will carry it home and eat it. This method takes a few weeks to see, but after a while you'll notice a decrease of the ants population.
White vinegar and water: Take a spray bottle and fill it with a solution of equal parts of vinegar and water. Spray the solution on the ants and their entry points. A mixture of dish soap and water: Make a mixture of dish soap or dishwashing liquid, put in a spray bottle and shake it well. Spray it on the ants.
Both cayenne and black pepper repel ants. Ants hate cayenne pepper. Black pepper will work just as well too. Locate the source of the ant infestation problem, sprinkle some pepper around that area and if possible, create a wall that will stop the ants from accessing your household.
Flour. Wondering how to get rid of ants without dangerous pesticides? Sprinkle a line of flour along the backs of pantry shelves and wherever you see ants entering the house. Repelled by the flour, ants won't cross over the line. This is the best way to get rid of ants at home.
The sugar attracts the ants, and the baking soda is what kills them: It reacts with the acid in their digestive system, and they explode.
Lavender oil is the best choice to deter ants. It is possible to mix the oil with water to make a spray bottle and spray the desired areas. Below are the simple steps required to create lavender oil spray. Fill the spray bottle with tap water to 3/4 of the way.
Though you'll want to plant an herb garden for cooking, rosemary repels flies and mosquitoes. It also has a pungent scent that drives away other bugs, including cabbage moths. It does well in hot dry weather, and thrives in containers, so you can set it in various places around the garden.
Rosemary
Rosemary can help in repelling slugs, beetles, mosquitoes, and more. You can plant the herb in a container which you can place on patios or windows to repel insects. The herb can also be planted in your garden which is perfect for your landscape.
Borax, a mineral used in many cleaning products, is lethal to ants, interfering with their digestive system. Create a syrupy paste with borax, confectioner's sugar and water. Put the mixture inside shallow containers with narrow, ant-sized openings and place them near ant mounds or wherever you see ants.