Make a solution of 1/2 teaspoon borax, 8 teaspoons sugar, and 1 cup warm water. Stir until the sugar and borax are dissolved. Saturate cotton balls and place them around your home in areas where you commonly see ants. After use, wash containers thoroughly or discard.
Two of the best ways to eliminate ants are Borax and diatomaceous earth. Essential oils, including peppermint and clove, are a natural way to repel and kill ants. Food and moisture attract ants, so keep your home clean and dry to get rid of ants permanently.
Vinegar—whether white vinegar or apple cider vinegar—is a common ingredient in many kitchens. That's probably why many homeowners hope that vinegar or a mixture of apple cider vinegar and dish soap will kill ants. Unfortunately, it doesn't work.
Diatomaceous Earth is one of the most effective ant-killers out there, and placing them in the ant entryways can solve the problem of “how to get rid of ants permanently”. Diatomaceous Earth is made from remains of diatoms. Basically, by sprinkling them, ants dry and die.
Mix a 50/50 solution of vinegar and water in a spray bottle. Spray it directly on the ants to kill them, then wipe up the ants using a damp paper towel and discard them. You can also use vinegar and water as a deterrent; spray it around your windowsills, doorways and other places where you see ants coming inside.
Try combining three parts powdered sugar with one part boric acid. The sugar will lure the ants in and the boric acid will kill them, Pereira says. Liquid is better—adult ants prefer to drink their food—so water this stuff down a little. “I recommend this to a lot of people,” Pereira says.
Mix equal parts baking soda and powdered sugar and place in a small lid or shallow container in the area where you're seeing ants. When ants nibble baking soda, it reacts with an acidic material in their stomachs and kills them. This bait can help kill ants in the nest.
Step 3: Spray Entry Points
Use this white vinegar solution to spray all entry points of your home, try to spry all windows, doors, baseboards and the common paths that ants would travel within your home. Give about an hour for this solution to take effect, then after a few hours the ants should be dead.
"Mix equal parts of vinegar and water, place the mixture in a spray bottle, and spray on the ants directly," says Barrett. "The mixture will kill them and you can clean the area by collecting the dead ants using a wet wipe or damp cloth," they add.
The smell of Vinegar will cause them to stay away from it or permanently leave the house. Ants crawl in a straight line, marching towards the food sources. The Vinegar solution will interfere with these pheromones, and the ants will get lost.
Home Ant Control Tips
Windex, the glass cleaner, is a known insect killer. When you have an ant swarm in your house, spray them all with Windex and they will die nearly instantly. Windex can also eliminate some of the scent trails that ants follow to find food.
Use Table Salt + water OR no water. This solution does “kill”. It dehydrates them.
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.
Ants hate cayenne pepper. Sprinkle some cayenne pepper or black pepper around that area to repel ants. Make a concoction by mixing pepper + water and spray the solution at the ants. This solution will deter ants from coming back.
Ants generally don't like vinegar, citrus smells, or spices, and are also turned off by pepper and baby powder. Even the delicious smell of a morning brew will send ants running in the other direction.
Ants usually come indoors in search of food or nesting habitat. Even small amounts of food, like pet food crumbs, can attract hordes of industrious ants. Ants are one of Earth's most successful animals, and comprise more than 13,000 species.
White Vinegar. One of the most versatile natural cleaners in your home, distilled white vinegar is also one of the safest and most effective home remedies for ants. A spray bottle with half water and half vinegar will begin to kill ants on contact and is perfect for wiping down countertops and other hard surfaces.
Diatomaceous earth (DE) is not only inexpensive and effective; it's non-toxic to kids, birds, and pets. And yet it destroys ants, earwigs, slugs, beetles, ticks, fleas, cockroaches, and bed bugs. As these pasts move across the powder, it sticks to their feet and legs only to get into their joints and exoskeleton.
Milder winters provide ant colonies with the resources needed to grow larger and spread out into areas where they may not have thrived before. Because of this, homeowners can expect to see an increase in ant activity in 2022. Some of which may include species of ants that have migrated to a new area.
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. Place the mixture in strategic locations and wait for the baking soda to do its thing.
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.
Baking soda is one of the most effective way to take out an ant infestation. And, it is always a good idea to target the whole colony at once if you want to stop the outbreak in its tracks.
A Natural Option for Ant Control
If you have an ant problem, the only way to get them gone for good is to get rid of their colony, located in the ant hill. When you identify where the ant hill is, you can get to work. Instead of using chemicals, there is a natural option you can choose: boiling water.
WD-40. Spray any areas where ants are feeding or accessing your house with WD-40. The spray will kill ants and also serve as a deterrent from further access as long as residue from the spray remains.