Peppermint is a natural insect repellant. You can plant mint around your home or use the essential oil of peppermint as a natural remedy for control of ants. Ants hate the smell, and your home will smell minty fresh! Plant mint around entryways and the perimeter of your home.
Essential oils such as peppermint, lavender, and thyme work well to repel ants. You can use a diffuser, set out dishes of essential oils, or leave out cotton balls soaked in essential oils to deter pesky ants.
Spray Tea Tree Oil
Like peppermint essential oil, ants can't stand the smell of tea tree oil and try to avoid it at all costs. Use the same peppermint oil spray bottle method or soak cotton balls in tea tree oil and place them at every entry point.
Try pouring a line of cream of tartar, red chili powder, paprika, or dried peppermint at the place where you think ants might be entering the house; they won't cross it. You can also try washing countertops, cabinets, and floors with equal parts vinegar and water.
How Long Can Vinegar Keep Ants At Bay? Vinegar only remains effective for as long as the scent lingers. When the solution dries up, homeowners need to reapply the solution in the problem areas to keep ants away.
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.
Straight white vinegar makes a great ant spray. You can saturate ant trails to kill on contact, or spray counters and other areas and either wipe up after a few minutes or allow the treatment to dry in place.
Why Do Ants Suddenly Appear In Kitchens? A sudden ant infestation in your kitchen means there is a food source somewhere. The food can be honey, sugar, syrup, meat, fats, breadcrumbs, etc. Once the ants determine these food sources, they form long trails to connect their colonies to the food source.
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!
Lavender oil is one of the most friendly insecticides. Lavender oil has a strong scent that helps repel ants and other pests from the home, keeping our house's insects free. This is one of the best oils to be used as ant repellents.
Vicks Vapor Rub
Vick's Vapor Rub can be used for a lot of things, but did you know it can also be used as an ant repellent? If you're able to locate the point of entry, simply dab a generous amount of the Vick's Vapor Rub around the entry point or any cracks in the area.
Peppermint, Spearmint, Pennyroyal, Garlic and Citronella are effective essential oils ants hate. You can also put the essential oil on a cotton-wool ball and place them by the doors. Spray the essential oil along shelves and floors where the ants are seen, and on their nests. Or, grow plants ants hate.
Salt-boil salt and water into a mixture and once cooled, pour into a spray bottle and spray nooks and corners. Oranges-half fresh orange juice and half water sprayed around your home will keep the pests out and keep your home smelling nicely. Essential Oils-used like lemon or orange juices.
Vinegar – Ants hate vinegar, so this one's real easy: make a mixture of half vinegar and half water in a spray bottle. Simply spray all the areas where they come in from with your mixture and you won't be seeing these suckers around anymore!
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.
While many people believe that salt is an effective way to get rid of ants, the truth is that salt may only temporarily repel certain species ants, rather than kill them. Ants live in a colony often consisting of thousands of ants.
Always remember that Vinegar is not a permanent solution to remove an ant infestation. It is reasonable to spread the solution thrice a week over the affected areas to remove ants slowly.
The reason why is vinegar enough to repel but not kill ants is because of how acidic vinegar is. Its acidic content is enough to destroy ant trails. These trails are made up of pheromones which communicate to other ants where food sources are.
Mix one part powdered sugar with one part baking powder, and leave the mixture in corners of your kitchen where ants are located. The ants will be drawn to the sweetness of the sugar, but it's the baking soda that will kill them when ingested.
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.
Creatures That Eat Ants
Other insects such as beetles, caterpillars and flies. Spiders, such as black widow spiders and jumping spiders. Snails and other hard-shelled organisms. Snakes.
It is advised not to squash ants, doing so will only release pheromones and trigger more ants to come to the location and cause more trouble to you and your family. Ants are known to pack a deadly bite that causes excruciating pain for a short time.