Stop an Ant Invasion
When the ants decide to move in on your home or office, keeping them out can be a daily chore. While there are many chemical ant repellents on the market, many home remedies work as well. Stop an ant invasion by using a few known natural ant repellents that you can form, using what you have in your pantry.
Contents
Steps
Find the Source
- Follow the trail of ants to find out where they are entering the building. While instinct may tell you to kill the ants as fast as you see them, following their trail may be easier if you let the infesting bunch roam for a while so you can find where they are coming from.
- Caulk the crack or space they are entering. If you don't have any caulk on hand, spread some petroleum jelly on the area to prevent the ants from entering.
- Sweep or vacuum up all the ants you find to remove them from the house, and keep an eye out for additional infestations. If ants are still getting through you can try a natural repellent.
Use Natural Remedies
- Mix 3 parts dish soap to 1 part water and spray the solution anywhere you see ants. This erases of the scent trail that the ants leave for others to follow.
- Spray vinegar around an infested area as a natural repellent. You can add a little lemon juice to the vinegar if you want to lighten up the scent some.
- Dab some peppermint or spearmint oil on a cloth or cotton ball, and wipe infested areas with the scent. Be sure to cover the floor, baseboard, backsplash or any other areas in the direct infestation path.
- Spread some natural ant repellent items around the infestation area. Use chopped garlic, black pepper, red pepper flakes, cinnamon, mint or catnip.
- Crush egg shells and put them around the windowsills, doors or other areas where ants can enter the house. The shells will act as a natural repellent, and if the ants can't find a way around them you can stop an ant invasion.
Create Your Own Ant Trap
- Mix borax with a sweet substance that ants will be attracted to, like peanut butter, honey or just plain sugar. You don't need a lot of either, just a small spoonful is enough to feed many ants. The sweet substance will attract the ants and the borax will kill them.
- Place the substance inside a plastic container, like a sour cream or yogurt container, and poke holes in the lid so ants can easily get in. You can also spread the mixture on a strip of aluminum foil and place it in the infestation area.
- Mark the container or hide the strip and keep pets and children away from your homemade ant trap. Borax is toxic if ingested.
Tips
- The best way to remedy an ant problem is to get rid of what the pest is attracted to. This can be anything from garbage to a cookie left on the counter top. Keeping ants out of the house can be as easy as keeping the house clean.
