After writing, how to get rid of bed bugs?, how to get rid of cockroaches?, how to get rid of fleas?, and how to get rid of fruit flies?, we are now writing the best home remedies for ants removal from your house. Ants are the biggest enemy of your cookies, sweets, and food. There is no doubt that ants can cause severe problems, not only to food items but also to your property. To get rid of ants, rocket science is not required. Simple home remedies for ants removal are helpful and sufficient. We might not notice them, but ants are around us and are capable of adopting any habitat. Ants seem to appear in a group, but they live in colonies. The household stuff is enough to invade the ant army marching into your home.
Ants could be of different types depending upon their habitat and health risk. Not all types of ants cause any major problem to health but, they only contaminate the food we eat. To completely eradicate ants from your home, is not a work overnight. Instead, it will take your time and efforts. Along with this, you will also have to try different types of home remedies for ants removal. Keep on trying until you won’t see any ant out there in your home and kitchen.
Types of Ants With Their Habitat and Health Risk:
Usually, people do not recognize the difference type of ants, they have in their home. All ants look same, but they are different from each other to a great extent. There are about 12000 species of ants, but we do not have to bother about them, all we care about is ants found in homes.In united states commonly found ants are characterized below.
- Argentine Ants: Their habitats are usually in wet environments around food sources. These ants do not cause any health threat. They contaminate the food and excrete fusty odor if they are crushed.
- Odorous House Ants: They make their habitat in exposed soil, wall cracks and under floor inside homes. These types of ants do not cause any health issue or damage to buildings. They can contaminate the food items and should be avoided. In case If they crushed then they give out coconut like the smell and that’s why they are called odorous house ants.
- Carpenter Ants: Build their nests in various wood sources and enter into building through damaged wood, through cracks in doors and windows. They can cause serious property damage as they can tunnel through wood to build their habitat. The extent of damage could depend upon the number of their nests.
- Red Imported Fire Ants: Make their nest in outdoors in landscape areas, mainly near the structural foundation and they make entry through holes and cracks in the exterior. They attack with a painful sting if disturbed their nest. Anyone allergic by the bite of these ants can affect severely.
- Pavement Ants: They make their nest under cracks in pavements. They can spread in building through holes in the structure. They only contaminate the food but do not cause any health risk. Generally black pavement ants are risk-free.
- Crazy Ants: They appear in the rainy season due to reducing in the supply of honeydew, which is their main source of food. Their nest could be underneath the carpet, outdoors, on the floor and next to the foundations. These ants do not cause any health issue, but if they get entered to the structure then they would cause trouble.
Home Remedies for Ants Removal:
Contents
Below there are some best home remedies for ants removal from your house. This is to make sure that the ants will never bother you in the future. In case after some period of time they again appear, as they generally do, they will not last long.
1.) Do not Kill Ants
Killing ants are not the long-term solution to the problem as they live in colonies. They will reappear after sometimes.
- Sprinkle poison on the areas, where ants are frequently found. After getting affected by the poison, they will carry it to their colonies. The result of which every ant would die soon.
- Make sure you do not squish or kill them, by applying this method you can only kill a few of them. Remember that ants live in colonies and their numbers may vary from hundreds or thousands.
- Eliminating their entire colonies is the best way to actually get rid of ants from your house
2.) Vinegar Based Traps
Vinegar is one of the most effective home remedy for ants. The ants always leave a scent behind, which acts as a navigator for their next arrival. This is a highly powerful method of getting rid of ants fast. They can easily find their exact destination on next visit by simply following the previous trails. Wipe the trail with vinegar, now next time the ants will not be able to retrace their path. This method will surely prevent your food being damaged by ants.
3.) Citrus or Lemon Juice
Lemon juice is well known to eliminate ants naturally. You just have to find the active area, where the ants traverse or region they frequently active. Just you need is to spread lemon or orange juice over the region of their appearance. You have to first find the remaining trails of ants and once you figure it out, then just wipe it using lemon or orange juice wipe. Ants cannot retrace their path without having the previous trail.
4.) Use The Soapy Water
Ants generally hate soapy water so keeping a bottle of soapy water is a good idea. Soapy water is one of the most effective home remedies for ants. You should always keep a sprayer of soapy water with you and whenever you find ant active region just spray there. Ants cannot able to tolerate the soapy water and they will die as a result. Diluted and concentrated both types of soapy water is useful to eliminate ants from the home.
5.) Use The Bay Leaves
You can put bay leaves inside the food items like sugar, flour, paprika, etc. From the study, it has found that ants just hate bay leaves smell and eventually can’t stay where bay leaves smell is present. Putting bay leaves in food items can significantly change its smell and flavor so put bay leaves in the canister and then place it on the food items. This trick will work great and very useful also to keep ants away from your food items.
6.) Talcum Powder Will Help
Talcum powder is quite effective home remedy for ants removal from your house. Spread talcum powder around your house foundation, near doors and windows. The Ants find their way by the trail they left on the previous visit to any region, sprinkle the talcum powder to remove any sign of a trail. To better effect put it on the known point of entrance of ants. Sulfur powder, cream of tartar, borax and oil of cloves can also be used to get rid of ants.
7.) Make Use of Pepper
The ants always look for sugar, give them cayenne pepper in place of sugar. Sprinkle the pepper where ants are looking for sugar, pepper will tell them there is no sugar ahead. Pepper not only helps you to save your sugar but also help you to prevent the whole colony of ants. Pepper will always prevent the ants to relocate to your kitchen.
8.) Use Mint Tea Bag
Tea bags are widely used to prevent ants infestation and one of the best home remedy for ants. Mint tea bags are especially useful to eliminate ants from the house easily. Put some mint tea bag in the areas where the ants seem most active. Dry and crushed tea bags will also do the work for you and will help you to get rid of ants. Mint will decay the smelling abilities of ants and helps to prevent ants infestation at home and around the house.
9.) Take Help From Peppermint Oil
Peppermint oil not only helps you to save your sugar but also helps you to prevent the whole colony of ants. Peppermint oil will always prevent the ants to relocate to your kitchen. Put some drop of peppermint oil into the water, sprinkle it on the area or path that ants usually follow. You can also directly use the peppermint oil without water on the region invaded by ants.
10.) Use The Powdered Yeast
Powdered yeast is one of the best home remedies for ants removal. Many people found this method really useful for them. Powdered yeast has a great capability to completely disappear ants from your home. Mix powdered yeast and sugar together and put in the area invaded by ants. The remedy will ensure you that ants will never bother you again and if they do you can use it again to eliminate them quite easily.
11.) Make Use of Pepper
The Ants always look for sugar jar, give them cayenne pepper in place of sugar. Ants do not really like pepper and thus, this method will work efficiently. Both black and cayenne pepper can do wonders to remove ants completely. Pepper is a quite effective salt to eradicate ants from the home naturally. Sprinkle the pepper where ants are looking for sugar. pepper will tell them there is no sugar ahead.
12.) Keep The Surface Dry
Kitchen surfaces always get wet due to the use of water during cooking. If water remains on the surface it will house the ants. Ants like wet surface and get gather around the moist region. Keep surface, especially kitchen surface dry to prevent the ant infestation. Avoid leaving any dirty dishes and standing water on the surface as they attract ants. You should not allow moisture to accumulate on the floor and in kitchen counters.
13.) Bay Leaves Will Help
The bay leaves are one of the most effective home remedies for ants. You can put bay leaves inside the food items like sugar, flour, and paprika. If you are concerned about the flavor, then put bay leaves in a canister and then put in food items to prevent ants infestation. This trick has worked for many people and very useful also.
14.) Keep Home and Kitchen Clean
The ants always search for food, which tempts them to enter your home and kitchen. The smell of the food crumbs left on the counter top or on floor attracts them. Be sure that you do not leave any food crumbs anywhere in your home, like on the computer table, study table, floor, counter top, etc. If these areas remain clean and tidy then this will definitely reduce the ant population in your home.
15.) Use The Essential Oils
Essential oils will really help you to remove ants from your home, as ants hate the smell of essential oils. There are many essential oils out there in the stores. You can choose any of them as per your suitability for this remedy. Make a sprayer by adding 10-15 drops of essential oils in one cup of water. Spray it on the area where you find the ants. You can also directly use the oils by putting it on a cotton ball and placing them on the areas invaded by the ants.
16.) Wheat to Get Rid of Ants
Prepare cream of wheat in a pan. Put it in the areas where ants can easily find it. Ants cannot have the capability to digest cream of wheat, as a result, they will surely die. Cream eaten by ants expands in their stomach, resulting in their death.
17.) Petroleum Jelly Will Help
Petroleum jelly can be used to seal the entry points through, which ants get inside your house. Put jelly on the doors and each and every crack of windows. Look for any hole in the structure like floor, ceiling and walls, put petroleum jelly to block the openings. It is sticky in nature, ants cannot cross this sticky substance and will eventually die.
18.) Use The Camphor Oil
Using camphor oil, you can make homemade ant killer without any extra cost. Camphor oil is one of the best home remedies for ants removal. Take diluted alcohol and camphor oil in the ratio 9:1 in a bowl to make mixture or solution. Pour this solution on the ant nest in order to kill them completely.
19.) Fragrant to Keep Ants Away
Studies show that ants hate the scent and strong smells. Particularly fragrance of peppermint, garlic and camphor. Find out ants common entrance points in your home. Put some crushed mint on the entry points. Alternatively, crushed garlic and cloves also help you to eradicate ants. You can also grow lavender or mint plants in your backyards. The fragrance of theses plants will keep ants out of your home.
20.) Use The Orange Peel
Take powdered orange peels and add it to 1 cup of warm water. Thoroughly mix the peels in water by stirring it with the spoon. Pour this mixer on to the ant nest or an area where they have made their nest. The mixer will surely kill all ants with the added advantage of eradicating their colonies.
21.) Ant Balls to Prevent Ants Infestation
If the above methods do not work as per your expectation then it’s time to bust out the ant balls. The cotton balls act as an extra barrier to keep the ants outside of the home. Use undiluted essential oil to clear off all the ants from the house. Do not put the balls where you think a pet or child would easily find them as an appealing snack. You can also use vinegar if the essential oil is not available. Liberally soak cotton balls with undiluted peppermint essential oil. Squeeze out excess oil so that it doesn’t leave a puddle where you place it.
22.) Bait to Get Rid of Ants Fast
Ants live in colonies, killing a few of them would not enough. One should target their source if he or she wants to get rid of ants fast. Put some sweet and make it poisonous on the areas where ants frequently appear. Once they found the sweet they would also eat it and traverse back to their source. Now when they interact with each other this poison will spread out to the entire colony and all ants will die.
23.) Borax Bait to Avoid Ants
Borax bait is one of the most popular remedies for ants removal. Use one tablespoon of peanut butter, two tablespoons of sugar, two teaspoons of borax and one teaspoon of water in a bowl. Place a small amount of the mixture on a little pieces of cardboard where the ants are mostly active. Watch them cluster it and carry back to their nest. If the method works effectively then try two teaspoons of borax. Your main motive is that, the ants carry it back and kill the entire colony and the queen.
24.) Kill Ants Trail to Get Rid of Ants
This is one of the most effective remedies for ants removal. It is well-known fact that ants retrace their path by leaving a trail behind for next arrival. Wipe out all the remaining trails of ants such that they will not get to the same place once again. If the major ants infestation is your kitchen then wiping their trails becomes most important.