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Home remedies to kills ants
Ants often go unnoticed outdoors until their nests and numbers start to swell.
Ants often go unnoticed outdoors until their nests and numbers start to swell. Ants are the most common pests found in and outside our homes. There are more than 12,000 different species of ants. They are social beings and live in large colonies. The best home remedies for ants outside are to use nontoxic ingredients that are usually safe for pets and children:
- The simplest way to get rid of ants in your yard is with boiling water. How much water you need depends on how severe the ant infestation is. In a large pot, bring water to a boil on the stove. Pour boiling water directly down the nest. Repeat until all ants are dead.
- Worms are beneficial to our flower beds, and earthworms (nematodes) also eat ants. Ants flee their nests when this natural predator is introduced. Purchase these worms online and add them to your flower beds and vegetable garden without worry.
- Fill a water bottle with a dish soap concoction and spray those invaders. Soapy water acts as a natural insecticide—in fact, you can take a bucket of soapy water and pour it on anthills in your yard. While this will immediately kill any ants, and a few other insects, if you want to spray them, you must lure them out for this method to be effective. Using a combination of soap and cayenne pepper kills ants on contact. The soap incapacitates and smothers the ants, whereas the cayenne burns them.
- If you do find that you have an infestation, a natural solution is diatomaceous earth. It is a soft, sedimentary deposit formed from the fossil remains of diatoms. When placed around entry areas or near colonies, this natural substance acts as a natural pesticide. It dehydrates insects to the point of death. Additionally, it doesn’t have any known effects on animals and children.
- Chalk is a sedimentary rock that contains minerals such as calcite. It also has a similar structure to diatomaceous earth and a similar effect on many insects. You may purchase powdered chalk or grind it into powder yourself and then sprinkle it in cracks or around windowsills. A rolled piece of paper used as a funnel makes it easy to get the chalk into tight spots. You may also simply use a stick of chalk and draw a thick line on your windowsills, door thresholds, and other places where ants enter your home.
- Ants don’t like the smell of white vinegar. Plus, it masks the scent trails they use as signposts for other ants to follow. To use vinegar as an ant deterrent, just spray it anywhere you’ve spotted ants.
- Mix one teaspoon of Borax with a spoonful of peanut butter. Push the mixture into a plastic straw until full. Cut the straw into small sections and place around the yard where the ant population is high, or mix one tablespoon of boric acid with a cup of sugar to form a thick paste. Drop small pieces near every ant mound you see, as well as along any trails. Ants are drawn to the sugar and will feed on it and take it back to the nest where the poison will reach the queen to wipe out the ant colony effectively.
- Lemon juice solution (lemon juice + water) can act as an all-purpose organic spray to control many pests, including stubborn ants.
- One of the stranger facts about ants is that they do not like the taste of cucumber. Hence, placing pieces of cucumber in ant-affected areas will make them abandon the place really quickly.
- Used mint tea bags are very effective in driving away ants. Put mint tea bags at the points from where ants enter. Mint leaves can also be dried and crushed into a powder, which can be sprinkled at the nests. Dehydrated peppermint or crushed red pepper flakes sprinkled around the perimeters repel ants because they are irritants. Peppermint oil sprayed along their trails also works to relocate them. Other natural deterrents include powdered cloves, cayenne pepper, and powdered garlic.
- Baby powder sprinkled around ant nests and outside of your house keeps ants away. The stronger the scent of the baby powder, the better, as ants shy away from strongly scented talc powder. Use a funnel to pour the powder directly into the nests to reach the entire colony.
- Cornmeal, cornstarch, and baking powder can damage ants’ exoskeletons, so they will not walk through them. Sprinkle them where needed and reapply if they get moist.