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Ants can quickly invade a home and will continue to show up in large numbers if they find a food source. Fortunately, there are natural ant-repellent methods to get rid of ants without calling an exterminator. Here are 7 easy and natural methods for getting rid of ants in your home or yard.
Is Ant Spray Safe for Pets? HowStuffWorks - HowStuffWorks
Is Ant Spray Safe for Pets? HowStuffWorks.
Posted: Wed, 24 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
If These Methods Don't Work
Don’t forget pet food bowls – keep these, and the surrounding area where your pets eat, as clean as possible. Try to avoid leaving food sitting in the bowl between feeding sessions. You could feed your pet in smaller regular batches to achieve this.
Keep your kitchen clean.
Additionally, you can try a trap—like this one from Catchmaster, which smells like peanut butter and has a sticky base to keep insects from getting out once stuck. “Traps normally will not have a poison, just an attractive that will lure ants in and something that prevents them from escaping,” Pereira says. They aren’t perfect, but may be helpful if you just happen to notice one large ant here and there. Sprinkle the mixture in areas where ants might enter your home — along doorways, windowsills, and any cracks in the wall.
Cornmeal & Boric Acid
Fill in any cracks with talcum powder where ants could get in, especially around window frames and doors. “The easiest thing to do is to close whatever opening exists,” Pereira says. He recommends checking window sills and doors for cracks, and caulking or sealing any crevices you might find. Invest in door sweeps or stoppers for any entrances that lead outdoors. Though ants are familiar insects, in the home, they are sometimes confused with termites.
Bed Bug Pest Guide
If you suspect you have termites, call a professional exterminator for assessment and treatment. If your ant problem is so bad that you're looking to take more extreme action, invest in insecticidal sprays and gels. These should be placed around door thresholds, at the place where the wall and floor meets, and along windowsills.
Ant Removal: Determine the Best Ant Bait
What to do when Argentine ants invade your home and garden - The Mercury News
What to do when Argentine ants invade your home and garden.
Posted: Tue, 20 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
If you notice ants around your houseplants, an infestation of aphids may be the problem. Eliminate them by spraying the plants with a solution of one quart of water with a few teaspoons of dish soap, or use a natural insecticide. To keep your basement dry, check the grading and downspouts around your house to make sure that rainwater is draining away from, not toward, the foundation.
How to Get Rid of Ants
These structures will rot from neglect and function like a red carpet for carpenter ants. The best way to get rid of ants there is to keep your deck in tip-top shape. Below, we’ve highlighted two decking materials that are wood alternatives, as well as a top-rated wood stain to protect a wooden deck from further damage. Ants are common invaders of homes across the United States and are mostly harmless. They can be hard to get rid of, but it’s possible to repel and eradicate ants over time using the natural methods described above. Commercial products are also available to help kill or detract these pests.
Bird Seed and Pet Food
Luckily, ants are attracted to many different foods — particularly things that are high in protein and grease — so they are easy to bait. Ants can’t stand the smell of citrus, making both lemon juice and orange peels useful for ant control. Place your leftover peels near any entrance the ants might crawl through, or add a little bit of lemon juice to your cleaning solution when you wash the floors. As soon as you notice these insects in your house, you need to put together some homemade ant traps. Boric acid is a great ant killer and is a great ingredient to include in any trap.
No matter the preference, these plants, flowers and herbs make wonderful (and natural!) additions to kitchen pest management plan. If you're still not convinced, consider other all-natural alternatives like coffee grounds, essential oils, banana peels, white vinegar and onions. Each has also been proven to stave off an infestation if left out on kitchen counters.
However, these are a few other expert-approved and reliable ways that will prevent ants getting comfortable in your home. “Before bringing potted plants and other vegetation inside, check the soil for ants,” Black says. The greenery is a nice addition to any space, but can be a breeding ground for pests. The goal is to try to keep ants from detecting your food in the first place. “Store sweets and other food in sealed containers and clean up any crumbs on counters,” Black says.
Ants are social insects that live in large colonies, so what may seem like a small infestation can quickly become a major pest problem for homeowners. Infestations of all types of ants will continue to grow without proper treatment. Rather, be sure to contact a licensed pest professional to assist in proper identification and treatment of the species. When carpenter ants build their nests, usually in damp or decaying wood, they dig out tunnels which weakens the wood from the inside. You’ll know you have these pests by the appearance of small holes on the surface of wood and by the debris they produce from tunneling.
Use the worker ants' behavior to get rid of ants by sending them back to the nest with some form of poisoned food (ant bait). Sweep granular insecticides into cracks under slabs and sidewalks where pavement ants are nesting. Alternatively, flood the cracks with an insecticidal spray (don’t spray these areas if you bait them). “Habitat modification” involves landscaping and other activities that can reduce the likelihood of ants nesting in areas in the immediate area around your home. For example mulch often provides an excellent nesting habitat for many ants.
Remember that ants can be beneficial predators – I’ve seen ants attack and kill cockroach nymphs. Ants also play an important role in spreading the seeds of native plants, and of removing waste from our environment. But some species, such as the rock ant (Temnothorax albipennis), have evolved an ingenious way to protect the queen and her larvae from poisoned food. Ants are social animals and live in colonies with hundreds, or even millions, of others.
Good Housekeeping participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. So if we want to protect our precious biodiversity, this may mean tolerating our tiny neighbours - even when they seem intent on taking over our kitchen or ruining our picnic. Ants are one of Earth’s most successful animals, and comprise more than 13,000 species. They live almost everywhere except Antarctica, the high Arctic and a small number of islands.
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