7 Efficient Ways To Control Ants In The House

When was the last time your little one’s skin got those red rashes due to the ant-bite and freaked out?

If you can pull out one such recent memory, stick on to this write-up. I can help you out with the most used tricks that will surely work for you.

Are they dangerous?

Before moving on to the remedies it is better to know why the ants are dangerous.

• Most of us consider ants as a nuisance, but above all many of them are dangerous too. Though some ants like the odorous house ants won’t bite or carry diseases, they spread the rotten coconut smell when they are around.
  
• The other kind of ants like pavement ants rarely bites you. But they love to crawl through the filth. And once they are in your kitchen, chances are many that they can be potential food contaminators. They are the real carriers of bacteria and the prime culprit, contaminating the food.
  
• The most destructive ones of the ant family are the carpenter ants. They can destroy the wooden furniture in your home. Especially take care of the rotting or wet wooden items in your home as the tremendous destruction by the ants may go beyond your imagination.

The must-try tricks for ants

The ants will never fail to visit you, season after season. After identifying the type of ants you are having around, you can sort out different strategies. And here are the most simple and effective ways I am following to get rid of them from my home at the onset of every season change.

1. Cinnamon

Have you ever noticed the tiny cinnamon sticks in your grandma’s sugar tins? Yes, the good old habit of preventing ants with cinnamon is still followed in many households. The compounds like transcinnamaldehydes have been found effective in killing and repelling almost all varieties of ants. The essential oil from cinnamon leaves are available in the market and are multipurpose, and are vastly used as ant repellants.

• Sprinkle the cinnamon powder near the windowsills and baseboards
• Prepare some cotton balls and wet them with cinnamon oil. Place these balls at the common areas where the ant nuisance is more.

2. Peppermint

Peppermint is considered to be one of the best natural insect repellants around you. Ants will definitely avoid the areas where they smell the traces of mint. The pungent aroma of the leaves is intolerable to ants.

• Prepare a peppermint spray with few drops of peppermint essential oil and water
• Spray this mixture wherever you find ants; do it twice a day for a week

3. Lemon

Attacking the ants with lemon peels? It may sound strange. But it actually worked out for me. Take some lemon peels and place them near the holes from where the ants enter. They say that ants don’t like the smell of lemons and they will have to search for some other places; the logic is as simple as that. As their craving for sweet is notorious, make sure that there are no other sweetie things around the lemon peels.

• Splash some lemon extracts on their regular paths and all corners
• Mix 1table spoon full of lemon extract in water and mop your floors with this liquid
• Clean the kitchen countertops and cupboards too with same liquid once in a week

4. Chalk

Yes, in my house chalks are not just used in the blackboards alone. The main component in chalk- calcium carbonate – keeps the ants away. Though I accidentally noticed this ant repelling power of chalks, it did magic for me. More than a pest control method; it is now literally a child’s play. Yes! It is that easy and you can try it out in the following ways.

• Sprinkle some powdered chalk on the entry points
• Simply draw lines using chalk near their areas

5. Salt

Find out all the potential nooks and corners from where the ants are entering your house. Spread some common salt around those areas. You can never find such a cheapest solution for the ant-problem. And if the ant problem exists on your walls and cupboard doors, try out the spraying method.

• Make a concentrated salt solution with a large quantity of salt in water
• Fill it in a spray bottle and apply abundantly on the more affected surfaces

6. Pepper

One interesting fact about ants is that they hate pepper as much they love sugar. The smell of pepper will irritate them. You can use black pepper or Cayenne pepper for this purpose. Though the pepper won’t kill the ants, they will deter them from that route. It is best to go with this natural and safe remedy. What you can do is,

• Crush the pepper and sprinkle the powder on the common ant-routes
• Prepare a pepper spray by mixing up water and pepper powder in equal amounts. Spray it at the most affected areas

7. White Vinegar

The white vinegar in your kitchen will come handy in repelling the ants successfully. Whether it is on your floors tiles, kitchen closets, dining tables or glass windows, you can apply it liberally. Take equal proportions of water and vinegar to make an ant-repellant mixture. Even after drying out the vinegar content on the surfaces, ants will get the smell easily and will feel sickly sweet.

• Frequent mopping with vinegar mixed water will get rid of ants easily
• Take quick wipes with the same mixture on the affected surfaces

“All good work is done the way ants do things:

Little by Little.”

Conclusion

We have seen many effective ways of pest control, but still, the little ants are always a headache to many. Before going to the deeper measures, it is better to start with the basic measures at your home. Just check out the kitchen cupboard for the above-mentioned pieces of stuff and make your ant-repellants.

Enjoy the natural and homemade remedies against the ants. You are going to fall in love with the quick results.