How to Get Rid of Ants in Your House and Yard
Put an end to most ant problems with inexpensive products from the home center or hardware store, and save the expense of hiring an exterminator.
How to Identify Ants
Start by identifying the type of ant in your house so you can find out how to get rid of ants, their nesting habits and have a better idea of where they’re living (they may be nesting outdoors). Take a close-up photo of the ant and send it to your local university extension service (enter your state’s name and “university extension service” into any online search engine). The extension service will tell you the type of ant you’re dealing with and where it nests. They may give you fact sheets about the ant species and maybe even some advice on getting rid of that particular ant species
How to Find Ant Nests
Sometimes the solution to an ant problem is getting rid of their nest. If you’re dealing with carpenter ants, which can do structural damage to your house, it’s vital that you wipe them out ASAP. Finding the nest may not be easy and takes some detective work. Ants generally prefer damp areas, such as framing or flooring that’s soft and spongy from a plumbing or roof leak. How to get rid of ants begins by looking for areas with water damage. Attics, bathrooms and exterior walls are obvious candidates. Cut small holes in water-damaged walls to track down the ant nest. (You’re going to have to repair the walls anyway.) When you find the nest, spray it with an insecticide that contains bifenthrin, permethrin or deltamethrin (look on the label). Ortho’s Home Defense Max is one brand. Be sure to fix the water leak and replace damaged wood. If you can’t track down the nest, hire a pest control service. Pros spend about 80 percent of their time hunting down nests. Their fees start at about $150, but tough cases with multiple treatments can cost $400 or more. Image courtesy of Jeff Hahn, University of Minnesota
Ant Removal: Determine the Best Ant Bait
When you see an ant, your first impulse is probably to step on it. But don’t. You’ll kill it, but for every ant you see, there may be hundreds more hiding in the house. The ones you see are scout ants, foraging for food to take back to the colony. Use these scouts to wipe out the entire colony. Prebait ants in areas you’ve previously seen them. Ants’ tastes change during the year. They usually prefer protein in the spring and sweets or fatty/oily foods in the summer. Set out sugar or honey, fried food and peanut butter, then see which food attracts ants. Use whichever food they prefer for bait and a DIY way to get rid of ants. Once you know what the ants like, buy and set out toxic ant bait that’s geared to their taste. Look on the bait package for words like “controls both sweet and grease eating ants.” Stop ants from coming in the house by using this ‘outdoor ant bait (Amazon)’ around your yard.
Ant Removal: Erase Ant Trails
Where you see one ant, you’re bound to see others. That’s because ants leave a scented trail that other ants follow. Sweeping or mopping isn’t enough to eliminate the scent. Instead, mix 1 part vinegar with 3 parts water in a spray bottle for a safe way to get rid of ants in the home, then spray wherever you’ve seen ants in the past. This will stop outdoor nesting ants that entered the house to forage for food (ants that come inside are not necessarily trying to establish a nest). Vinegar and water won’t stop ants that are already nesting indoors. You’ll need to kill them with ant bait
How to Find an Ant Nest: Common Places Where Ants Hide
The Kitchen
Curious about how to find an ant nest? If you really want to nip your ant problem in the bud, then you might want to start looking for them in the kitchen. This is the most likely place in your house where an ant problem will begin.
The Bathroom
As often as your bathroom gets used, chances are that there’s a buildup of excess water and moisture in your washroom. Naturally, ants are attracted to water. In case you didn’t know, that means ants will be racing to lap up the pooled water and accidental leaks in your restroom. For those of you who want to stop and colonies in their tracks, be sure to clean up any spilled water after taking a shower or a bath.
Pet Food and Water Bowls
Attention: your pet food and water bowls are no longer safe from ant invasions. Since ant colonies are so intelligent, they’ll be able to find any leftover food that you have around your house, including pet food. Whenever your cat or dog leaves their chow in their bowl, you can add a bit of petroleum jelly to it.
Inside Walls
Can ants live in walls? The answer is yes. When it comes to ant control, inspecting the inside of your walls for ant invasions should be one of your first priorities. You might be surprised to find out that damaged or cracked walls provide the perfect crawlspace for ant colonies to populate and nest. Although certain ant species prefer to build outside colonies, inside walls give them the chance to find more sources of food while still remaining inside of your home
The Bedroom
Are common household pests giving you a headache-and-a-half? We’re here to help. Similar to other forms of house pests, ants can thrive both indoors and outdoors. This is especially true in houses that have efficient sources of food for them. Of course, the bedroom is the most ideal place for ants to find crumbs from movie nights and bedside morning breakfasts
How Do I Get Rid of Ants in My House Naturally?
Because ants are easily attracted to so many items in your home, many homeowners wonder if these pesky small insects will actually be repelled by using natural ingredients that you can easily found at home? Let’s find out!
Ants hate the scent of coffee grounds
People usually discard their coffee grounds and wash them with soap and water. But before you decide to throw them out, we suggest you to saving them for practical uses you may not even know before. Coffee grounds can be used to ward crawling pesky pest like ants!
Did you know? Ants really don’t like the strong smell and texture of your coffee grounds. Sprinkle the used coffee grounds in the place where you commonly see ants crawling, such as cupboards, pantry table or near to your pet food bowl. This natural ant repellent can be also applicable in the outdoor, such as your garden area
Ants hate the scent of cinnamons
From apple pie to toast bread, cinnamons are the perfect additional sweetener to your favourite breakfast. But who would have thought if ground cinnamon is often regarded as an effective DIY ant control option.
tips to get rid of ants for good
Getting rid of ants is often a difficult task that takes time away from doing things you love. Whether its a reoccurring disturbance in your home or a new issue, there are a few things you can do to keep ants away. Read on to learn some simple tricks to keep the pests away from your food.
Finding the Trails
Figuring to where the ants are coming from is the very first in determining how big your ant problem is. Most people find their problem areas to be near the kitchen, or anywhere that food is present. Start out by investigating the problem areas in your home, whether it be your trash can or that one cabinet that holds your sugary treats.
Eliminating the Source
You may have tried this already, but removing any easy to reach food items that might be attracting pests will help reduce the likelihood of an infestation. Open fruit baskets and candy jars are an easy target for ants to get to. You may want to invest in higher quality Tupperware or food storage systems that make it difficult for any pests to get to. There are many food storage tricks you can learn to finally get rid of ants for good.
Finding the Colony
If a simple, easy to make at home solution isn’t enough to keep ants away, you may want to search further and find where exactly they’re coming from. Purchasing pesticides that ants don’t read as poison can help ensure the solution makes its way back to the colony. This solution might take a bit longer than spraying down a surface, but it has been proven to remove ant problems permanently.
Getting Rid of Ants
Ants are pesky insects that can find many ways to enter your home and infiltrate your kitchen. Getting rid of ants can be a difficult task but the steps above will make the process easier.
How to Get Rid of Ants:Home Remedies That Do the Trick
Let’s face it, ants in your house can be a big nuisance. It’s not only frustrating to have ants running around, but a colony of ants can actually cause a lot of damage as well. It is pretty unhygienic to have ants inside your home. Some ant varieties like Fire and Harvester can even bite humans. Carpenter ants, on the other hand, are known to damage building materials. Ants inside the house certainly contaminate the food. They carry bacteria which they can transfer to food or an open wound. Ants have a diverse family; they are around 12,000 different varieties of ants. We all hate how ants enter our houses, especially in summers. They live in our house like they own it; well there are some ways that may help to get rid of the ants; one of them is to keep your house absolutely clean. We suggest some amazing home remedies that you’d need right now to ensure there are no ants in your house. Here’s how to get rid of ants
Chalk
One of the home remedies to get rid of ants is to use chalk. Chalk contains calcium carbonate, which helps in keeping ants away. Spray some powdered chalk in the areas that are the entry points of ants or draw a line of chalk at the entrance. In order to keep ants of your house, draw chalk lines so that these bugs don’t enter. While it not clear as to why this line stops the ants from coming inside, but it is surely effective. Make sure you make the line in a way that is out of reach of any child in the house
Lemons
Squeeze a lemon or place lemon peels in places from where the ants enter. You can also wash your floors with water that has a little lemon juice added to it. Ants apparently don’t like the smell of lemon juice so they will keep away. Anything sour and bitter may keep the ants away, but any sugar is ants’ best friend. So ensure you do not keep anything sweet that may attract the ants in some way or the other. Keep your kitchen slab absolutely clean and place the peels right there.
Pepper
Ants are pretty fond of sugar but they hate pepper. Sprinkle pepper at the areas from where ants enter your house. This is will help getting rid of ants. Cayenne pepper or black pepper are hated by ants. You can also make a solution of pepper and water and spray it near the entrant areas. The pepper wouldn’t kill the ants but definitely deter them from returning to your house. Make sure you clean the area where you want to spray the pepper solution.
Salt
Spreading salt near nooks and corners from where ants enter the house will help keeping ants away. Table salt is one of the best and the cheapest ways to get rid of ants naturally. Use ordinary table salt not health boosting rock salt. All you need to do is to boil water and add a large amount of salt to it, stirring it until dissolves. Pour into a spray bottle and spray where you think ants tend to enter from