Ant infestations can sometimes appear, which can be very disturbing. You might be sleeping in your home thinking it’s ant-fee. Then you may see ants in your kitchen corner, and if you have pets, they can feast on your dog or cat food. People might try for weeks and months to get rid of ants, but it can be useless. You might be wondering what can be the best way to get rid of ants, don’t worry, we will show you all the procedures.
The good news is you can remove ants from your home without using harsh chemicals or investing loads of money.
According to David Price, technical director for Mosquito Joe, a statewide pest management company, it starts with repelling them. Prioritizing two things—good cleaning and regular home maintenance—can help you get rid of ants well before “ant season” (spring and summer for most people) even begins.
A Clean Home Is Beneficial Keeping Ants at Bay
Ants come in a combination of shapes and sizes. On the other hand, the odorous house ant is most likely to invade your home in large numbers (their official name is Tapinoma sessile, but they also go by sugar ant, stink ant, and coconut ant). Their objective? To find food and leave a pheromone trail so that other members of their colony can see it. They’ll look somewhere else if your house’s cabinets are empty.
Ants aren’t looking for Pop Tarts® and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos® in your cupboard; they’re looking for leftovers from yesterday night’s meal, such as crumbs, spills, or anything else you failed to cover and put away. According to Price, a rigorous kitchen clean-up regimen can go a long way toward keeping ants out of your space.
This entails sweeping, vacuuming, and mopping the floors, wiping off counters, and ensuring that nothing vaguely enticing to these pests is within reach.
In this vein, Price advises that if you are used to leaving your pet’s food bowls out at all times, actually when it isn’t lunchtime, you should reconsider. Ants adore cat and dog food, and they will find even the tiniest kibble left in the dish (or on the floor).
“Only put out pet food during feeding time… “Keep the food in a sealed container,” Price advises.
Ants are deterred from entering your home by maintaining its exterior.
Maintaining the exterior is equally as vital as keeping the interior clean to keep ants away. According to Price, wetness attracts ants, and deterioration propagates moisture (crumbs and moisture together are a veritable heyday for ants).
Cleaning gutters and repairing any broken ones are a few moisture-deterrent preventative duties to keep up with.
- Maintaining the roof’s condition (check for leaks, missing tiles, or damaged flashing, for example)
- Checking that gas and HVAC lines are properly sealed, as well as cracks or fissures in siding, foundation, doors, and windows Maintaining
In the Kitchen, How to Get Rid of Ants
The term “sugar ant” refers to ants that invade homes searching for carbohydrate-rich items such as sugar. The bugs are petite and black or brown. They are not ashamed to enter your home and rummage through your trash for leftovers. You’ll often witness only one or two ants at first before being swamped by these tiny robbers. There are consistent methods to get rid of ants in your kitchen if it is also late if the ants have already come) or if all of your cleaning and rebuilding efforts have failed.
Keeping the kitchen clean, sealing off ant entrance points, and storing food away are the best strategies to keep ants out of the kitchen.
Effectual Ant Repellents
You can still send the ants packing if it’s too late (i.e., the ants have already come) or if all of your cleaning and repair efforts fail. Here are the most effective techniques to get rid of ants once they’ve entered your home.
Use natural remedies
Getting rid of ants with stuff you probably already have around the house is sometimes possible. Price recommends mixing vinegar and water 50/50. (you can use a rag and or a spray bottle). They will be killed and (hopefully) repelled by the solution.
Investigate Ant Bait
Retailers sell a variety of ant traps and bait, but Price only recommends the Terro liquid ant bait for odorous house ants. Terro comprises a sweet Borax syrup (a chemical compound that contains sodium, boron, and oxygen). The syrup tastes good to ants, but their digestive systems can’t take it.
As a result, When the ants discover the syrup, they’ll think they’ve struck gold. They’ll then bring it back to their colony to share, resulting in the deaths of at least part of the colony’s inhabitants (if you’re lucky, it’ll kill everyone).
According to Price, the key to making the Terro bait work is to position it outside your home near the ants’ entry site (it might take some searching to locate it, though usually in a location where soil meets the basis). Inside placement is seldom successful. Because ants can occasionally find multiple ways inside, you may need to deploy them in various locations.
Terro, fortunately, is affordable (a 12-trap bundle costs under $13) and requires no specific crafts to use (save away from kids and pets, of course).
Think of a Next-Level Deterrent
If the ants keep returning despite using Terro bait and a vinegar/water solution, it’s time to upgrade your deterrent. To put it another way, professional eradication. According to Price, professionals often use an insecticide called fipronil to get rid of ants in your home.
Fipronil is the active ingredient in several fleas, tick, and lice prevention medications for pets.) Because it has no odor or flavor, the ants are unaware that they are devouring it. Regardless, they bring it back to their colony, causing a gradual death (this can take a month, if not more).
Even if you don’t see any ants, Price recommends repeating this process every three months (since the entire point is to keep them away). The cost varies depending on the severity of your ant infestation, the size of your home, and where you reside, but Price estimates that getting rid of ants will cost between $400 and $600 each year (between $100 and $150 every treatment).
According to Price, the procedure is also speedy, who estimates that the technician will be in and out in 20 to 30 minutes.
How do I Get Rid of Ants In the Garden
Ants in the garden are common and often not a cause for concern. Like other garden insects, Ants will usually leave your plants alone, and it’s better to leave them alone if that’s the case. There are different methods to get rid of ants in the garden if they are causing problems or if the infestation has gotten out of hand. Remember that some ants are helpful to your garden because they can feast on other insects and even aid in pollination. In the end, don’t merely kill ants to kill them.
If you do need to get rid of ants in your yard, the best options are to pour boiling water into any ant nests you can find, spray the nests with a mixture of water, dish soap, and oil, or mix boric acid and sugar and place it near where you frequently see the ants. The ants will consume this mixture and transport it back to the colony, where the boric acid will finally kill them.
Are Essential Oils Effective in Ant Control?
If you want to avoid chemicals and follow the natural path to get rid of ants, keep in mind that once you’ve tried vinegar and water, you’re out of luck—essential oils and other natural cures will not help.
“Some of the oils have repelling capabilities, but that pushes them away from that one place,” Price explains. “They’ll show up again, and their (effectiveness) doesn’t last long.”
