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No matter how hard we try, sometimes we can't avoid pesky ants making their way into our homes. They tend to be drawn to rooms like the kitchen, where it's easy for them to find food sources to bring back to the rest of their colony. If you've recently been swarmed by ants, you might have heard that cinnamon is a good deterrent, possibly even killing them. We spoke with pest control experts about whether cinnamon can kill ants, how it works to deter them, and other ways you can rid your home of ants naturally. Cinnamon, and generally anything with a really strong scent, like vinegar or certain essential oils, deters ants by intercepting their pheromone trails, which they use to find food. "The primary ingredient in cinnamon that might agitate ants is cinnamaldehyde," says Ismael Girard, CEO of Pest Agent.
What smell do ants hate?
Are ants looking for water in your home? Louisiana experts can help you get rid of the problem - BRProud.com
Are ants looking for water in your home? Louisiana experts can help you get rid of the problem.
Posted: Tue, 22 Aug 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
This is especially important if you have cats or dogs, as fending off ants around pet food is a significant pest control issue that you can efficiently manage. Seal all entry points, though depending on the type of ant you have, you might not want to do this until you’ve made sure you’ve killed them all. Some types of ants, like carpenter ants, have to be killed at the source, so sealing up an entry point before you’ve dealt with the ant colony might do more harm than good. 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.
How Ants Know Where To Find Food
According to Nalyanya, the most common ants that will enter your home include carpenter ants, odorous house ants, and pavement ants. You may also see big headed ants, and on the western side of the country, something called crazy ants. They may eliminate a few visible ants, but the queen ant (sheltered inside the wall) will quickly make more work ants to replace them. Also, pesticides are chemicals that also kill helpful insects, such as bees and predatory insects. Ants play an important role in nature, but most of us can agree that they don’t belong in people’s homes.
Use Citrus
These are toxic to certain types of fungi that ants love to feed on. By placing citrus peel or lemon juice around the home where ants are likely to visit, this will deter them from coming back. If you want to know more about the powers of citrus, check out 9 things you didn’t know you could clean with a lemon and be amazed. The natural acids in tangy citrus, such as lemon, orange, lime and grapefruit, work wonders at keeping ants at bay by masking their scent trails — at least temporarily.
Finding the Nest
Ants also hate salt, cinnamon, and pepper — especially cayenne pepper. If you notice an ant or two around but don’t think you have a colony yet, then quickly whip out any one of these ingredients. Place your homemade ant trap in any area you’ve noticed the pests gather — damp areas, cracks in the wall or floor, the kitchen counter, or any other place you spot them. If you have any pets or small kids, keep these traps out of their reach, as they may be sensitive to Borax. Despite their similar names, the oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE) is different from lemon eucalyptus essential oil. OLE comes from the gum eucalyptus tree, which is native to Australia.
Cucumber and citrus fruit peels contain chemical compounds similar to those used in some ant repellents. Placing cucumber, lemon or orange skins near areas of ant activity can quickly encourage the insects to move on. Like many people, ants find the smell of raw pepper to be irritating. A Texas A&M study found that a water and pepper solution was effective at killing ants.
Once they do make their way indoors, it's harder to entice them outside again humanely. Lured in by the prospect of food, ants will find any way they can into our homes. And in the summertime, with the windows and doors thrown wide open, they can be even more persistent. Sprinkle the mixture in areas where ants might enter your home — along doorways, windowsills, and any cracks in the wall. If all else fails, professional exterminators can remove ants from your home.
Once your place is clean, it's time to send a message telling the ants to stay out. Using any one of the below ingredients, sprinkle or spray a line you don't want the ants to cross. The smellier the ingredient, the better—ants naturally avoid strong smells. But the border will only work as long as the smell lasts, so it's important to reup the lines once a month or so.
Repel ants with essential oils
Once you notice ants, don't clean away the ant trails until you have eliminated the infestation so the ants find the bait and carry it back to the nest. Avoid the temptation to simply use ant-killing pesticides to spray visible ants marching along trails inside your home. Pesticide sprays can eliminate a few visible ants, but more will quickly replace them, and you'll never make real progress to eliminating the infestation.
Peppermint as well as lavender are known to repel them so you could use a diffuser to make your home less appealing or simply combine one with water and spritz it on high traffic surfaces. Once mixed, you can either transfer it to a spray bottle to spritz around or pour some of the mixture directly on ants to kill them. This is an excellent solution to have on hand in the kitchen to use as often as you need. Once the ants are dead, wipe away the bodies with a paper towel damp with warm water.
In fact, carpenter ants actively “farm” nearby aphids for this food. However, the threat that carpenter ants pose to the structure of your home can be significant. Since they hollow wood out to build their nests, if they get into the wall voids of your house and stay there undetected, they can cause catastrophic levels of damage. There are multiple carpenter ant species, and they vary by color and size. However, the most common carpenter ants in North America are relatively large, from 1/4 inch up to 5/8 inch in length.
And while one industrious ant is intriguing to watch, no one wants an invasion of harmless or destructive ants moving in. We spoke to a couple of ant experts to get some insight on eradicating ant infestations. Here's how to identify what type of ant you're dealing with and how to keep ants out of your house and garden.
Mix thoroughly and create a lure by pressing the mixture into a short open tube like a piece of a drinking straw. Leave this near ant trails and refresh the bait every couple of days. Ant killer sprays kill on contact, but only about 20 percent of an ant colony will venture outside.
Mix one part distilled white vinegar with one part water in a spray bottle. Spray each shelf, drawer, and countertop—making sure to get every corner and nook—and wipe it off with a cloth or paper towel. Just be sure vinegar is safe for the surface material before you start spraying; you shouldn't use vinegar on marble countertops, for instance. Diatomaceous Earth — Diatomaceous Earth, or DE, is a white powdery substance which is formed from the fossilised remains of aquatic organisms, known as diatoms. This natural powder is effective at killing a number of pests, including spiders and roaches — it works by depleting the exoskeleton, eventually dehydrating the host. The ant simply needs to come into contact with the substance for it to stick to the body and take effect.
To get rid of the trail, spray this mixture anywhere you spot ants. Don't forget any entry points, like window sills, backdoors, or baseboards. If used once a week or so, you should see a marked improvement. Observe the trail they walk and consider if there are food or water sources along their route. Whether it is a sticky drop of honey or a spoon under the sink, find what they're looking for and remove it.
Ant traps and poison are a tried and true method when it comes to eliminating pests, but James warns that pesticides are very bad for the environment. Additionally, ant poison can be dangerous for pets and young children, so be careful when applying these chemicals in your home. Mix Borax with equal parts water and sugar to make a syrup, and leave it in the corners where you've noticed ants. This method will work to kill the entire colony in roughly 24 to 48 hours, as the worker ants will bring the liquid back to the nest. The species commonly seen inside the home are pavement ants, odorous house ants, or pharaoh ants (also known as sugar ants). These species feed heavily on sugars and greases commonly found in kitchens.
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