Ants in the house, unfortunately, do not mean good luck and prosperity, and their presence will not increase your money either. The presence of these hardworking and organized insects in the house only means that they need to be gotten rid of quickly.
They can get into the house very simply: even if, for example, you bring in soil from a garden plot, say, for seedlings, there may be ant eggs on it, from which fully capable insects will then hatch. Therefore, with such a disaster, a natural question arises - how to get rid of ants in the house?
Insects multiply very quickly in favorable conditions, so if you don’t take action in time, before you know it, you’ll be seeing these comrades everywhere in the house. They will lay their own paths along it and move along them, carrying out their ant daily tasks. And in a warm house, the conditions are very favorable for them: there is somewhere to hide and something to eat.
Why are ants dangerous in an apartment?
Ants can bring with them fungus, mold, harmful microorganisms, viral infections, and some types of helminths. In addition, they destroy household items and lay claim to human-grown food and crops.
It is recommended to destroy ant colonies that appear on the farm when they are detected. Postponing this issue for a long time can lead to disastrous consequences - it will be more and more difficult to get rid of them.
Folk remedies and various chemicals, of which there are plenty on the market, will come to the rescue here. It is recommended to give preference to familiar and proven means. If you do not deal with the problem in time, you will have to resort to the help of a professional exterminator.
Where do ants come from?
There are only two ways for ants to enter a human home. They can be brought by guests or animals, or they can get into the house themselves from basements, porches and trash cans.
Undoubtedly, the place where a person lives is very attractive to pests. It's warm here, you can always find food and water. During the cold season, there may be more ants, and this is easily explained.
It is better to look for nests in dark and damp places, which can be found in sufficient quantities in the kitchen and bathroom. Typically, they are located under the floor covering.
Ants may appear in the house for the following reasons:
- If the owners regularly leave leftover food on the table
- The trash can is rarely taken out
- Increased humidity in rooms
- Cracks in the floor and walls
- Easy access through ventilation windows.
Lifestyle of an ant in the house
The kitchen becomes their main habitat in the house. In particularly advanced cases, ants even crawl into vases with cookies, into pots and pans with food - everything has to be covered and put away. They crawl out of their hiding places en masse at nightfall. During the day there are not so many of them in the light, and you may even think that the problem is not that big. But try to turn on the light in the kitchen at night - you will see a lot of small swarming house ants, moving quickly in search of food - not the most pleasant sight.
In the fight against house ants, the most important and difficult thing is to find out where they built the anthill; it should be destroyed or access from it to the house should be blocked. Boric acid is ideal for destroying a discovered nest.
The favorite places for insects to build anthills are hard-to-reach places, such as behind kitchen appliances - large dishwashers, gas stoves, and so on. In these cases, it will be difficult to get to the lair of domestic ants, since this technique is usually built-in.
Folk remedies for ants
Products without the use of complex chemical compounds are preferable. They are safe for children and animals, and are also simple and cheap. They do not always help the first time: you will have to work a little for their use to give the expected effect.
Barrier protection
This method is preventative. It is used in cases where it is necessary to protect the home from the initial or reappearance of insects.
A protective barrier can be:
- Spices (turmeric, cinnamon, pepper)
- Essential oil of citrus plants
- Vaseline oil
- Products containing talc
- Detergents, such as laundry detergent
The width of the barrier should be very small - up to 6-7 mm. It must also be continuous.
Repelling with unpleasant odors
The odors used to repel are unpleasant, of course, only for ants. They cannot stand the strong aromas that come from vinegar, cloves, unrefined vegetable oil, citrus fruits, wormwood, elderberry, garlic, chamomile, mint, and parsley.
Ants' travel routes are quite predictable; they follow the same "ant paths" from the food source to the nest and back. Having lost the scent of their path, the ants will not be able to correctly navigate in space, so they will have to look for new paths - perhaps already on the street.
Lures and traps
Sometimes it is difficult to establish the movement paths of ants or it can be inconvenient to handle them. Then the means that have been known since ancient times and give a very good effect - baits and traps - will come to the rescue.
Lures with boric acid are known to give excellent results. Boric acid destroys the body structures of ants, leading to respiratory arrest. There are several ways to create such traps:
- Boric acid combines with granulated sugar and is distributed in areas where ants feed
- The acid is mixed with boiled egg yolk or raw minced meat
- Sweet baits made from a mixture of boric acid and jam, honey, sugar syrup.
You can also build simple traps from a container with a sweet solution, where the ants will fall, or double-sided tape with a drop of bait, the ants will simply stick to such a trap.
However, it is worth keeping in mind that such traps only destroy worker ants. This method does not harm the colony itself; to do this, you need to destroy the nest itself or force them to leave.
Chemical means to combat ants
Of course, insecticides deal with insects quickly and effectively. In this case, the number of insects destroyed does not matter. When folk remedies do not show sufficient effectiveness, chemical ones provide a pronounced and lasting effect.
However, keep the following points in mind when choosing a chemical:
- The product must be harmless to people and animals
- Chemical form that is more suitable for the conditions (powders, gels, aerosols, etc.)
- How effective is the insecticide?
- Price
Ant control chemicals are available in the form of gels, aerosols, powders, crayons and pencils.
It should be remembered that the use of even the most non-toxic chemicals requires the use of special protective equipment and compliance with safety rules:
- Before use, be sure to read the instructions
- Hands must be protected with gloves, respiratory organs and eyes - with special masks, respirators, goggles
- The chemical should not come into contact with the skin.
- If skin contact does occur, rinse with clean water.
- After applying insecticide, you need to wash your hands with soap and water.
- All chemicals must be stored in places where children and animals cannot reach them.
- It is better to ventilate the room after treatment.
Preventive measures
To avoid the question of how to get ants out of an apartment on your own, they do simple everyday prevention at home.
- Products in the kitchen are put in the refrigerator or covered with lids (especially fruits and sweets). Containers with sugar, jars with honey and jam are tightly sealed.
- After preparing food and finishing eating it, wash dishes, wipe work surfaces, and sweep up crumbs on the floor. The kitchen is wet cleaned daily. Food waste is removed regularly, otherwise it will attract an army of ants.
- Carefully seal the cracks (especially under windows, behind baseboards). Insulate the gaps between openings in the walls and pipes passing through them.
Ants cannot tolerate strong odors. To repel insects that come into the apartment for food, cloves of garlic, bags of mint, cinnamon, elderberry, cloves, and medicinal chamomile are placed on shelves and in cabinets. Ant paths and baseboards are rubbed with garlic, smeared with sunflower oil, lemon or camphor.
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Repelling ants with ultrasound
Not long ago, devices appeared on the market that use ultrasonic waves to repel pests. However, consumers are not very familiar with them, so this method of control is not yet widespread enough.
- The repeller is a small device that runs on mains or batteries. It produces ultrasonic waves that are indistinguishable to the human ear, but which insects can hear very well. The waves literally destroy their nervous system.
- Repellers should not be turned on in rooms where there are sleeping people. They can also affect pets, so you need to carefully monitor their behavior.
Gels, pastes, emulsions
Gel preparations have a cumulative effect and show their effect after 2-3 weeks. Attracted by the pleasant taste and smell, the pests will begin to carry the substance into the nest as a tasty meal. Gradually, the entire colony of ants, including the queen, will be poisoned. The peculiarity of gels is that they need to be applied dotted, in small drops along the entire perimeter of the home.
- Dohlox is a biological remedy for ants in the house. Placed in a syringe with a tip for easy distribution. The thick consistency allows you to “mark” not only the floor, but the walls - the gel will adhere perfectly to the surface. Unlike other products of a similar type, Dohlox has a long period of active action - 2 months.
- Rubit is a gel in a tube with a dispenser tip. Available in almost any hardware store or on the shelves of chain supermarkets.
- Storm gel paste is a contact drug that ants carry on their paws to the nest, which gradually leads to the death of the entire population.
The advantages of gel-like products are that they allow you to destroy a nest when it cannot be visually detected and other methods are powerless.
Among other means that, due to their effectiveness, can be used as basic ones, it is worth noting:
- Deta is a substance (emulsion) with a sharp, sweetish aroma. An excellent method of pest prevention.
- Anteater is a diazonin-based paste that depresses the insect's nervous system.
