Neither gardeners nor the owners of houses and apartments where ants have settled are happy about such “guests”. House ants not only make life difficult for their owners and spoil food, but they also carry a variety of infections that are especially dangerous for children. Particularly difficult is the fight against these insects. Nature carefully protected them from complete destruction by creating one or more females - queens, laying a large number of eggs, hidden deep inside the anthill and never coming out. To breed a colony you need to kill the queen, otherwise there is no other way. Fortunately, today there are many ways to get rid of ants at home, both professional and folk.
What doesn't work against ants
Mint leaves. Peppermint is often recommended as a natural ant repellent. According to the experience of many summer residents, ants do nothing with mint.
According to some reports, she is even happily taken to the anthill (to a mojito party). Mint leaves alone are not enough; you need a concentrate in the form of essential oil.
Fighting ants at home
Find out more Effective ant repellent
Ready-made products sold in stores will definitely help to destroy ants. Aerosols are effective when the location of the nest is determined and it is possible to direct the aerosol directly into it. This remedy can only kill those insects that have inhaled the poison. Gels (baits) act more widely. They will destroy not only the individual that ate it, but also the individuals with which it had contact after poisoning. The product does not act instantly, so on average you will have to wait about a month.
The best are considered to be:
- "Raptor"
- "Face"
- "Global"
- "Raid"
- "Combat"
In addition to chemistry, physical methods can also be used to combat ants. The most common of them is to dig up an anthill and pour boiling water over it. The main thing is to get to the egg laying and the location of the queen, approximately 0.8 m deep.
There is no point in using and buying expensive repellers. It doesn't matter whether it is ultrasonic or resonant, ants are not mosquitoes and do not use ultrasound to communicate. Its power must be very high to affect ants, but the downside will be the same negative effect on people.
Traps are effective if they use poisoned baits that work on the principle of gels. Devices with adhesive tape or using a current discharge can cope only with working individuals, the death of which will have little impact on the life of the entire colony.
Cinnamon
The house smells good, but the ants don't really mind. Cinnamon purchased in a regular store as a seasoning does not have the necessary concentration to repel ants.
If you sprinkle cinnamon somewhere to keep the ants out of their reach, they will bypass it, but will look around. And if you have it scattered around the closet, you will still find ants in it.
Are small ants dangerous in the kitchen?
Ants, unlike other insects, are absolutely harmless to human health. However, they are constantly in contact with food, so they can be carriers of various infections, and, of course, such food products should not be consumed. This is perhaps the only real threat that can come from these small insects. But still, ants in the kitchen, whatever one may say, cause great discomfort, because they penetrate even the most inaccessible places. If insects have settled in the kitchen, how to get rid of them worries many housewives.
Scotch tape for the kitchen
If you tape up an area like your kitchen counter, you'll trap a few unwanted guests. Considering the number of ants in the nest, this is a ridiculous number. And the ants will still find another way out.
Additionally, it is not practical to seal the edge of the tabletop with duct tape. It also catches crumbs or your sleeves. However, tape is used to protect fruit tree trunks from ants.
Pest lifestyle
Before you start exterminating ants in your apartment, you need to know their lifestyle and food preferences.
Red house ants are used to being in a group, never alone. Therefore, if you see an ant in an apartment, be sure that it is not alone. Each ant has its own purpose: females lay eggs, others get food, and the rest take care of the eggs and ant larvae. Small ants multiply very quickly; if no measures are taken to remove them, their number will increase by a thousand in just a few months.
The most difficult thing in how to get ants out of an apartment is finding an anthill. Usually it is located under the floor, in a wall or in another secluded place inaccessible to humans. The ants in the house are accustomed to eating different foods; they have no special taste preferences. Insects can make a nest even in clothes, which will cause a lot of problems and discomfort.
Flour
Ants love flour, and according to widespread legend, they do not explode after eating and drinking water. But it is true that meal ants disrupt pheromone metabolic pathways.
However, it attracts them, so it works exactly the opposite of what is sometimes claimed, and you won't get rid of ants by sprinkling flour on your pantry shelf.
Why are ants difficult to get rid of?
Since getting rid of house ants in an apartment is quite difficult, let’s look at why difficulties arise during this process:
- Ants are incredibly tenacious; some individuals have adapted to survive even after being treated with poison.
- Even if you managed to defeat several dozen ants, the problem is not solved, since they multiply quite quickly.
- If their anthill was discovered by a person, they immediately look for a new place of residence, within your apartment.
- The ants that we see in our home are only a few percent of the total number. These ants get food, the rest are very well camouflaged in hard-to-reach places.
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Coffee beans and coffee grounds
Ants don't like the smell of coffee, but they don't mind coffee. If you place coffee as an obstacle, the ants will avoid it at first, but then remove it (coffee beans) or cover it with sand if it is ground.
How to get rid of ants in the house
The elimination procedure consists of two stages: preventing ants from entering the house and exterminating those already inside. Let's start with the first one.
Prevention of new invasions
When you finally succeed in getting the ants out of your apartment and fighting them has become just an unpleasant memory, you should take some precautions by eliminating the causes of the insects so that you don’t have to fight them again.
- Do not leave insects’ favorite foods on the table: sugar, meat, fruits, sweet drinks.
- Thoroughly clean all household surfaces of food residues and do not leave dishes in the sink for a long time.
- To avoid wondering again where ants come from in your house, take out the trash can more often, because it is one of the main reasons for the appearance of insects.
- Try to find the path where the ants appear and cover it with double-sided tape. The adhesive strip will be an excellent barrier to goosebumps and will help fight them.
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Spray for ants
The first logical choice is ant spray. Yes, they are effective, but they are mostly toxic, so we only recommend using them outdoors.
- Ideal for application to window sills if there is an anthill on them.
- A quality ant spray will leave residue on the windowsill that will repel/kill newcomers.
Linseed oil
Vegetable oils are used as a natural defense against pests. In our latitudes they can be used as protection against ant invasion.
- Flaxseed oil can be used to protect wood from ants where chemical protection cannot be used.
- For example, in a hive. Some beekeepers use this method when ants infest the wood of the hive.
Other options are eucalyptus oil.
Essential oils
Although essential oils are pleasant to humans, they repel ants. Their intense scent disrupts the pheromones they use for orientation and communication.
Exotic essential oils such as cedarwood oil, patchouli, tea tree oil, clove oil, orange or peppermint essential oil are best for repelling ants.
- A simple recipe for making a natural ant spray: add 10 drops of tea tree oil, 15 drops of peppermint oil, 3 drops of orange oil, half a glass of water and half a glass of vodka into a bowl.
- Alcohol helps dissolve oils in water. After shaking thoroughly, pour into a spray bottle and you can spray window sills, cracks in the floor and anywhere you suspect ants are crawling towards your home.
Baby powder
Another non-toxic substance that affects ants is baby powder. Yes, it's incredible, a powder that looks so innocent because we use it on babies, repels ants and kills them.
If you sprinkle the powder directly on the ants, it clogs the pores on the surface of the body, and the ants suffocate.
To get a repellent effect, you just need to sprinkle it on window sills, thresholds or a wall.
Baking soda
Baking soda is a great natural way to get rid of ants without chemicals. Baking soda kills ants when they eat it. It is harmless to animals as long as they do not eat it in large quantities.
How does baking soda work? Ants instinctively avoid soda, but when you mix baking soda with powdered sugar, you confuse the ants.
- They cannot effectively distinguish between sugar and soda in a mixture.
- Then it is enough to sprinkle soil in front of the threshold, in the corner of the window sill and other entry points where ants can enter the house.
- You can wipe down your pantry shelves or kitchen cabinets.
- A mixture of baking soda and sugar can also be used to kill ants in the garden, just spray it on the anthill.
How to get ants out of your apartment using homemade pesticides
If fighting ants using simple means does not give the desired result, you can deal with them using more serious methods. However, do not forget that such baits can be harmful to human health if swallowed; keep them away from small children and pets.
Lures with brown
Boric acid or borax salt is the best remedy in the fight against ants, helping to get rid of them forever. It is not difficult to prepare it at home. Quite often this product is used as a cleaning product and is sold in household chemical departments.
- To prepare baits with borax, the most favorite pest products are taken - sugar or minced meat.
- To do this, the pesticide is mixed in equal parts with the main ingredient.
- To give the mixture a paste-like consistency, dilute it with water.
- Thickly spread the resulting mixture onto thin strips of paper or cardboard and place them near the places where ants appear most often. You can also place bait near food sources.
The smell of meat or sugar will attract workers, who will deliver the poison to the nest. It will be easier to fight ants if the females are destroyed.
Also, the fight against small insects can be carried out using purchased products; you don’t even have to do anything, just place bait around the apartment, scatter a special powder or spray poison from a can. After which, do not forget to wash your hands thoroughly.
Corn flour
Cornstarch is a great natural method for getting rid of ants in the kitchen without the use of chemicals. But it doesn't work the way you think.
In articles on the Internet you can often read that ants cannot digest starch, so it kills them. And sometimes ants even explode after being eaten. It sounds funny, but none of this is true.
- Cornstarch is a normal food for ants. But you can use it in two different ways.
- First, you can thoroughly sprinkle the anthill and the entrance to the anthill (for example, a crack in the ground), let the ants wrap the starch and spread it around the anthill, and the next day thoroughly sprinkle the starch, ideally with a sprayer.
- The starch literally turns into concrete, which immobilizes and kills the ants.
The second use of corn starch is to mix the starch with boric acid in a 9:1 ratio.
How to remove ants
You need to figure out how to get ants out of your apartment as soon as you notice the first insects. Don't delay: if they multiply, you'll be tired of finding colonies in different places in the kitchen and bathroom. Once discovered, do the following:
- Put all food in the refrigerator, even bread, cereals and pasta. If you have already found ants in the cereals, you will have to throw the food away. Vegetables can be taken out to the balcony. After thoroughly shaking some products, take them into the living room. But don't forget: anything you leave outside the refrigerator will attract insects.
- Do some general cleaning. Make sure there are no traces of food left anywhere.
- Spray all baseboards and nooks and crannies in the kitchen with a vinegar solution; ants cannot tolerate it. Instead of vinegar, you can use a solution of ammonia (100 ml per 1000 ml of water). But for the first 15 minutes you will have to inhale not the most pleasant aroma.
Having taken these measures, begin to decide how you can remove red ants. There are many means, choose the one that seems most reliable and effective to you personally.
You can repel insects with the juice of fresh lemon, wormwood, parsley, lavender, and mint. Not only the plants themselves work well, but also the essential oils with their aroma. They not only repel various pests, but also create a pleasant atmosphere in the room, interrupting other odors.
How to get rid of red ants with home remedies
There are many options for traditional methods of getting rid of insects in the house. Advice on how to get little red ants out of an apartment is passed on from housewife to housewife, from parents to children. But in fact, none of the home remedies are 100% effective. However, for the safety of children and pets, these are a good place to start. If the colony is small, they will often help.
To get rid of insects you can use:
- Boric acid. It is mixed with boiled chicken yolk, adding sugar syrup or honey to the mixture. Then the balls are laid out near the places where the ants live.
- Buru. It is prepared in the same way as boric acid.
- Soda. A mixture of baking soda, water and sugar in equal parts is used as a poison.
- A concentrated solution of sugar or honey with mixed boric acid or borax. Drops of the solution are applied to the surface where insects crawl.
- Bottles filled with sugar or syrup. Ants drown in them. The product is ineffective, but can protect you from infiltrators.
- Chalk. They can cross out the paths along which insects walk. You won’t be able to get rid of house ants quickly this way, but you can protect cabinets, vegetables, and other rooms.
- Hot peppers - fresh or dried pods repel insects.
- A mixture of yeast and sugar. It is laid out in piles in insect habitats.
- Coffee grounds (preferably mixed with sugar syrup). It repels ants and helps protect plants from their attacks.
- Corn flour, semolina. The ants perceive it as food, but it is harmful to them.
Most of these methods are good because they are safe for children and pets. But that is why they are not 100% effective. If it is important for you to get rid of house ants in your apartment forever, use poisons and the services of specialized companies.
How to remove house ants forever: modern chemistry
Experts say that the most reliable method of getting rid of ants is to call a team that treats the room with poisonous gas. Particles of the product settle on the floor surface, the back walls of cabinets, and penetrate into the smallest cracks. Many substances not only poison the current colony, but also protect the housing from new settlers for several years (usually about 2-3 years).
Modern poisons are practically safe for humans and domestic animals. They contain the same active ingredient as flea products. True, it is not recommended to eat it, so before processing you need to remove all food and dishes from the kitchen, and then wash each plate. Wet cleaning of the room is done 2-3 days after treatment.
Insecticides can be used. Products in the form of gels are effective. Unlike aerosols, they are not sprayed into the air, which means they do not settle on food and dishes.
If there are insects in the house, you need to get rid of them immediately. This is especially true for new buildings, where uninvited guests usually appear together with things and boxes, that is, they do not yet have a permanent nest, and therefore it is easier to get them out. Use our recommendations to remove house ants from your apartment and forget about them forever.
