Content

• Steps

If you've ever encountered ants crawling around the kitchen, you know that they can quickly change from being just an occasional annoyance to a constant destructive one. Although they are small in size, these creatures cause a lot of trouble when you are preparing meals, not to mention making the kitchen area unsanitary. Although getting rid of ants in the kitchen can be daunting, household ants that combine with ants are powerful enough to keep them out of your home.

Steps

Part 1 of 4: Observing ant colonies

1. 

   Recognize the ants. Identifying the type of ants that are raging in your kitchen is an extremely important first step in solving the problem they cause. The reason is because each species of ant has different habits and behaviors, so it will correspond to each different necessary measures.
   • Observe the ants in your kitchen and note their characteristics. Some features to look out for are size and color. Kitchen ants are usually reddish yellow ants or sugar ants, but they may be of a different species.
   • After you know the characteristics of identifying ants, you can go online to research to accurately identify ants in the kitchen, and some of the most effective methods recommended in eliminating this ant.

2. 

   
   
   Find an ant invasion site. Follow the colony of ants inside your home for a few minutes, and try to find where they have entered your home. Look inside the house around windows, doors, and cracks in the floor, and also look outside around doors, windows, plywood, and keyed lights.
   • If you see ants coming in and out of these places, focus on cleaning in those locations to make sure they won't enter your home through these locations.

3. 

   
   
   Find the ant's nest. After recognizing ant routes and entrances, watch for ants as you crawl out of the house. You will see them follow the same path. This is because when crawling into the house, ants leave scent traces behind for others to follow.
   • It's not always easy to find the nest, but if you can locate the ants, spray the ants on the nest, or get rid of the local colony by placing the bait in your house so they can bring the bait back to the nest. Destroy all ant colonies.
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Part 2 of 4: Preventing ant colonies

1. 

   
   
   Erase the ant's trail. Even if you spot only one ant in your house, you'll see more of them appear. This is because ants leave traces behind every place they pass so that others can smell and follow. If you're just cleaning the floor, this is not enough to remove any ant trail. These are pheromone traces that are not easy to erase; You need to wipe it off with a sterile detergent. Make a solution of ½ vinegar and ½ water in a spray bottle and spray on the entire kitchen surface. You need to focus on the places where ants appeared before.
   • Remember that this solution will not kill ants that have entered your home. This is simply to erase the traces the ants make so that the other outside cannot follow the pheromone trace on the inside.
   • You can also replace vinegar with bleach to make the spray solution. The most important ingredient of that solution is an antiseptic that removes ant traces.

2. 

   Repel ants with soapy water. Fill a plastic spray bottle full of hand soap and water. Shake the flask to mix the soap and water well. Then spray the solution on ants every time you see them in the kitchen. Wait about 5 minutes and then wipe it off, you can easily remove the ants on the stove after they stop moving.
   • Alternatively, you can use the bar soap as a soap additive: scrape a few grams of the cake soap and add a liter of water. Then microwave the water and soap to melt the soap, then pour it into a spray bottle.
   • This remedy is safe for children and pets because it contains no pesticides, and can be used in gardens to kill pests in plants.

3. 

   Repel ants with lemon. Mix 1 cup lemon juice and 4 cups warm water in a large jar. Then immerse the cloth in the solution, and wipe off the countertops, inside cabinets and cupboards, above the refrigerator, around kitchen windows, and any other surfaces that ants might crawl around in the kitchen.
   • The scent of citrus can repel ants. Orange and cucumber peels also have a similar repellent effect.
   • You can mop the floor with this solution, but it's a good idea to thoroughly clean any areas on the floor where ants are likely to enter your home.

4. 

   Repel ants with spices and herbs. Sprinkle a little cinnamon powder around where ants might enter (windows, doors, etc.), also around the edge of the kitchen, and generally where you can see them. The scent of cinnamon has the ability to repel ants, but also brings a rich aroma to your kitchen. You can also sprinkle other spices and herbs to repel ants:
   • Black pepper
   • Paprika
   • Red chili
   • Clove
   • Garlic
   • Laurel leaves
   • Mint leaf
   • Basil leaves

5. 

   Repel ants with dry diatom soil. Observe the area around the kitchen with the highest concentration of ants. IF you often see ants in small places like the kitchen edge, small crevices in walls, floors and baseboards, or along windows, spread diatom soil over these areas.
   • After spreading the diatoms, note if the ant has stopped crawling into your home or looking for another way. If necessary, add more diatom soil to their new path. After about a month, clean up the area where the diatom was sprayed, and add more soil if the ants have not disappeared.

6. 

   
   
   Repel ants with moist diatom soil. Notice if the ant colony is moving to a flat and wider area, instead of crawling along edge lines and crevices in the kitchen. If they crawl up the wall, use moist diatom soil. Follow the directions on the spray bottle, and use the spray on larger areas such as walls where you see ants crawling.
   • Again, try to monitor and see if the ants have stopped invading the house completely, or are looking for another way in. If after a month of using the moist diatom soil and still see ants, spread another layer of the soil.
   • Diatom soils are ineffective in moist conditions; Soil comes into play when the water in the solution dries up and evaporates, leaving a layer of soil to prevent ant colonies.

7. 

   
   
   Repel ants with other natural ingredients. Coffee grounds, cornstarch, rice, cucumber peels, chalk, and baby powder are all known to repel ants. Try spreading these ingredients over ant colonies, and see what works for your home as well as for ant colonies. Repelling ants this way (using random spices and foods) is a very experimental process. Maybe what works for a home with one type of ants, but it won't work for another.
   • Many of the scents and ingredients of these ingredients are irritating to ants. Because of this, ants often stay away from areas with these ingredients.

8. 

   
   
   Seal the entrance of ants. Seal the crevices and crevices ants use to get into the house with glue. These gaps often appear much near windows or doors. By sealing these places with glue, you can both block the ant's entrance while regulating the house's temperature better.
   • To fill the hole and crevice, you need to put the tip of the jar in the hole or crevice and start pouring the glue into it. When the glue spills over the hole or crevice, this means the mouth is sealed and no gaps left.
   • This is a non-toxic and non-toxic method of repelling ants, safe for pets and children.
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Part 3 of 4: Killing ants

1. 

   Find the most effective bait. Fire ants (the ants you see in the kitchen) are the ants that bring food back to the nest. Be prepared to put baits in places in the house that you will see a lot of. Take a small plate and add a sugary food (such as honey, syrup, jam, etc.), and some dry food (such as chips or fried chicken). See which flavors of food attract more ants. You don't have to leave the food out for long to determine what ants love.
   • Ant's taste preferences can change depending on the time of year, so that's why you should take the pre-bait step to get the correct taste of ants, and buy bait. poisonous ants target their particular interest.
   • This baffling preparation step is not necessary for all problems with ants in the kitchen, but helps to narrow down the range and type of bait you should use. If you are not sure, you can purchase bait that provides food for the ants both sweet and salty foods.
   • Poison baits come in both dry and liquid forms, but when the ant prefers sweet foods, liquid baits usually work best.

2. 

   
   
   Be patient in the time it takes to attract and kill ants. Immediately after placing the bait according to ants' preference you will see an increase in the number of ants in the house. The reason is because she is drawing them closer. This is what you want because the more ants focus on the bait, the more they will bring back to their nest to eliminate the entire colony.
   • Bear in mind that baiting extermination usually takes a while. This is because you not only kill ants that crawl around your house, but also kill many '' generations '' of ants, including adult ants, pupae (ants that are in their cocoons), larvae, and eggs. This can take a few days to a few weeks.
   • When using this bait, remove all other foods. Don't use baits while letting other food sources attract ants. You should make the ant colonies only focus on the poisonous baits, and also keep the ants or bait out of the colony after the ants have started eating the bait.
   • If the bait still occurs after two weeks, replace the bait you are using. Obviously this was not working or working as expected.

3. 

   
   
   Make ants at home. Mix 1 tablespoon of organic boric acid, 1 tablespoon of maple syrup (or a sticky sweetener like honey, jam, etc.). Spread the boric acid and sweetener mixture on the bread or crackers. Then punch a small cardboard box, and place the food with the bait in the center of the box. Just like store ant baits, the scent of the food lures the ants closer to the bait, and boric acid will wipe out the rest of the colony when the ants bring the "food" back to the nest.
   • Set the trap out at night, as this is the time when the ants are looking for food.
   • Eliminate the ant nests in place. If you find the nest, you can eliminate it by killing all the ants in the nest. Spray the insecticide containing the main ingredient bifenthrin into the nest and surrounding area.

4. 

   
   
   Call a specialist if the ant problem persists. You may need to call an ant exterminator and ask them to evaluate if your ant technique is not working.
   • A professional ant exterminator can identify entry, and find other ant nests, and will therefore provide useful ideas and effective methods of killing ants.
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Part 4 of 4: Preventing ants from coming back

1. 

   
   
   Clean the kitchen sink and let it dry. Rinse all dishes that you want to keep in the tub overnight. Make sure you don't let the leftovers attract ants at night.
   • Consider pouring a little bleach into the drain hose to remove leftover food odors.

2. 

   Clean the kitchen floor regularly. Ants only need a small piece of food to start calling the swarm, so it's a good idea to remove any food that has been spilled on the floor and stuck in household items. Clean the floor to remove the food source for the ants. Clean the floor with a ½ bleach ½ water solution.
   • As mentioned above, the cleaning solution can consist of ½ vinegar and ½ water. The most important ingredient is disinfectant bleach to clear away the ant trail.
   • You can spray a mixture of vinegar and water around your pet's food bowl to avoid attracting ants.

3. 

   
   
   Clean vacuuming in spaces that come in contact with food. Just like sweeping and mopping, vacuuming helps remove food debris that could potentially attract ants into your home.
   • This is especially important for carpeted floors, as food scraps on the carpet are often difficult to spot.

4. 

   
   
   Take out the trash regularly. Using sturdy trash bags and emptying them regularly can reduce the chances of ants looking for food near and in the trash.
   • Often a hole in the garbage bag will cause water to drain and, therefore, can attract ants.
   • Consider spreading baking soda on the bottom of your trash can to clean your bin and keep ants from scenting the food.
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