Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 3: Stop the ants from entering your home
• Part 2 of 3: Kill the ants
• Part 3 of 3: Preventing Ant Invasion
• Tips
• Warnings

Small ants in your home or garden can be a nuisance. If you are bothered by ants, there are a few simple ways you can drive them away from your home or wipe them out entirely.

Steps

Part 1 of 3: Stop the ants from entering your home

1. 1 Find the loopholes through which the ants can enter the house. Ants enter the house mainly for two purposes: to find food to carry it to the nest, and to shelter from the cold. Ants can enter your home through different places, so be sure to check for holes or cracks in windows, doorways, lighting fixtures, and other possible entrances. If you find ant tracks in your home, watch where they lead.
   • If you find obvious loopholes through which ants enter your home, pay special attention to them and treat them with repellents. This will reduce the likelihood that ants will enter your house through these passages again.
2. 2 Close possible loopholes. After you find the passages through which the ants enter the house, close and block them. Consider sealing cracks and holes with silicone sealant. You can even put some kind of repellent (borax, cinnamon, coffee grounds, bay leaf) in the gap and then seal it with a sealant.
   • Latex and siliconized acrylic sealants are ineffective against ants as insects can punch holes in them.
3. 3 Create a barrier. Consider creating a protective ant barrier around your home or garden. You can scatter coffee grounds around the foundations of your home, around the perimeter of your garden, and where you've seen the ants themselves or their tracks.
   • Consider planting mint or chili peppers around your home or garden. These plants are known to repel ants.
   • You can also sprinkle food grade diatomaceous earth around your home or garden. Spread the powder around the perimeter of your home or garden, as well as around any anthills and ant nests you find.
   • Kieselguhr destroys the exoskeleton of ants and dehydrates them. It is not toxic to humans, however try not to inhale the powder.
   • Commercial insecticides can be used outside the home, but keep in mind that they tend to be dangerous to people and pets, and sometimes to the environment.
4. 4 Remove ant tracks. Ants leave scent marks for their fellows, so if you find ant marks in your home, wipe them off with soap and water to remove the smell. Just dilute some dish soap in water and wipe off the marks and the surrounding surface. In this way, you will destroy the odorous trail along which new ants can get into your house.
   • Odor traces left by ants can also be destroyed with vinegar. Simply sprinkle white vinegar on the areas where you have seen ants and wipe off the surface.
5. 5 Use herbs and spices to scare off ants. Cloves are a very effective repellent and can be scattered around the house to scare away annoying ants. Place whole carnation buds where you have seen ants (on tables, near baseboards, etc.). In addition to cloves, there are several other herbs and spices that can be spread around the house or planted in the garden to scare off ants, for example:
   • Cayenne pepper;
   • Bay leaf;
   • peppermint;
   • cinnamon;
   • garlic.
   SPECIALIST'S ADVICE

   

   Kevin Carrillo

   
   
   Pest Control Specialist, MMPC Kevin Carrillo is a Pest Control Specialist and Senior Project Manager at MMPC Pest Control, a certified minority-owned facility in New York City. MMPC is certified to comply with industry guidelines and practices, including the National Pest Control Association (NPMA), QualityPro, GreenPro, and the New York Pest Control Association (NYPMA). MMPC's activities were featured on CNN, NPR and ABC News.

   Kevin Carrillo
   Pest Control Specialist, MMPC

   The substances contained in pepper can scare off ants, but it is better to process them directly on the anthill. If you can find a remedy based on the piperonyl found in peppers, you can use them as they irritate the exoskeleton of the ants. However, ants constantly communicate with each other, and if one or two of them come into contact with an irritating substance, they will mark this area with pheromones. Other ants will bypass the area. Therefore, it is generally best to remove food and water sources and sprinkle granulated poison bait on the nest.

   
   
6. 6 Use other natural remedies to scare off ants. Along with herbs and spices, there are certain foods and ingredients that ants try to stay away from. Try applying these ingredients around house entrances and other places you've seen ants, as well as in your garden. You can use the following natural ant killers:
   • coffee grounds;
   • corn flour;
   • lemon juice;
   • fine-grained wheat flour.

Part 2 of 3: Kill the ants

1. 1 Poison the ants with brown. Borax is a cleaning agent and is poisonous to ants but non-toxic to humans. To kill the ants right in their den, prepare a brown bait - the insects will take it to their nest. Mix one part corn syrup (or something equally sweet and gooey) with one part borax and apply the solution to a piece of cardboard. Place the cardboard where you have seen ants often. The ants will carry this sweet poisonous mixture to their nest, and gradually the entire colony will be poisoned and die.
   • It is best to leave the bait overnight, as ants prefer to search for food under cover of darkness.
   • You can also make a poisonous mixture of borax and granulated sugar. To do this, mix one part borax with three parts granulated sugar. Place the mixture in small containers (bottle caps, spoons, etc.) and place them near where ants can enter your home.
   • If you have children or pets in the home who might be interested in borax powder, you can mix ½ cup (100 grams) of sugar and 3 tablespoons (36 grams) of borax in one glass (240 milliliters) of warm water. Soak cotton balls in the solution, place them in shallow dishes and place them near the places through which the ants enter the house.
2. 2 Use commercial bait. Commercially available traps can kill ants in the same way as borax bait, but usually work a little faster (although not immediately), in which case you can consider what food ants invading your home prefer. For example, there are traps with sweet, fatty or protein baits that are designed for different types of ants.
   • If you are unsure which bait to use, purchase several varieties.
   • If the bait does not seem to attract ants, you can use a different bait or move it to a location where they appear more often.
   • If you are using poison bait, make sure there are no other food sources nearby. Otherwise, the effectiveness of the bait will decrease.
   • After the ants start eating the bait, try not to interfere with them and move it closer to the nest. You will soon notice that the number of ants has decreased.
3. 3 Pour boiling water over the anthill. If you can find their nest or anthill by following the tracks left by the ants, you can pour salted boiling water into its inlet. You may need to use a lot of water, but this way you will surely eliminate a large number of ants invading your home.

Part 3 of 3: Preventing Ant Invasion

1. 1 Keep your kitchen sink clean. Ants love to eat small pieces of food, so don't leave dirty dishes or other utensils in the sink for too long. After washing the dishes, dry the sink with a paper towel to remove any food debris.
   • Try pouring some bleach or vinegar into the sink to remove food debris that might attract ants.
2. 2 Wipe down surfaces with bleach. Like vinegar, bleach removes pheromones left behind by ants, which can help fight insect infestations. Use bleach to clean tables, refrigerator surfaces, cabinets, and other surfaces to get rid of ants.
3. 3 Keep your kitchen floor clean. Small food particles often remain on the kitchen floor and attract ants. Sweep and mop your kitchen floor regularly with lukewarm water and bleach (you can even do this every night) to keep ants from scouring for food. Ants can be attracted by the smallest pieces or drops of food, after which they will lead their fellows.
4. 4 Vacuum the areas where you eat. Not only do you sweep and mop the floor, but also vacuum where you eat. These can be living rooms, dining rooms or basements. Don't leave behind small pieces of food that could attract ants to your home.
5. 5 Take out the trash regularly. Any leftover food or sugary juice in the bin will immediately attract ants to your home. Take out the trash daily and use sturdy bags to reduce the chances of them breaking or leaking.
6. 6 Store food in tightly sealed containers. Ants will search for food all over the house, so it is very important to store food so that they cannot get to them. Consider keeping sticky foods such as honey, molasses, and syrups in the refrigerator.
   • Consider storing confectionery ingredients (sugar, flour, etc.) and cereals in tight-fitting containers or bags.
7. 7 Get rid of rotting wood. Check your home for wood, shingles, or framing that have begun to rot. Ants love to nest in decaying wood, and they also easily penetrate through it into the house. If you find decaying wood, try replacing it to reduce the risk of ants invading your home.

Tips

• Wipe down kitchen surfaces with bleach or white vinegar to help prevent ants from intruding.
• Many ants are nocturnal, so it's best to lay out the bait at night.

Warnings

• As with everything else, be careful with pesticides and / or other chemicals if there are children or pets in the house.