Ants

Updated November 24, 2007

(I haven't tried all of these, but many of them do work.)

Repel Ants

• Clean your home with a solution of vinegar and water (especially in the kitchen).
• Sprinkle cayenne pepper, salt, bay, and mint around areas you want ants to avoid.
• Spray citrus extracts around areas you want ants to avoid.
• Plant mint and tansy around your yard and near doors and windows or other ant entry points.

Don't Let Them In

• Kill the scouts (usually ants all by themselves looking around for food) before they can go back to the nest to tell everyone about the food you have for them.
• If they scouts do get back to the next, spray their trails with soapy water and wipe up to wash away the chemical trail they follow, so other ants won't be able to follow the trail back to your house.
• Fill up any holes, cracks, or other openings, so they won't have a doorway to get in.
• Keep at least 6 to 12 inches between the exterior wall of your home and any bushes, trees, or other plant that can act as a ladder, helping the ants find new places above the ground to get into your home.

Don't Give Them a Reason to Stay

• Control aphids or get rid of plants that attract aphids (ants love honeydew, a secretion that aphids make).
• Keep your home clean, so they don't have any crumbs to eat.
• Seal your food in air tight containers and rinse off the outside of containers if any drips or spills occur (especially those little ones around the lid of the container that you don't think are a problem...they will be a problem).
• Don't leave any water around for them to drink (fix any leaks).
• Put your pets' food dishes in a pan of water. Ants can't swim past the mote (they're not very good swimmers). If you notice ants using the water as a water source, put soap in the water (but watch your pets to make sure they don't drink it).

Kill Them

• Pour boiling water on their nest (try mixing in some of the repellents to give them a double whammy).
• Dig up a bunch of ants from one colony, put them in a bucket (dirt and all), and throw them onto another colony. They kill each other because ants are very territorial and don't like ants from other colonies. (And it can be cheap entertainment if you're into that sort of thing.)
• Sprinkle laundry detergent or dishwashing detergent granules (powder) around the nest (they might eat it and die).
• Mix 1 part flour with 2 parts borax (you can even add some sugar if you wish), and they'll accidentally ingest borax, which will kill them, along with the flour (and sugar).
• Sprinkle diatomaceous earth around their nest, around your home, and even in your walls (if you have a duster). It will damage their exoskeleton and they will dehydrate to death.
• Make your own ant spray by mixing laundry detergent with water in a squirt bottle. Then spray them a couple times when you see them (works great and cheaper than the poison you buy at the store).
• Use a bait station (available at many stores). They eat the poisoned bait, share it with others in the nest, and eventually they all die. This is one of the only ways you can kill a colony without knowing the exact location of the queen.

Things to Remember

• If you vacuum up your ants while they are alive, throw out the vacuum bag immediately, or they may just escape back into your home. Better yet, kill them first, then vacuum them up.
• Use bait stations near where ants already are then remove them as soon as the ants disappear. Putting baits in an area where there aren't ants will only attract them to that area. If you want to use baits to kill a colony but don't have any active infestations inside your home, keep the baits outside, so you don't attract more into your home.
• Use baits and repellants in separate locations. You want ants to come to the bait and eat, but if you have repellants nearby, they won't take the bait, making the bait useless. Use repellants in areas where you want ants to avoid, like your kitchen cabinets.
• Ants can actually be a good thing in your garden because they eat other pests, so if they're not bugging you, let them be.