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And while one industrious ant is intriguing to watch, no one wants an invasion of harmless or destructive ants moving in. We spoke to a couple of ant experts to get some insight on eradicating ant infestations. Here's how to identify what type of ant you're dealing with and how to keep ants out of your house and garden.
Ant Prevention: Keep It Clean
Sprinkle a layer of the powder in the areas you've noticed ants or anywhere you don't want them. The diatomaceous earth will then stick to the ants, dry out their exoskeletons, and exterminate them. If you've noticed that ants have started moving into your kitchen or pantry, it's time to take action. Below are several methods to either exterminate the creepy crawlers or lure them away from your home.
Get rid of ants in your NC home: Pesticides and intervention tricks to keep them out - Raleigh News & Observer
Get rid of ants in your NC home: Pesticides and intervention tricks to keep them out.
Posted: Fri, 05 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Baby Powder
It is important to check insect traps regularly and refresh them periodically to ensure they continue to be effective. Baits have the added advantage of being easy to place and relatively mess-free. Ants hate the smell of citrus fruits, such as lemons, limes, and oranges, so they're an excellent natural repellant. Save your lemon or grapefruit peels and scatter them around entryways. Because ants need water and food to survive, start by cleaning up in and around your home.
Natural Remedies to Get Rid of Ants
Once your place is clean, it's time to send a message telling the ants to stay out. Using any one of the below ingredients, sprinkle or spray a line you don't want the ants to cross. The smellier the ingredient, the better—ants naturally avoid strong smells. But the border will only work as long as the smell lasts, so it's important to reup the lines once a month or so.
Some people use 100% vinegar in a spray bottle or a 50/50 mix of water and vinegar. Various store-bought products can do the trick, but for harmless ant varieties, chemical baits and sprays can be more detrimental than the ants themselves. Try these cheap, natural ant remedies to rid your home of the tiny pests. Seal up any cracks or holes and clear away any food and water they are consuming. Mix a 50/50 solution of water and distilled white vinegar to wipe away the trails the ants have been following.
Hiring someone who knows how to kill the colony is especially important if you're dealing with carpenter ants, which can cause damage to your home over time. A 2019 study found that peppermint oil, in varying concentrations, was more effective than lemon juice at repelling fire ants. Additionally, a 2018 study found that peppermint oil was far more effective than vinegar at killing and repelling fire ants. In some tests, 100% peppermint oil killed all the ants that were exposed to it. When carpenter ants build their nests, usually in damp or decaying wood, they dig out tunnels which weakens the wood from the inside. You’ll know you have these pests by the appearance of small holes on the surface of wood and by the debris they produce from tunneling.
Repel ants with essential oils
No matter how hard we try, sometimes we can't avoid pesky ants making their way into our homes. They tend to be drawn to rooms like the kitchen, where it's easy for them to find food sources to bring back to the rest of their colony. If you've recently been swarmed by ants, you might have heard that cinnamon is a good deterrent, possibly even killing them. We spoke with pest control experts about whether cinnamon can kill ants, how it works to deter them, and other ways you can rid your home of ants naturally. Cinnamon, and generally anything with a really strong scent, like vinegar or certain essential oils, deters ants by intercepting their pheromone trails, which they use to find food. "The primary ingredient in cinnamon that might agitate ants is cinnamaldehyde," says Ismael Girard, CEO of Pest Agent.
Mix thoroughly and create a lure by pressing the mixture into a short open tube like a piece of a drinking straw. Leave this near ant trails and refresh the bait every couple of days. Ant killer sprays kill on contact, but only about 20 percent of an ant colony will venture outside.
Natural Ways to Kill Ants
If you’ve seen ants marching in a line, try wiping down the surface with vinegar or bleach to disrupt the chemical trail. You’ve probably noticed ants more commonly come indoors in summer - that’s largely because most insects are more active in the warmer months. Because ants swarm, once you have an infestation, they can be difficult to dislodge. It takes vigilance and a combination of treatments using both home and perimeter insect control, but an ant problem can typically be resolved within a week or two. Follow-up prevention is key to ensure that they do not return. There can be some identification confusion between ants and termites; the two seem similar upon initial encounter, but a closer look can reveal exactly which of the pests you are taxed with.
According to the National Wildlife Federation, there are more than 12,000 species of ants around the world. Pill bugs are oval-shaped crustaceans with a segmented exoskeleton about 1/4 to 5/8 inches long. They are gray to dark brown but often have a shiny metallic appearance.
The 3 Best Ant Killers of 2024 Reviews by Wirecutter - The New York Times
The 3 Best Ant Killers of 2024 Reviews by Wirecutter.
Posted: Fri, 05 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
To get rid of the trail, spray this mixture anywhere you spot ants. Don't forget any entry points, like window sills, backdoors, or baseboards. If used once a week or so, you should see a marked improvement. Observe the trail they walk and consider if there are food or water sources along their route. Whether it is a sticky drop of honey or a spoon under the sink, find what they're looking for and remove it.
Cucumber and citrus fruit peels contain chemical compounds similar to those used in some ant repellents. Placing cucumber, lemon or orange skins near areas of ant activity can quickly encourage the insects to move on. Like many people, ants find the smell of raw pepper to be irritating. A Texas A&M study found that a water and pepper solution was effective at killing ants.
Natural and non-toxic, cinnamon not only kills ants, but its strong smell makes it shine as a repellent, too. It's understandable that you'd want to get rid of ants fast, and the internet is in no short supply of all-natural ant control methods. While there isn't a quick, steadfast way to get rid of ants, natural ant-repellent methods are very effective. Ants also avoid citrus, so using lemon juice to clean or leaving lemon peel around areas where they are entering your home should deter them.
In fact, carpenter ants actively “farm” nearby aphids for this food. However, the threat that carpenter ants pose to the structure of your home can be significant. Since they hollow wood out to build their nests, if they get into the wall voids of your house and stay there undetected, they can cause catastrophic levels of damage. There are multiple carpenter ant species, and they vary by color and size. However, the most common carpenter ants in North America are relatively large, from 1/4 inch up to 5/8 inch in length.
Ant traps and poison are a tried and true method when it comes to eliminating pests, but James warns that pesticides are very bad for the environment. Additionally, ant poison can be dangerous for pets and young children, so be careful when applying these chemicals in your home. Mix Borax with equal parts water and sugar to make a syrup, and leave it in the corners where you've noticed ants. This method will work to kill the entire colony in roughly 24 to 48 hours, as the worker ants will bring the liquid back to the nest. The species commonly seen inside the home are pavement ants, odorous house ants, or pharaoh ants (also known as sugar ants). These species feed heavily on sugars and greases commonly found in kitchens.
You’ll typically find him in his old fixer-upper, engrossed in a DIY project or trying out a new recipe. You might be tempted to apply a bug barrier spray around the foundation of your home to discourage entry, but Hansen doesn’t recommend it. For starters, the spray wears off and addresses only one potential source of entry for ants. By far the best course of action to keep ants outdoors where they belong is to remove the temptation to venture over the threshold of your home.
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