There are thousands of types of ants found on our planet but do you know only few of these species enter our homes to feed themselves and their queen who is living far away in a colony.
Not all of the people know that it is possible to kill ants with natural ways using some of the common ingredients available at home.
Ants bear a determined attitude and are not at all easily molded in their missions. This sometimes frustrates you and prompts you to use easily available toxic aerosols available in market under-estimating its harmful effects on humans as well as our environment.
There is numerous numbers of natural options available in our house, kitchen to be more specific, that can either repel them or destroy them. Moreover these natural methods are pocket-friendly too.
Let us explore some of these spices or ingredients and how one can make use of them to get rid of ants.
Vinegar
Does it kill ants? The answer is No. It does not kill ants but without any doubts, vinegar is a great repellant. You can either use it as spray or as a solution.
Just apply vinegar at all the suspected entry points to break the trail created by ants. You can also put some vinegar in water used for mopping floors of house.
Regular use will surely deter their invasion. For outside use, take care of following instructions.
- Look for fire-ant mounds in garden area of your house. Spray a mixture of vinegar and water (2:1 ratio) on ant mounds to get rid of them.
- Try to increase the concentration of vinegar if earlier mixture is little effective since some ants are more stubborn than others.
“Take care of the plants around the mounds as they may get damaged from the vinegar solution.”
Baking Soda
Baking soda is easily available ingredient in kitchen. You can make effective bait by mixing baking soda and sugar in 1:1 ratio. Sugar in the bait will pull ants towards mixture whereas baking soda will exterminate them.
Bleach
Bleach is cleaning agent and is often found in cleaning detergents and cleaning liquid soaps. It is found to be effective in killing pests including ants. You can use it in any of the following ways.
- Take any spray bottle and pour bleach solution in it and spray on the corners of the walls of kitchen and on sides of windows. It will not only reduce the aroma of food from the kitchen but will also act as a deterrent to their trail.
- Take bleach solution in a bucket and clean counters and floors of kitchen with mop.
- If you are lucky enough to find their nest, mix bleach in hot water and pour it over their colony to destroy them.
“Bleach has a bitter smell and after applying it inside house or kitchen. It is advised to keen windows open for some time.”
Corn Meal
Ants like to feed on cornmeal without knowing the fact that cornmeal once consumed is hard to digest for them. Ants carry cornmeal to their colonies; they feast on cornmeal and eventually cornmeal act as tiny bombs and explode these tiny ants.
Boric Acid
Boric acid is a poisonous substance so it is advisable to keep it away from children, but not from ants since it is quite effective in killing ants.
Mix Boric acid with grounded sugar and make tiny balls out of them. Place at all the entry points and other crawling areas.
To prepare an effective and successful bait, you should know the feeding habits of ants whether they like sugary substance or greasy like peanut butter.
Nobody at home is from biological expert to determine the species of ants so always try hit and trial method .Try maxing boric acid with sugar, jam or honey and see whichever works better.
Place the prepared bait on some cardboard at suspected crawling places and change the bait solution after few days to maintain its effectiveness.
Other way to use boric acid powder is to sprinkle this powder around their nest, any ant coming out of nest when gets contacted with boric acid,
will die instantly because of its concentrated form. Apart from sprinkling around nest, you can sprinkle it directly at entry points also.
If we compare sprinkling with baiting, sprinkling does kill the ants instantly but only those who gets contacted with boric acid powder, while bait,
being low in concentration of boric acid allows the ants to take it to their colonies and eventually letting their queen die after consuming it.
Conclusion:
Finally, as we have learnt from this article how effective can be natural ingredients in getting rid of ants. Always go for other toxic methods if you have large scale infestation where these natural methods fail.
