If you have ever observed activities of ants in any open location like a park or in woods, you will never want to hurt them. Ants are crucial to nature in maintaining balance by savoring on the kitchen waste and dead animals.
Problem arises when they march in your homes, try to occupy your precious possessions and feed on your kitchen stuff.
And if you have kids or pets in your home your worries multiply since ant bites are quite painful and often accompanied by scratching and rashes. This is the time these environment-friendly creatures become dangerous pests.
Facing an ant invasion you immediately go for chemical pest control but it is like inviting one problem in exchange of other.
If you have already planned to go for a traditional chemical treatment of your home to get rid of ants then you have consented to allow the deadliest and most dangerous chemicals to enter your premises, which can affect your and your family’s health.
Well, all I want is to alarm you against the potentially harmful fumes and liquids in the name of pest control.
Even the staunchest environment loving people will be appalled if they find their homes invaded by marching ants.
Just to take care of the sentiments and concerns of such people who do not want to hurt ants but want them to exit their homes, there is a need of organic ant repellents.
You need find right treatments which work using natural ant repellents. With organic ant repellant you can be sure that what enters your home to drive away ants will also be gone after a few days.
So read along to know about such safe ways of turning off ants marches aimed towards your home.
Contents
Method and Recipes of Natural Ant repellents
Using Essential Oils
Ants are great social insects and they leave tracks of food for other members of their tribes by releasing pheromone tracks.
A good remedy will be to erase these track or create a strong scent to mask their trails that ants follow with their strong sniffing abilities.
You can use essential oil like Peppermint, Tea Tree , Clove, Lemon or Orange to implement this smart action.
All you have to do is to put any one of these oils on a cotton ball and wipe clean all the possible entry points and locations ants are frequently visiting.
Natural Ant Spray
Sprays are considered more effective than other methods of application of pest control liquids. So here is a recipe to make such an effective spray at home.
You will need half cup water, half cup alcohol, 25-30 drops of peppermint and tea tree essential oils and 10-15 drops of any citrus oil.
Put all these in a spray bottle and shake well so that all ingredients mix together. You can preserve this concoction and spray as soon as you get a hint of ant march.
DE Powder
DE a very fine talc-like powder that looks quite harmless, but due to its compound composition it is deadly for many pests.
Just dust it over the suspected hideouts of ants and their other frequently visited areas like windows, underneath fridge, cabinets and garbage bins. Once the ants catch coating of this fine powder, they will be killed.
Vinegar
Vinegar is characterized by its strong and pungent smell and is an excellent stuff to overpower the smell of their pheromone trails.
Mix equal quantities of vinegar and water in a spray bottle and use at critical locations in your home to break the incessant entry of ants. You must repeat the spraying activity till you are sure that the home is now clear of them.
Lemon or Orange Peel Spray
How much we love to get something worthwhile from waste materials. This time you it is Lemon or Orange remnants like peels to make a spray that works like a charm on army of ants.
After finishing your oranges or relishing a refreshing lemonade put these peels in a pan. Add water to cover the peels and half a cup of vinegar.
Boil them and keep them overnight to leave effect in the water. Store the water in a spray bottle and spray on doubtful areas.
Borax & Sugar powder
This method exploits ants’ love for sugar to lay a bait for them. The sugar will attract ants and borax will kill them. Mix together equal parts of powdered sugar and borax.
Place pinches of this mixture where the ants love to hang out. But avoid using Borax if kids or pets are in your home. You can replace borax with baking powder, it may be a little less effective
Wet Coffee patches
Creating wet coffee patches is a good technique to deter ants as coffee too have a strong smell to mask their pheromone trails. The only drawback is that you have to stress yourself to clean off the coffee stains.
Cheyenne pepper
Sprinkle some Cheyenne pepper powder at the entry points of ants. This is a border that they won’t dare to cross and if they do, they will be killed. If you have plants in your home or lawn spray the pepper on plants and scare ants away.
Table Salt
Yes a very unbelievable remedy but it does work. Just mark out the entry points of ants and apply a lined border of salt. Enough to keep them away.
Final words
These are a few tried and tested remedies of organic ant repellents. These remedies must be used consistently for at least a week to observe positive results.
And since they don’t have any side effects, you can go ahead with prolonged usage without any fear of harmful effect on health of your family.
