How to Get Rid of Ants for Homeowners

Table Of Content

• How to Prevent Indoor and Outdoor Ant Infestations
• Eliminate Damp Spots and Rotted Wood
• How to Get Rid of Indoor Ants Without Chemicals
• Contact a Professional Pest Control Company
• Ant Removal: Wipe Out Ant Colonies
• The best ways to get rid of ants in your home and how to keep them out permanently
• White vinegar

It offers a non-toxic and natural option for eliminating ants and any other crawling insects. 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. Termites have a wide body with straight antennae while most ants have curved antennae with a pinched waist. If you suspect you have termites, call a professional exterminator for assessment and treatment.

Ants are coming to invade your Georgia home if they haven’t already. How to keep them out - Macon Telegraph

Ants are coming to invade your Georgia home if they haven’t already. How to keep them out.

Posted: Wed, 13 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

How to Prevent Indoor and Outdoor Ant Infestations

Inspect the foundation to find possible ant entryways such as areas where pipes enter the building, foundation cracks, and around doors and windows. If swarmers were found indoors, then you could very easily have an indoor infestation, e.g., in a wall void, in the crawlspace or in the ceiling. In those situations, a careful inspection of the crawlspace may also be needed.

Eliminate Damp Spots and Rotted Wood

Ensuring your home is sealed tight and free from open food and water sources, and that your backyard is free of anthills, will be your best bet in evicting the little pests. One 2014 study showed that, in high concentrations, cinnamon essential oil could repel and kill ants. However, sprinkling the powdered cinnamon you have in your spice cabinet won't be as effective. Ants will just learn to avoid it and go to other parts of your home. It’s best to use neem oil around plants, especially where you see aphids or ants. Ants farm aphids (small sap-sucking insects), so poisoning the aphids with neem oil can take care of both types of pests.

How to Get Rid of Indoor Ants Without Chemicals

Ants spend their days foraging, and it’s the worker ant’s job to locate food for the colony and leave a pheromone trail to notify other ants where to gather food. While they are generally omnivores, different species have their favorite types of food. To avoid ants in your home, keep the kitchen counter clean of food crumbs and spillage.

How to make sure Northern California ants don’t ‘set up a colony in your kitchen drawer’ - Sacramento Bee

How to make sure Northern California ants don’t ‘set up a colony in your kitchen drawer’.

Posted: Tue, 02 May 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Not only do the herbs and spices keep ants out of the kitchen, but they give the room a pleasant aroma. If possible, keep fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator. While water is vital to ants, they get most of their liquid from food. However, there are a couple of species of ant that are attracted to water. When you find the trails, Dr Merritt recommends using ant-repelling products with boric acid.

Ant Removal: Wipe Out Ant Colonies

But keep in mind that boric acid is a poison — and can even be fatal if large amounts are consumed. "They feed on it, then they take it back to the nest and because ants feed each other by regurgitating … it can really knock a nest back." "It's a mixture of boron, or boric acid, with honey or other attractants," he explains. Ants forage for food in spring and summer months, sending out search parties that and will scavenge for anything they can find. These large nests make the Western Thatching Ant one of the most populous species in California. This includes other ants and other insects as well as fruits.

Make a homemade ant killer with Borax

If you are home more, you may have a little extra time to fix those ripped window screens or caulk cracks the ants are using for entry. As their name suggests, odorous house ant is, well, odorous and can be comfortable living around your home. These 1/8-inch-long brown to black ants have been described as smelling like rotten-coconuts or suntan lotion when crushed. In natural settings, their nest size tends to be small with a single queen. For example, in a forest, an entire nest may be in a single acorn. In urban areas, nests tend to be very large with thousands or even millions of workers and many queens.

Prevent ants from entering your home in the first place by sealing up cracks and holes in walls. This will also prevent them from nesting inside wall cavities. Ants usually come indoors in search of food or nesting habitat. Even small amounts of food, like pet food crumbs, can attract hordes of industrious ants.

White vinegar

Homeowners should consider working with a licensed pest professional to employ a preventative pest management plan. There are also a few things that can be done around the property to prevent a little black ant infestation. If you've tried all of these methods and still have ants in your home, or if they keep coming back, you should bring in a professional.

Indoor nest sites may include wall voids, window frames, in insulation in an attic or between bats of insulation and crawlspace subflooring. Indoors, odorous house the ants are typically attracted to sugary food items. Outdoors, they feed on the honeydew secreted by aphids and other insects on shrubs and trees. Argentine ant workers are approximately 1⁄8-inch long and light to dark brown in color (Figure 11).

Workers are slow-moving, 1⁄10-inch to 1⁄8-inch long, and dark brown in color (Figure 13). Both the head and thorax have numerous grooves that run lengthwise. In addition, there is a pair of spines on the thorax and a sting at the tip of the abdomen. As their name implies, pavement ants tend to nest beside and under sidewalks, driveways, patios, and foundations (Figure 14). The presence of a nest is often evidenced by a mound of soil around a crack in pavement.

These pathways are marked with pheromones to draw other ants towards the food sources. Living in large colonies, the ants are sometimes subject to a single leading queen and other times subject to multiple colony queens. You can, however, weaponize cornmeal in your fight against ants by mixing it with boric acid, a cousin to Borax that’s available online and at home improvement stores. Mix nine parts cornmeal with one part boric acid, adding a generous helping of soybean oil or peanut butter to create a paste. Place the homemade bait near gaps and crevices, anywhere ants are on the march.

They made their way to California where they are considered household pests. These are common ants in other South American states such as Paraguay and Bolivia as well. You can find a certified pest professional near you with the helpful zip code search below. 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 all else fails, professional exterminators can remove ants from your home.

Tea tree oil has been shown to effectively kill flies, which may indicate it could be an effective ant deterrent. Keep peppermint oil out of reach of pets, especially cats, which can become very ill if exposed. To use it to kill ants, follow package directions, or sprinkle the powder anywhere you see ants. Keep reading to learn about how to kill and repel ants safely.