Ants are good at sneaking almost anywhere in our personal environment. They enter our homes, they invade our picnic tables, and they are a real annoyance during the summer season. Thankfully, there are good tricks to repel them. Simple and effective, here are a few tricks you should try this summer.
1. Don’t invite them into your home
To avoid ants entering your home, you need to do your part too. This means you need to avoid attracting them for nothing. A little bit of sugar on the ground is enough to attract them. So, before recycling your cans and plastic bottles, rinse them to remove the layer of sugar. Do the same thing with your alcoholic drinks.
2. Find the ant nest
Ants play an important role in our ecosystem, you can’t try eliminating them every time. However, if you’ve tried keeping ants away and the refuse to leave your home, try pouring boiling water in the port of entry of the nest – the water will flow in the tunnels and kill the colony.
3. Block their path
If you find the place where ants enter your house and it’s in your kitchen, make a path with petroleum jelly, adhesive tape or baby powder on the entry port. Then, spray some white vinegar, lemon juice or peppermint oil to disorient them. These odours will eliminate their tracks and prevent the ants from wandering everywhere.
4. Gather the ants together
Make an ant trap by pouring a bit of honey in a shallow bowl you don’t use anymore. Ants are attracted by sugar, but by using honey, they will get stuck and won’t be able to move. They will all find themselves in the same sticky spot.
5. An effective repellent
This homemade repellent will be the perfect tool to help you get rid of any ants inside your house.
Ingredients
- 30 drops of peppermint essential oil;
- 30 drops of clove essential oil;
- 4 oz of water.
Method
- Mix all the ingredient in a spray bottle;
- Shake well;
- Spray everywhere;
- If necessary, you can repeat this a few times.
6. Outside: The picnic table
Don’t let ants ruin your meal when you’re having a picnic. Bring extra containers like Tupperware bowls and plastic plates with you and place them under the picnic table legs. They will act as a barrier against these crawling insects. Fill them with water for extra effectiveness.
7. Use lemons
Ants hate the smell of lemons. To ward off these insects, all you need to do is squeeze a lemon and add the juice into a spray bottle. If you put some bits of lemon peel in the corners of your home, you’ll be sure there are no ants that enter your home.
8. Use sage
The smell of sage and camphor is very strong, and ants hate it. All you need to do is place a few leaves of green sage or camphor in your cabinets and your wardrobe, and ants will never enter these places again.
9. Use apple cider vinegar
In addition to being accessible and affordable, when it is mixed with lukewarm water, apple cider vinegar can be used as an all-purpose cleaner in your kitchen. Its very particular smell repels these insects.
10. Use herbs and spices
Excellent natural repellents, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, black pepper, mint and bay leaves will help you ward off ants. All you need to do is place some of the spices in their path and they will quickly change trajectory.
11. Coffee
Perfect to eliminate bad odours from various surfaces and to exfoliate the skin, coffee grounds are also excellent to remove any ants in your house. All you need to do is sprinkle some in the corners of your house and to appreciate its odour that these insects hate.
Sources :
- YouTube
- HouseholdHacker
- Audible.com/household
- Remedy daily
- WikiHow
