Ants!!!!Help?
Question:OMG these little ants keep coming in my kitchen to invade my very clean Kitchen Ive used Black Pepper Ive scrubbed every inch of the place w/ numerous cleaners ,vinegar,bleach but they just keep coming back.Any suggestions?
Answers:
Ants don't care for mint or citrus, cloves or bay leaves, so think orange peel, peppermint tea, lemon juice, ground cloves, etc. If you can plant mint around the foundations of your home, you may deter them from entering. Vinegar has the same acid as citrus, so use it to clean with and ants won't feel welcome. (It probably erases or overpowers the odor trail other ants have left for them to follow.)
Clean bench tops and cupboards down really well, and then wipe down with a clean damp cloth that has a few drops of essential peppermint oil on it, you may need to apply a few drops of oil a couple of times.
Ants hate the smell of it and it is also environmentally friendly, and safe for humans and children, and no residue powders etc to clean up. And the big bonus is that the room smells fresh and minty. I also want to add that you can put the oil on a cotton ball after cleaning and put in the areas you have ants and that should help too...replace once the smell is gone.
I hope this was helpful,Good Luck! :)
Boric Acid, and I spray with Industrial Strength bug spray
Ant traps work well, I also buy a gallon of bug spray Called home defense that has a pump sprayer on it and spray around my house...
the best ant traps I have found are the ones that stake into the ground outside your house. I had a problem with carpenter ants...the nest was in an outside wall of my house...they were gone in less than a week when I used those!
Ant traps should do the work. They are pretty cheap, and since the poison is contained inside the little plastic trap it should be safer than spreading/spraying poisons around the house. I find they work well if you take about 1/2 dozen of the little traps (they are about 2" in diameter) and place them in areas where I've seen the aunt infestation. Also, if the ant problem is new, try to figure out why they are coming in now. Often times they are attracted by something you can't readily see. Like a soda spill that went under the refrigerator. Another thing is to follow the little ant path and to see where they are coming from so you can lay the traps in strategic locations.
There's this great clear gel that's for sale in hardware stores (I think it's called Terro) that works really, really well. I had the same problem, but this stuff took care of it. You just put a drop or two on a piece of cardboard and the ants go right to it, and then take it back to their home or whatever and eventually they go away/die. It worked excellently, The ants were gone pretty soon--you just have to keep doing to treatment for a while until you get rid of all of them.
The only downside is that since it kills the ants, I won't be able to use the gel if they ever come back!
My local lawn and garden radio show swears by a equal mixture of (20 Mule Team) borax and powdered sugar. Just keep it away from animals who love the sugar. . . .
also Terro works well, you just have to put up with the army coming and going as they bring it back to their nest (same with the borax/sugar mixture).
Peppermint oil.not peppermeint extract...it has to be the real thing..they are repulsed by the smell...if you know where they are coming in...block the entrance with a dab of peppermint oil...Good Luck!
I always use Terro when I see even one ant in my home. Terro is a combo of borax & sweet clear syrup. You put a drop of it on the cardboard squares that come with the bottle & place them around where you see them. It works really well, as the ants take it back to the nest, thus killing the ants. It may take a day or so, but it will work. Apply a drop or two more to the cardboard squares as needed.
I was surprised to see that only one person before me recommended Terro. It really is the absolute best remedy. It will take time, but it WILL work.
The ants LOVE it. It must be like candy for them. When you put it out, expect to see MORE ants for a few days...because they will come for it. But as the person said before, they will take the poison back to the next and kill everyone off, eventually.
I start out putting the squares all over my kitchen...every few feet on the counter, under and on top of the microwave, etc. After about a week, maybe two squares will be good enough.
Good luck!
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