Question from Jen
Hi there! I’m looking for advice on how to handle an influx of kitchen ants this summer. My usual methods (ie – clean counters, all food put away in sealed packaging, etc) aren’t working. I can’t even tell where they’re coming from specifically, can’t locate ant hills in the yard. Very confusing. I’m not ready to call in an exterminator quite yet (although my husband is quickly losing patience!) I’ve heard good results with the following products but since I have kids who play on the floor and pets who lick their paws I’m hesitant to use.
1-Terro ant traps
2-zevo ant spray
Thanks for your help and any recommendations you might have for me.
Lisa’s Answer
I would definitely avoid commercial ant traps if possible.
The first step is to seal any openings. I know you said you can’t locate where they are coming from but it’s worth continuing to try to identify the source.
There are many natural ways to kill ants. My tried and true used to be a mix of Borax, sugar and water. It worked great, but I recently read an EWG article about the toxicity of Borax.
Another natural option is mixing vinegar and water in a spray bottle and spraying the ants. I’ve read that peppermint, cinnamon, and lemon juice are all effective but I haven’t tried them myself.
I was surprised to learn that Terro’s active ingredient is, in fact, Borax. It’s better than more toxic pesticides but I would still avoid it, particularly if you have kids and pets. As an absolute last resort, you could use the Terro traps outside the house to prevent them from coming in. It’s not ideal but at least you wouldn’t have it inside your home.
Has anyone had success with a natural remedy?
Can you get rid of ants with cornmeal?
If you have an ant problem on your hands, cornmeal is a safe, surprisingly-effective way to get rid of them. … This works because ants are attracted to corn meal and treat it as food, but they can’t actually digest it, causing them to slowly starve.
I pulled this from Google. I’ve had significant success but you have to be patient. It doesn’t work in a day.
Spraying ants with vinegar and water will kill the ants, but it doesn’t prevent more ants from coming. I live in a condo and sprayed vinegar outside my front door and on my balcony and they still came. I think in my case with the massive amount of ants coming in (3rd floor) – I think they are coming from the trees if that is possible. When we had our trees trimmed (in Florida before hurricane season) – the ants started to come like crazy. In respect to sealing any openings – excellent!! I had these tiny not regular ants, they call them crazy ants here – I had someone caulk all the openings in my kitchen above my counter where the wall meets the counter and that stopped the months of crazy ants in my kitchen – what a relief. Unfortunately I have had to use liquid terro and also plain boric acid on my balcony to kill most of the ants. Years ago my mother read that drawing a line with chalk will prevent ants from crossing the chalk – unfortunately that didn’t work! I don’t know if any of this has been helpful.
I guess I should have said…it might de-worm you. (in my last comment)
Diatomaceous earth sprinkled around the perimeter of your home works well.
If it rains you will need to reappy.
When the ant walks across it, it scratches their little body and they quickly dehydrate and die
Doesn’t take long for the word to get out to the other ants to not go there.
Then you are done. You can buy this many places, especially plant nursery’s. It is so safe you can eat it (but it might worm you or your pet).
Diatomaceous earth is a great solution. According to Wikipedia, it is a naturally occurring, soft, sedimentary rock that is easily crumbled into a fine powder. We use it in the garden to keep pests at bay and on houseplants that have scale. I never thought to use it for ants but it makes sense! I would buy food-grade, just to make sure there are no additives.
Vinegar and water worked for me. My problem was small and I knew where they were entering. I’ve used Windex and that works well too, however I prefer a more natural solution.
I actually use Vodka with a mixtures of Thieves blend. I spray them as soon as I see them. It is highly effective and even cleans my countertops but it doesn’t avoid the pheromone trail.
We’ve successfully used Diatomaceous Earth. We put it in a puffer container purchased from Amazon, then puff it onto the ants. It works! Here’s some info about it that I just quickly looked up:
https://www.absorbentproductsltd.com/does-diatomaceous-earth-kill-ants/