...it goes marching one by one.
While I respect all of God's creatures, and the role they play in our majestic and intricate ecosystem, I have no qualms about admitting that
I.HATE.ANTS.
I want them dead. All of them. When it comes to destroying/eliminating/obliterating, or
*ahem,*
preventing them from entering my home, I am somewhat at a loss as to the best course of action, other than merely squishing the ones I make contact with.
Personally, I prefer this method,
which could be gratifying, but seems a tad impractical.
Do you know of any natural, frugal ways to repel ants from the home, that would be chemical free and safe around my curious toddlers? Please share!
Because really, I am NOT interested in hosting these creatures any longer!
6.10.2009
I Have A Serious Problem...
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49 comments:
Find their food source and remove it. We had ants after Monkey was born and I discovered months later that my dear husband had not tightened the lid on some honey that our neighbor collected from his hive. They had eating half of a full mason jar.
I've seen nary an ant since removing it.
We have a quarterly pest control service and they said it is safe for pets and children. I think they have "green" pest control also that is all natural.
I haven't tried any home remedies. I googled Home remedy for ants. They suggest molasses paste, vinegar and cucumber peelings just to name a few. Not sure how effective they are.
When you figure it out, let me know! They invade our house too and it sucks! lol!
Happy WW!
Ugh!
Not a big help, but...
When we were kids, my cousin once took a magnifying glass and angled it in such a way that it would catch the rays of the sun and then "singe" the ants! Sadistic, I know!
Two things you can try...
Grits. Sprinkle grits (the instant kind) around your house. When they eat them, the grits expand and well, blows the ants up. (Kinda what you were wanting to do, right!) and the other is coffee grounds. The nitrogen in the grounds burns their little feet so anything that makes it past the grits, won't pass the coffee! We do this every year and it works!
~Lori
www.petersonstlouis.com
I'm so with you!! I hate them little buggers! unwanted house guest!
Someone once told me that sprinkling talcum powder across their trail will stop them (but I haven't tried it) and that sounds pretty safe.
We had a terrible ant problem one summer and I followed the ant trail back to their nest/ant hill and poured boiling water into the hole. That stopped them, and I think it would have been a pretty quick and painless way for them to die.
Oh, and just remembered too that once I was told they come inside looking for water, so if you leave easily-reached (by an ant) water sources outside your home they won't come in.
I should mention that I live in a rural area. Don't know if any of these remedies will work for city living.
Keep all food stuffs in refrigerator.If you cannot then keep such stuff in a vessel,then keep that vessel dipped in shallow pan filled with water.
Neem((Azadirachta indica)powder is a natural,herbal,safe insect repellent
♥ Chaitra
I didn't know you could use grits. I've tried the salt thing and that worked for us. I used just salt but I read that a sugar and salt mixture could be more effective. Never hurts to try.. Good luck with your ant problem. I hate those pesky little suckers too.
I have a friend who is also having ant problems and who also likes a chemical free home. She puts baby powder by places she thinks they are coming in...and someone else recommended that she fill a spray bottle with vinegar and spray them. Don't know how well either work...but maybe worth a shot!!
Ditto! I hate ants too! You know if you see one, there has to be like a million more!!!!
I hope you find a practical way of getting rid of them!!
Oh I wish I did! I hate them too - they give me the eeby geebys.
I did see and interesting liquid ant killer on a blog... it looked a bit like the rat traps that are sticky. The ants wound up drowned. I don't remember where it was though!
fair enough!!! eurch.....
I have those too! Well, HAD them. Not anymore. They went away on their own, thankfully! And then they came back BIGGER (!!!) and then they went away. Haven't seen them anywhere. Any time Princess came over when we had 'em, she'd stare at them and point and say, "ICKYYYY!!!" luckily she didn't want to play with them.
Go to your spice cabinet...get the cinnamon. Boil it in some water and make a little paste. Put this where you see them and they will not cross this line. Also...the smell of peppermint is something most insects or rodents won't cross. At Trader Joe's or a health food store you can get peppermint oil...and spray it around..they won't cross it either. They also won't cross Comet, coffee, and talc powder. Hope this helps.
I hate ants too! I remember my freshman year of high school at lunch I would eat with two of my friends and then we'd go sit on the sidewalk for the rest of the period and I would smash the ants into the ground one by one as they would pass by and say "dead ant". Yes I was strange but I wanted them all dead too!
I've tried all the "natural" remedies. I hate those stupid ants too! Every time the pest guy comes around to spray outside, they come marching in. UGH!
I HATE ANTS!!!!!!!
We've been fighting ants for a long time.... it was the DEAD OF WINTER, in the middle of a snow storm, and these creatures took refuge in our kitchen. UGH!!
We tried everything. We tried talc powder, chalk lines, coffee grounds, peppermint essential oil, etc. etc. etc. But there was no "green" way to get rid of them.
At first I just wanted to keep them away. I have a hard time killing bugs, especially innocent ones like ants. But when they never went away with winter, I considered a blow torch. I didn't care if they lived or died, I just wanted them gone, and apparently they weren't going down without a fight.
If we find the ant hill, we pour bleach on it. Kills them in about 15 seconds.
Unfortunately, we don't always find the ant hill.
The ONLY thing that has worked for us is ant traps. We got Raid brand, the kind where they crawl in to get food, and crawl away to die. We put one down in our kitchen and one in our laundry room (the two places they were coming in at). The first day or two, they seemed to MULTIPLY. There was a steady stream of ants at any given moment. I resisted the urge to scream and sweep them up and dump them outside (and secretly cursed myself for putting it down on a day we would be home), and left them alone to gather their "food". After a day or two, they were gone. Completely gone. We used to get THOUSANDS of these things EVERY SINGLE DAY. Now, we get maybe one or two per MONTH.
Ant traps!!! I now swear by them!!!
OMG...good luck. I hate them too and any bug for that matter. We have had our fair share already too.
Ugh - I despise them also. I thought I heard before that they don't like cinnamon or bay leaves - not positive. I do actually use poison bait - Grants Kills Ants (wouldn't w/ toddlers though!) because I find great satisfaction in the fact that they carry it back to their nest and we kill hundreds to thousands. Gets gross for a day or 2 while tons of ants are coming to the bait - blech - but then they're dead and gone.
I have found that one of the best things that isn't harmful is those ant trap - those circle things you put all over.
One year we had them bad and we sprayed that Ortho Home Defense Max (red/white container) around the foundation and windows and along the gutterline (they go toward water/wet areas and sometimes that's by the roofline)
ANYHOW (without writing a book here, lol) THIS Ortho spray doesn't smell. And it's safe to spray in your home along the baseboards/etc.
We have to use that because stuff that smells bothers my asthmatic son. So this is good.
We also put stuff on our lawn (Also by Ortho) that kills fleas and ants and other misc bugs. And then those circle things.
I find that by doing all this in May and again in July, we're ant FREE!
I love the fire part, I rememver doing that when I was little lol, so mean!!! We just have a bug guy spray!
i don't know what to do either! we have that problem too.
i'm so sorry! i wish i could be more help!
It's not completely chemical free, but we've gotten rid of ants before by using peanut butter mixed with borax. Also, leaving dishsoap in their path definitely deters them from coming that way. And IDing the food source and getting rid of every possible crumb or sticky spot (easily done with the kiddos, I know) will ensure they don't come back.
Ooh, I don't know. I have people who come to my house every 3 months to put stuff in these tubes we had installed within the house to prevent anything like that from getting in. I freak out when I see bugs.
We have them at our new place. When we moved in, E noticed their trail outside, and we talked about how good it was that they were not coming inside. By the next day, they were in the kitchen. I may have to try some of the remedies suggested in your comments. Let me know if one of them works for you!!!
Mix borax and sugar 50/50. Put it in an old butter or yogurt container, punch some holes for the ants to get in and place out of reach of your kids (Borax is natural, but you still shouldn't EAT it). They will take it back to the nest.
You can also treat your yard or around your house with Diatomaceous Earth. Make sure you get the food grade, NOT the pool stuff. The pool stuff is powdered and not good to breath. It's just skeletons of diatoms and stuff, and it messes up anything with an exoskeleton...so ants, fleas, etc.
Put a mixture of white vinegar and water in a squirt bottle and spray the area you don't want them in and they will go away. It really works!
UGH! All this rain has been driving ants and some other creepy kind of bug into our house. I hate bugs!!!!!!!!!!!! Of all kinds! Somewhere I THINK we have a carton of that Ortho Home Defense Max but since a certain adult male in this household piled our shed with closet-remodeling supplies I can't even walk in there, much less find anything. I may have to look into the ant traps. I have no clue where they're coming from, but with a very messy toddler in the house it's impossible to keep ALL the crumbs off the floor! This morning I noticed a grape in his booster seat (of course, Daddy fed him last night) - I picked it up and it had 2 ants on it!!! Gross!!!!! Good luck, and definitely let us know if you hit on something that works!
Yikes! I'm so sorry. I hated having those in my house, too when I lived in Florida. They are such a pain!
We've used baby powder. Just put it at the entrance they are coming in from and they won't come in no more!
I tried putting baking soda, (it said talcum powder or baking soda) it kinda worked but they came back. Then I got some stuff from my GIL and I sprayed it, and so far I have only seen about 5 ants since then. I also tried windex to kill them...which worked most of the time!
I hate ants too. My inlaws used to use pepper around the doors. Don't know how well it worked though.
I've got the same problem! I'll be pulling out the vinegar later. I was told to spray vinegar around wherever they are getting into the house. Hopefully, it will work. Hubby left an empty soda can on the counter last night and they were all over it this morning.
Oh no! I've heard peppermint essential oil is a good ant deterrent.
Oh gross.
I know a lady who puts a half potato on her floor at night, and in the morning, it's all covered with ants and she throws it away. I told her that not only is that disgusting, she has to do it every day because she is FEEDING those ants! Isn't that gross?
I think I just shivered. Ewww.
My sympathies are with you. Maybe your exterminator has an option that is safe and natural.
Oh, and I forgot to say that I am going to follow your blog because I love it! (as soon as I am done writing this) Good luck with the ant situation.
Blessings,
Sasha
I so hear ya!!! i hate them too!!!
but at least you don't have 300lb pigs ransacking your yard.... ;o)
Try using Skin So Soft. Ants will not cross it.
What is it with the ants this year? UGH! So pesky! My husband was able to get rid of them by spraying some super grade of insect killer. I only let him do it after everyone is in bed though - because I am paranoid like that. BUT in the garden section of Wal-Mart they have a new natural bug spray along with other sprays for your garden and general cleaners. It was about $4 a bottle so I would check that out for sure.
Is there a health food store near you? They would probably have a natural product or could recommend something. Good luck!
I have to add that on the subject of ant traps, those only work on the little itty bitty ants. If that's what you have, I recommend those; we had little itty bitty ants in our bedroom a while back and the ant traps did the trick. Our latest bout with ants was carpenter ants--and ant traps don't work for those. So if you have carpenter ants, my sympathies.
I got nothing for ya. We get ants, but I've always used, (GULP), Raid. Not where the kids can breathe it in or ingest it, but in the crevices of the basement, etc...and we used those little traps once.
I'm going to go read all these better tips now!
I know bleach works, spray where they are coming in BUT I dislike bleach ... here is a link to some other natural ways ...
http://www.stretcher.com/stories/980528a.cfm
let us know what works!!!!
If you get any answers please post them. My kids have learned to follow the trails to the nests and come get me with the spray can.....I should have stock in Raid:) LOL
Good luck
Blessings--
Beth
I totally sympathize. We're dealing with a major case right now too, and have been for the last month. It's awful! I can't leave any dirty dishes in the sink or crumbs on the floor (and you know how that is with toddlers). We've taken some steps to get rid of them, with some success:
*A lidded garbage can that they can't get into
*Spraying the sink and counters with eco-friendly cleaners before bed and letting it sit there overnight
*Removing our cat's food right after he finishes. I found they were drawn to that one day, from the bits he leaves behind
*Spraying them with vinegar water. This just kills them, it doesn't prevent them from coming in. And it's safe around kids
Obviously we still have a problem, but I just can't see leaving out anything toxic or using traps. I hope they go away on their own like they did last year. It's hard to tell where they're coming from, the basement probably.
We have had ants in the past and I have tried several of the "natural" remedies but in the end I resorted to the ant traps.
We get ants as well, and it is sooo mysterious because they'll show up in places like our bedroom where there is NO FOOD in sight. I just don't get it. I enjoy killing them...and my daughter likes to say they're going to sleep and won't ever wake up again.
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