Baking Soda
Ants are said to be repelled by baking soda, so sprinkling some on entry points to your home should cause intruders to seek shelter elsewhere. You can also mix up a batch of baking soda with water, dish soap, and peppermint oil to create an ant barrier around your home that will cause them to stay away. The mixture also acts as a disinfectant because it upsets the pH of their stomachs which causes them harm when ingested.
Peppermint Oil
Peppermint oil is a natural pesticide that can be used to keep ants out of your house. To use it as an ant repellent, add ten drops of peppermint essential oil to 1/4 cup water in a spray bottle and shake well. Then, spray all around entrances into your home, windowsills, and other areas they may enter. Peppermint oil smells great, but ants apparently hate the smell, so using this mixture will come in handy when you want them gone fast!
Vinegar
Ants don’t like anything sour, and vinegar’s acidic properties make it a great way to deter them from invading your home if applied correctly. To create an effective barrier around your home, mix equal parts vinegar and water in a spray bottle and spray it around your windows and doors where you have seen ants entering before. This will make them lose their appetite because they can’t taste it!
Cinnamon Sticks
Cinnamon sticks are another natural remedy to use for pest control. Ants hate the smell of cinnamon, so just placing some out will help keep them away! To make this tip more effective, mix two tablespoons of ground cinnamon with a half cup of boiling water before letting it cool and pouring it into a spray bottle. Shake well before using it around the ants’ entry points. For even better results, place cinnamon sticks in entryways to your home.
Cloves
The smell of cloves is said to repel ants and other pests because, like so over the other deterrents on this list, it masks their scents trails which they use to follow each other around. So if you mix up a batch of ground cloves with water and spray it around your home on entryways and windowsills where you have seen ants entering before, they will be unable to follow the path to get in! You can even place whole cloves around entry points for the same effect.
Conclusion
There are many alternatives to using chemical pesticides to get rid of ants. Whether it’s by using natural ingredients like cinnamon sticks, ground cloves, cucumber slices cut in half for bait, or even baking soda mixed with water and peppermint oil, you can help control these pests on your own without the use of toxins. So if you notice an ant problem beginning in your home, try some of these great tips before the problem gets any worse.
If you have ants in your house it means there is a nest nearby (look for it in the mulch areas, for example, near the perimeter of the house–you’ll see a lot of activity where it is). Douse the nest area with white vinegar, then repeat after an hour or so. After two or three soakings the ants will move their queen and they’ll go somewhere else.
No need for poisons which unnecessarily kill wildlife and enter the soil and water tsble.