Help Getting Rid of Ants

You mentioned you had used pepper, but did you use Cayenne pepper. I have found that works, or get some hot mexican pepper, such as a jalapeno dried pepper. Good luck.

Sprinkle cinnamon on your countertops every chance you get. Cover the entire countertop with a thin layer. Of course, you need to clean it up for meal time, but then put it right back on. Your ants will be gone in about a week :) Good luck!

Many years ago my cat brought fleas into our home and we had to flea bomb. To our surprise after bombing- we got rid of the fleas, but also the pesky ants (spiders & centipedes as well) for the whole rest of the season. Now, even though we don't have a flea problem, we bomb every Spring, and have never got the nuisance of ants.
I am not sure if you have ever used a flea or roach bomb before , but there does take some preparation and YES it may be the very chemicals you are trying to stay away from, but I thought I would share with you something that totally and complete rid our house of that very problem . Best of luck to you.

I get a subscription to the magazine Body & Soul, and they just had this very problem in the last issue I received. Some recommendations they had for getting rid of pesky summer insects included:

Ants
Peppermint essential oil or Citronella essential oil
Use 3-5 drops on windowsills, on doorways, and under kitchen sink

Blackflies
Cinnaon oil or Tumeric oil
Spray or dab on clothing and exposed skin

Cockroaches
Citrus oils, especially kaffir lime oil
Spray on problem areas (e.g., under kitchen sink)

Mosquitoes
Catnip oil or Thyme oil
Spray or dab on clothing and exposed skin

Ticks
Lemon eucalyptus oil
Spray or dab on clothing and exposed skin

Box elder bugs/Asian beetles
Any type of dish soap; Dawn works well
Mix a few drops with water in a spray bottle, spray on bugs (works especially well if they like to congregate on your house). The soap gets into pores and kills them, without harsh chemicals. I've used this method; it works

Unless you have an exterminator get to the original source outdoors, you may not be able to "permanently" get rid of them. I've had good luck spraying them (even one ant) with Fantastik. I kept the bottle on the counter by the kitchen sink and every time I saw an ant I sprayed it. You can spray and wipe and have clean countertops at the same time. It may take several days to a week before they all disappear, but they seem to send a signal back to the other ants to stay away. The ones you spray die instantly.

I have used 1/2 bleach & 1/2 water. Seemed to take care of the problem.

I use vegetable oil. They won't cross it. So I wipe my door sills and around my counters and everywhere. You'll have to repeat it periodically, but if you can find where they come in, you can oil that area and they stay out.

I didn't have time to read through your responses so forgive me if this is a duplicate!

Use Cucumber peels. Peel a cucumber and place the peelings in the path where the ants are coming in. I guarantee they will be gone in less then 24 hours, at least it worked for me. I kept the peels in the area for a week to make sure they were gone and they never came back. It smelled nice and fresh in the house and no worries with kids or pets!

Try nutmeg. sprinkle it on the counters. I've used it in the past and it worked, the ants just don't like nutmeg.

They are probably sugar ants. I use Terro(sp). You put it os a small piece of card board and set it on the counter out of the way, preferably in their path. They will find it and bring it back to the colony. I get them every spring and once I put this out, within a few days usually they are gone.

we had this problem last year. We used the spray outside the ENTIRE house which didn't seem to completly work- dropped the numbers coming into the house. SOmeone told me to use chalk. That stopped them. If you make a chalk line around the ants will NOT come through it. My FIL got us some lime and we put it around and no more ants. They are pesky little buggers to get rid of. I need to find soemthing for spiders thouhg.

the key is to spray the raid ant killer outside around the base of the house and windows where they are coming in.

We use to have ants TERRIBLE! I tried everything and finally got so sick of it I called in the professionals. I haven't had any now for three years with just that one treatment. I told them when they came that I had a 4 year old and a new born in the house and they said the stuff they used wouldn't hurt them. Good Luck.

Thank you for posting this A.! I'm having the same issue too and I ended up getting the poisonous spray you feared about getting to get rid of them in my bathroom, but like you, I don't like that solution so I found the two large ant hills outside my home and been pouring bleach, but now I think I will be sprinking cinnamon on them as well since the bleach only works for so long and then I see activity at them again!

At least I'm not seeing so many in my house anymore though. I was given a link to a site for using borax ant bait, but this is also something that is harmful if ingested by people so it's not something you could do in the kitchen or put anywhere where children would get at so I will try the cinnamon and let you know if I see a change.

Good luck!

Angie

i've had problems the last two summers with ants. never before were they here. i have tried terro, thinking that they would go back to the nest, but they are not sugar ants. SO, i got a box of the ant 'houses', my cleaning lady suggested that. but,
they don't seem to working either. they do go to the terro, and today, there are less of them. they are on my floor, and yes, the floor is clean. if you find anything else that works, let me know. i don't really want to call a exterminator in, we had a cat. but, that's what my sister did last year. she lives in san diego, we are in minnesota.

Try the TERRO ant traps - they really work!!

Hi!

ARe they carpenter ants or the small ones? I have a few myself (small red ones) I heard cinnamon works. I just started to get them and I am going to try that!

I have heard that cornmeal works too. However, if that doesn't work for some reason - get the ant traps and not the spray. The poison is contained. They eat it and carry it back to their home and then they ALL die. Your kids are old enough that they shouldn't touch them if you tell them not to. It worked for us one summer. I would try the cornmeal and cinnamon first though.

I don't use sprays in the house. Outside the house I use a perimeter spray zround the base of the foundation and then at the bottom of the windows. In the house I buy these ant stakes by Grants that have a hole in the middle of a metal or plastic cube (kinda like what jelly comes in at restaurants). The ants climb in, eat it, take it back with them to their nests and they all die. I have had great success with them. You can put them in window sills or out of the way behind a counter appliance. My cats don't even mess with them. Hope this helps!

I was having the same problem. Year after year they have come back even with Taro. This year I found the crack they were using to come in and I sealed it with caulking. It took a couple of days of vaccuming up the laggers but they are now gone and no poisons were used. Good luck.

Cornmeal also works great - but more slowly than the ant traps. put a lid (like a small gladware container because it has a lip) on the counter and put some cornmeal in it. the ants will take it back to their nest for food. apparently cornmeal is poisonous to ants. who knew? good luck.

I've had great success with orange based bug spray like Orange Guard or Bugs-R-done. Safe around food surfaces & kids/pets and I think that's fabulous. I'm pretty sure I got Orange Guard at my local natural foods co-op, but have seen it at the major grocery chain here in SE Iowa. I know I've seen Bugs-R-Done at Whole Foods stores elsewhere.

As I understand it, something in the orange oil or extract (or whatever it is) "melts" the waxy lining of the bugs' lungs or airways and they effectively drown in the meltdown.

You can also spray it outside on their trails and mounds. Had a horrible problem with ants where we used to live in southern Calfornia and this stuff nailed them instantly.

call Orkin and they will find out where the problem is originating outside. Once they are stopped from the outside, they will stop showing up inside. There is a company that does all organic pest control and yard/weed control. I don't know the name but they put a flyer on our door last year. Maybe try googling it.

I just read that you put cornmeal out for ants. It didn't say if it was for all ants or just the big carpenter ants. Worth a try. They can't digest it and therefore die. I have always had good luck with Torro, comes in a little bottle and just put it on a paper and they get stuck in it and you throw it away. I wouldn't want to be spraying anything in the kitchen around food and dishes.

We get ants in through our front door every summer. If you can find the hole they are coming in from, sprinkle it woth cinnamon. It suffocates them. I always sprinkle cinnamon along the crack under the door and it helps. You might have to have the outside of your house sprayed too.

have you tried the toro strips? They work GREAT! I had them for the first time by my front door, they are little traps that the ants walk into, the poison isnt out in the open. The work fabulous! I got them at wal-mart. My ants were gone in abt 3 days! I would definately try this before the sprays. Leave them out for a few days longer once the ants seem to be 'gone'. :) just in case!! Good Luck!

cinnamon...sprinkle it on their trail site-look for their main holes..keep it there for a few days...non-toxic-smells great-ants hate it...been using it for years-just had to put some in my flower pots-ants like crazy...worked their gone.when my kids were babies-i had the same problem...i was using toxic measures-my mom told me bout this-been using it for 28 yrs.i also use it in halls an laundry rooms on my job here.good luck

A.,

I recently struggled with ants, and I dusted my countertops and sink ledge with baby powder. I left it sit for about 2 hours and then vacuumed it up. Not an ant since!

Good luck,
J.

We had that same problem last spring...we called WilKil and have not seen an ant, a spider, or any other kind of bug in our home since. They do the inside and outside, it's worked great for us!

salt will also work as it is toxic to them(so I've heard)put a line of it wherever they go and they won't cross it. good luck! hope it helps.