How to Get Rid of Ants

Ants really aren’t as bad as people perceive them to be. They’re clean, disease free, control other, more damaging pest infestations, and are great at keeping your home tidy! If you really do have a problem with them however, here are a few tips to help you keep an ant free home.

There are many available products for ant control online. Be weary over the damage that the chemicals may cause to yourself, your family, or other wildlife before using. 

Photo Credit: Designlazy.com

Steps

1- Prevention is the best control; keeping your home clean and tidy means that the ants don’t have to! Keep food stuffs in sealed containers, or in the fridge. Also plug any entrances that you think ants are entering through. Should doorways etc be ‘unpluggable’, use deterrent substances to line the entrances. Talcum powder is a fairly inert substance and is relatively effective in deterring ants. Scents such as vinegar, cinnamon, pepper and cloves, have been reported to be reasonably successful. 

2- Research any poison product’s method of actions to check relevance, and pay particular interest to how poisonous each substance is to children and other animals. Although I do not condone killing animals of any type, you may think otherwise. There are, of course, a huge host of chemicals on the market, however be sure to research into any product’s method of actions to check relevance, and pay particular interest to how poisonous each substance is to children and other animals should this be a concern to you. Should you prefer to not use chemicals, the first port of call is to interrupt their trail: ants use pheromones to inform the rest of the colony of the route to a food source. Firstly, remove the food source, and then clean up the trail of ants and the surface that they are marching on with a house hold detergent. Similarly, a scout or solitary ant, although not seeming to be too much of a threat, will report back to the colony once it has found food. Relocate or destroy solitary ants. Should you wish to use a natural and inert substance that will be delivered to the nest, use cornmeal as a bait. Ingestion of water following ingestion of cornmeal will kill the ants.

3- Remove other natural food sources such as aphids. Ants are actually beneficial to your garden and home in that they rid you of other more harmful pests, so I highly discourage destroying an ants nest. Should you feel otherwise however: Firstly, prevention is the best form of defence against ant colonies. Do this by treating your garden for aphids (a much loved ant food) during the spring and summer months, and the ants will be less inclined to nest in your garden. Should you wish to rid yourself of a located nest, the simplest and cheapest means to destroy a colony is through the use of boiling water- tunnels may be blocked by wet soil preventing the boiling water from reaching the queen, so re-visit the nest every day to check for activity.

Tips

If opting for retail poisons, use and handle with care.