If you have ants wandering around on your table or marching in lines across kitchen floor, you know you have an ant infestation situation. Killing the little invaders with the vacuum might make you feel a fiery vengeance, yet deep down you know that when you turn off the vacuum, more ants will arrive.
Before you pull out your hair, your friends at Pointe Pest Control have a few home remedies that can help.
- Boiling Water: Do not use this one in your home. If you have ant colonies outside that are close your home, they could be the source of the invasion. Bring water to a boil and pour it down the entrance to the ant hill. Use caution, boiling water will kill desirable plants and if the water is hot enough to kill ants; it is hot enough to hurt you too.
- Borax: Mix borax with some powdered sugar and you hold the key to a deadly ant delicacy. The sugar brings them in. The borax will destroy the inner organs. The nice thing about borax is it is not toxic. The downside is you will be sweeping up a lot of dead ants… at least there dead.
- Keep it clean: One of the best home remedies is to keep your kitchen spotless. Your mom will be so proud! That means after every meal, clean up under the kitchen table. Even the smallest crumb will attract your least favorite ants. Keep pet food off the floor. Seal up all of you food containers in plastic.
- Diatomaceous Earth: This stuff is made from the shells of fossilized algae. You might wonder how something so trivial can kill an insect as hardy as an ant. To you, diatomaceous earth feels like powder and is harmless, to an insect it is like walking through shards of glass. The sharp particles cut through the exoskeleton of ants and they dry out and die. Make certain you get food grade diatomaceous earth.
- Vinegar: Your house might start smelling like Easter Eggs, yet you will reduce the number of ants. Ever wondered why ants travel in a line? Scout ants leave scent markers called pheromones. Worker Ants follow the pheromone trails to crumbs, sugary spills and open food. Vinegar disrupts the pheromones and will overpower new attempts to leave scent trails. So, grab your spray bottle and hit the areas where you see ants coming into you home.
Do it yourself pest control can make a difference; however, ants have been around for a long time. Just because you no longer see them does not mean they aren’t still around. Carpenter ants are hard to control because they live within your walls. Other ants, like the Odorous house ant, will split into multiple colonies when threatened. Your battle could turn into an all-out war. When you want the satisfaction of total ant elimination, call Pointe Pest Control. We can get your home ant free and work to keep it that way.
