If you’ve recently discovered ants in your home, you’re likely in a hurry to get them out as soon as possible. No matter the reason for their sudden appearance, having ants scurrying across your kitchen counters, up your walls or along your floorboards is enough to make anyone feel a little less comfortable in their home. How can you relax when these pests could be bringing bacteria into your home or causing damage?
Thankfully, there are many ways you can go about combating ant infestations without having to call in an exterminator. Read on to learn the best home ant removal methods and find one that will work well for you.
How to get rid of ants fast
As soon as you find ants crawling around, you’ll want to set about removing them. While some of these methods will require you to buy supplies, you may already have everything you need on hand to implement others. Here are our top recommendations for home ant removal:
- Citrus: Fruits like lemon and oranges can be used to repel ants from your home, since they dislike things that are sour and bitter. Wash your floors with lemon water or place orange peels where you see ants crawling to send them packing.
- Vinegar: Clean any area on which you’ve seen ant activity with a 50/50 solution of vinegar and water. Ants hate the smell of vinegar and are likely to avoid it, plus it disrupts the scent trail colonies use to alert others of food supplies.
- Baby powder: Sprinkle baby powder in front of suspected entryways—ants will view this as a barrier that they cannot cross, allowing you to keep new ants from coming in and force ants already inside into the traps you’ve set.
- Coffee grounds: Rather than throwing coffee grounds away, sprinkle them around your home’s perimeter to safely and naturally ward off all manner of pests. Since coffee grounds are loaded with minerals like magnesium, phosphorus and potassium, your garden will thank you, too!
- Borax: Mix borax with a sweet substance—such as syrup, sugar, honey or jelly—and place it somewhere ants will find it, but children and pets won’t. Ants will be attracted to the sweet smell, eat the mixture and die soon after.
- Essential oils: Put a few drops of peppermint, citrus, cinnamon or eucalyptus essential oils onto cotton balls, then leave them where you see ants in your home. The strong scents put off by these oils will repel ants.
Any of these options can be a great first step to removing ants from your home. If you want to take a stronger approach to home ant removal, there are many products on the market to trap and kill them. Visit your local hardware store to see what options are available to you.
If you would prefer to bring in expert help rather than trying your hand at removing the ants on your own, contact Excellence Pest Control today. We serve Bartlesville, OK and the surrounding areas and provide free estimates for any home ant removal project you bring our way!