Ant Control

Everyone dislikes the little creepy crawlies, wandering around and destroying things in the house, or farming aphids and the like out on your precious rose or something in the veggie patch, sucking the life and health out of the carefully nurtured plants.

So what can you do about it besides spending lots of money on expensive commercial pest treatments? Well here is a few ideas to try out at your place.

Ants Sprays

Garlic/Pepper Spray - 1 crushed clove of garlic, (or a teaspoon of crushed garlic), 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper, 1 quart of water. Steep for 1 hour and then add, 1 tablespoon of liquid soap. Spray this mixture, around the house or garden problem areas. This will have to be reapplied after a while.

Orange Peel Spray – In a blender pop some orange peels and water, blend well, and strain. Use the strained liquid in a spray bottle around the house.

Essential Oil Spray - Fill a spray bottle with water and add approximately 10 - 15 drops of essential oil, (eucalyptus, citronella, orange, peppermint, lemon tee tree or clove oil). Ants won't cross the area because they hate the smell. However cats may find the smell of the peppermint oil extremely attractive, though it is not good for them.

Even one of these oils soaked onto a piece of string or a cottonwool ball or a small piece of rag etc, stuck across their path will work

Citrus Spray - Mix orange/ grapefruit juice or vinegar, water and liquid soap together (equal parts) and spray the area. Appears that the acid content is what gets them. You probably will need to repeat this several times to finally stop the ants.

These types of sprays will also work to an extent on other household pests like cockroaches.

Ant Baits

1. - Mix about a half teaspoon each of honey/syrup, boric acid/borax, and sugar/aspartame (artificial sweeteners), (Artificial sweeteners are supposedly poisonous...)

2. - Mix equal parts of boric acid/borax and mint jelly/peanut butter, or some other sweet pasty type product.

Spread either mix over a cracker or onto a jar lid or in a small jar tipped on its side or something similar.

Hide either of these in a small cardboard box and place near where ants are active or coming in, and ants will carry the bait back to their colonies.

These must be kept away from pets and children, and are best used indoors.

Ant Deterrents

Cucumber peelings or slices, left in ant walkways.

Red chilli or dry mustard made into a paste using a little water, wiped over areas. (Tabasco or hot sauce based pastes can also work).

Lemon juice, white vinegar or half strength cider vinegar sprayed or wiped over the areas with a problem or at the ant entrance points.

Use white or yellow chalk to draw lines across ant walkways or entrances. (Other coloured chalks may stain) You could try drawing lines with the edge of a bar of soap, along the lines of a chalk stick. Or drawing the lines with petroleum jelly.

Try using the environmental cleaning products which have an orange oil base in them for cleaning or spraying in the ants way.

Sprinkle

Cayenne or red chilli pepper, cloves, coffee grounds, cinnamon, baking soda, cream of tartar, bone meal, baby powder (Scented Talcum Powder), table salt, black pepper which is sprinkled around the areas where ants are coming in or travelling to, to disrupt their walkways.

Leaves

Cloves or dried mint, bay, lavender or eucalyptus leaves, either whole or crushed, and sprinkled around in cupboards and drawers. (eucalyptus leaves may be poisonous if swallowed by kids or pets).

With ants aversion to citrus oils you would also expect that citrus leaves or even citrus peel to also have a similar effect, though I have not tried this yet.

Tea bags of mint tea left around are also supposed to be an effective deterrent in confined spaces.

Ant Nests

When you find an ants nest pour boiling water or straight vinegar down the entrance hole/s to try and destroy nest/s, this may need to be repeated a few times to effect the result you want.

If you find multiple nests, you could try digging up a bucketful from one nest and dumping these on top of a second nest. The ants being very terrirorial will fight and kill each other.

Clean up

Clean up spills or drips on honey and syrup jars, sugar bowl, food scraps, leftovers and rubbish.

Clean any spills, crumbs etc. sweep floors etc. In other words do everything you can to minimize attractants.

Place a water tray under pet’s food bowls or keep them clean between the pets using them.
Clean benches with vinegar or orange oil based cleaners.

Caulking or otherwise blocking up any little holes or openings where they are gaining access.

Future Prevention

Grow plants that give out scents of pyrethrum, citronella, lavender, eucalyptus or mint near doorways or at other places that ants are likely to use to gain entrance to your home.

Aussies can probably look at using eucalyptus mulch around entranceways to discourage ant entry. Though don’t expect great control because our ants are used to being in an environment with the eucalyptus leaves….Might be better off trying lemon tea tree (Leptospermum petersonii) leaves, around the home.

Look at clearing stacked timber, or plants growing up against the building. Look at managing insects that normally live in company with ants like aphids and mealy bugs.

Note: Mints are invasive if allowed to actually grow in gardens in many parts of the world. So are often better in a pot or in a garden bed with a root barrier around them.

NOTE: See also posting on Killing Ants in Plant Pots

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