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
Seed Newsvine
9 comments:
Hello and thank you for posting this valuable information. A question, though, how would you naturally control ant nests in the soil of container plants? Some of these containers are edibles, so natural solutions are a must, but my natural household solution to ants is to pour boiling water on them. I can't however pour boiling water or acidic solutions on living roots, so I end up repotting the plants. This is a poor solution though, because after all of the work, expense and ant bites, the ants remain, and once all of the containers are in my greenhouse for the winter, the nests build up again and also spread to other containers. Please offer some advice on this if you have suggestions. I appreciate your input.
sincerely,
amber
AH yes, one I forgot to write about there are several options for potplants. These include to
1. use the ant baits,
2. spray the pot surface and pot holes with the ant sprays
But thirdly drown the little buggers. by imersing the pot, gently if you can because you don't want the potting mix to float away, (cover the top of the pot around the plant, even if its just with your hand) and lower the pot to where the top of the pot is at the same level as the water.
And keep the pot at this level, stand the potplant on something in the water container if the water is too deep. and leave the pot in the water for at least 15 to 20 minutes.
Do this somewhere outside the house, in case you might get some of the ants surviving and trying to rebuild a nest nearby from where they were evicted.
thank you so much! I will give your suggestions a try. Again, I appreciate your time and advice.
Amber :)
This is great info. Thank! I've been dealing with a few ants nest in my gardens and have found one treatment is never enough. I need to be diligent about repeating the treatment. I did manage to get rid of one big nest.
Ants sure can be pesky.
Thanks for visiting and saying hello. It's always nice to 'meet' a fellow Aussie :) I know what those QLD summers are like even though I lived in NSW..where it's also very hot during the summer, especially compared to NY state!
New to your blog--extremely helpful. Thanks so much for the natural sprays. I hate the chemical ones due to my pets, kids and cost!
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