Troubled by ants? Jot down some smart and effective homemade ant killer methods from this article, and drive those pesky pests away from your home.
When it comes to ants, one is a wonderful number! Ants can be a bane on your life when they frequently infest your house. No matter how many of them you squash or drown with water, you will always notice another group of ants happily foraging around a corner of your kitchen or elsewhere, as if nothing ever happened. They just keep coming.
So what can you do to end such a menace and make your house ant-free? Running down to your local store for some wicked insecticide may be a good idea, but it may burn a hole in your pocket at the same time. Another option could be making some of your own ant killing products at home; they are not only cost-effective but safe on the environment as well. Here they are:
Sugary Baits
Take some jam and mix it with some boric acid. Put the mix in a container and place it at a spot frequented by the ants. Another ant killer solution includes boric acid, sugar and warm water. Make a mix of boric acid and sugar. Add warm water and keep stirring. This keeps the mix from getting lumpy. Do not add too much water though; the mix has to have some viscosity.
Things to remember:
- If your bait contains too much of boric acid, then it might fail to attract any ants. And at the same time, a bait with too less boric acid may not work as well. So here you would have to try to adjust the ratio of the acid and the other ingredient and see what works the best.
- Add some jam or sugar syrup to the edge of the container so that the ants may easily find it.
- If your bait is well-made then you might see an increased activity of ants around the area where you have placed it. You may want to kill them as soon as you see them. But that defeats the purpose of bringing down the entire colony. So let some of the ants carry their treat back to their nests for the other ants to feast on it.
- Other ingredients you may choose to mix with boric acid include honey, peanut butter, maple syrup, jelly, and molasses.
Caution:
Boric acid may be harmful if consumed in large amounts. So if you have kids or pets around, you might not want to take any risk. To avoid any accidents, close the container of the bait and punch some holes in the lid for the ants to crawl in. Pour a drip or two of sugary solution on the lid. It is also advisable to place the bait in areas inaccessible by pets or children.
Other Ant Killers
- If you think mixing jam or sugar and boric acid is messy work, then you could also try a simple mixture of soap and water. Prepare the solution and spray it on the ants when you see them. However, be prepared to get rid of the dead remnants, as there would be many.
- Get some fresh orange peels and let them sit in water for about a day. Thereafter, use the solution as an ant killing spray. For best results, use it regularly.
- Kill ants by giving them a nice healthy meal (well, healthy for us!). Sprinkle some pieces of instant oatmeal or grits in places where you see the ants appearing. It is best if you can just get the food to their nest. Once the oatmeal goes inside the ants, it will expand so much that the ants won’t be able to hold it anymore. This technique also needs to be applied more often for better results.
- If you do not want to kill ants but just want them to be away from your house then you can make use of essential oils made from peppermint or spearmint. Ants do not bother inhabiting places having the smell of these oils. Make a mix of any of these oils with water and spray it on places frequented by the insects.
- If you are able to trace the entrance point of the ants to your house, then get some turmeric powder and sprinkle it on the entrance and the path where the ants appear. This will keep them from entering your house. The same can be done using chalks. Draw thick lines using some chalk near all the openings in your house. The calcium carbonate in the chalk acts as an insect repellent.
You should be able to control an ant invasion in your house by using one or more of the above homemade ant killers. However, if you notice that they are not working as supposed to, then most probably you might require the help of a professional exterminator.