Need to get rid of ants, but don’t want to call an exterminator? There are lots of tips online to kill ants, but not all of them actually work.
Believe me. I’ve tried.
Did you know a single ant queen can generate thousands of eggs a day? So creepy to even imagine, right?
When you see one ant and kill it, there are potentially hundreds and hundreds more you haven’t yet seen. It can be a battle to kill ants that are pouring into your home, but the methods I’m sharing today will make it much easier.
A word of caution: if you have pets and children, please be careful. Don’t leave treatments where little fingers or paws can get to them.
Ways to Get Rid of Ants for Good!
1. Get rid of their safe space outside.
Ants like damp places. They like to nest in water damaged places like parts of a home’s siding.
They also really appreciate the bridges you’ve given them.
Bridges can be anything that makes moving from their colony into your home easy. Walk the perimeter of your house and look for things that are touching your house. Things like wet leaves, bushes, tree limbs, and piles of wood need to be removed or cut back.
2. Vinegar is a great way to stop ants from communicating with each other.
Scout ants come in your home first, looking for food or water sources. They leave an invisible scent trail behind them so other ants know where to go.
Put 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water in a spray bottle, and generously spray around the area where you’ve seen ants. Try to find where they’re getting in and spray that area heavily.
Be warned: when vinegar evaporates it’s no longer effective at masking scent trails. You’ll need to stay on top of it.
3. Keep cinnamon oil on hand.
Not just any cinnamon oil, mind you. You need a good oil.
Soak a cotton ball in plenty of cinnamon oil and wipe areas where you’ve seen ants come in, and where you’ve seen them walking around.
Once you’ve done that, place your soaked cotton ball at every entry point you can find.
Cinnamon powder and sticks have not been proven to work.
4. Duct tape won’t look pretty, but it works.
Cut off a length of tape and place it, sticky side up, where ants are getting in.
5. Make them a deadly dessert.
Mix Borax with some powdered sugar, pour it in shallow containers and leave the containers out where you’ve seen ants.
The ants will gobble it up and take the sticky Borax back to their colony where it will kill the rest.
For this to work, you can’t kill the ants you see. If you do, there will be no ants to take the Borax back to their home and so new ants will keep coming.
6. Leave ants a welcome mat of cayenne pepper.
Use the pepper as a deterrent at the places you’re seeing ants get in. It won’t kill them, but they definitely don’t want to walk through it.
7. Food-grade diatomaceous earth is your new BFF.
If you haven’t heard of diatomaceous earth, prepare to have your mind blown. First of all, it’s easy to get and inexpensive. You can order it from Amazon, or pick some up at Home Depot.
(Be sure it’s food-grade because it’s non-toxic to humans and pets.)
It’s so great at killing ants because it destroys their exoskeletons as they move through it. Once that happens, it dries up the body fluids in the ants.
Sprinkle the product everywhere you see ants.
Food-grade diatomaceous earth is actually recommended by vets for use in several ways with animals. If you have a fur baby, talk to your vet about other ways you can use it.
8. Grow some mint.
Mint is so easy to grow, even for the brownest of thumbs. It’s a natural pest deterrent, which is why so many gardeners grow it near other plants and flowers.
Plant some outside around your house. Wouldn’t hurt to have some growing in the house, too.
How do you Get Rid of Ants?
Do you call an exterminator? Buy ant traps? Do you have another DIY solution that I didn’t mention?
You’d be doing me a big favor if you’d share your expertise in the comments. Thank you!
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2 comments on “10 Super Clever Ways to Get Rid of Ants for Good!”
I like that you mentioned that you can make a deadly dessert with borax for ants. My mom has found a colony of ants living in her basement and she wants to get rid of them as soon as she can. I think we’ll try this and if it doesn’t work then we can hire a professional to do it.
I get swarms of 100’s of thousands of ants in my yard so I use white vinegar and baking soda to get rid of them. So satisfying! Probably vinegar alone would work but the baking soda adds a little more killing potential.