7 Effective Methods to Get Rid of Ants Naturally (2023)

FAQs

What keeps ants away permanently? ›

Two of the best ways to eliminate ants are Borax and diatomaceous earth. Essential oils, including peppermint and clove, are a natural way to repel and kill ants. Food and moisture attract ants, so keep your home clean and dry to get rid of ants permanently.

Try combining three parts powdered sugar with one part boric acid. The sugar will lure the ants in and the boric acid will kill them, Pereira says. Liquid is better—adult ants prefer to drink their food—so water this stuff down a little.

Better Than Hopscotch: Ants will not cross a chalk line. Draw a chalk line in front of exterior doors, to prevent ants from coming into the house. You can also draw a chalk line around tables on the porch or patio, to keep pesky ants away while dining outdoors.

Boiling water is an easy, effective way to kill ants immediately. If you see ants emerging from a crack in the concrete or a hole in the ground, pour boiling water into the area. This will kill many of the ants within it.

Both cayenne and black pepper repel ants. Ants hate cayenne pepper. Black pepper will work just as well too. Locate the source of the ant infestation problem, sprinkle some pepper around that area and if possible, create a wall that will stop the ants from accessing your household.

Using citrus fruits

Ants hate the smell of strong citrus fruits. Save your orange, lemon and grapefruit peels and scatter them around entry points. It's a natural way to deter ants without harming them.

"Mix equal parts of vinegar and water, place the mixture in a spray bottle, and spray on the ants directly," says Barrett. "The mixture will kill them and you can clean the area by collecting the dead ants using a wet wipe or damp cloth," they add.

Vinegar: Wiping ants with a solution of equal parts of vinegar and water or only vinegar may work the best. Spray the mixture of a cup of water, a cup of vinegar, and tea tree oil (5-10 drops) on ants. White vinegar kills and repels the ants. Apple cider vinegar and water solution spray can also help.

Dryer sheets, especially scented ones, have gotten a bad rap as of late. But these very same fragrance-laden fabric softeners are an excellent ant deterrent (among many other hack-type uses for dryer sheets, if you need to finish off a pack).

How do I get rid of ants permanently without killing them? ›

Use natural ant repellents.

A cinnamon stick, coffee grinds, chili pepper, paprika, cloves, or dried peppermint leaves near the openings will repel ants. You can also squeeze the juice of a lemon at the entry spot and leave the peel there. Planting mint around the foundation of the house will also keep ants away.

On the other hand, plain table salt does not. It is only effective in intercepting the ants. This should not be applied on heavy ant-infestation.

The main reason is they live in huge colonies, each of which has hundreds of thousands of individuals. Their sheer number makes it difficult to kill them all. Even if you locate their nest, destroy it, and kill every ant in it, there will still be many survivors who were out foraging at the time.

Mix borax powder or boric acid with sugar, syrup, peanut butter, or another food that attracts ants. Use both liquid and solid bait foods so the adult ants and larvae will eat them. Place the baited borax or boric acid near a place where you've seen lots of ants.

“The most effective method for controlling an ant infestation is using ant baits. Set them out anywhere you see ants and expect a party,” Gangloff-Kaufmann says. “If you still see ants around the house, try a few different brands of baits until you find one that's appealing to this particular colony.”

Ant Prevention: Spray Ant Entry Points

After ridding the house of ants, take steps to ensure they don't come back. Caulk and seal holes, and then spray insecticide around doors and windows. An insecticide that contains bifenthrin, permethrin or deltamethrin is one way how to get rid of ants.

Salt, baby powder, lemon juice, chalk, vinegar, bay leaves, cinnamon, or peppermint oil are a few items that you have around your home that will stop ants from coming inside. Lay these out in areas where you see ants, and they'll stop using that area as an entrance into your house.

Flour. Wondering how to get rid of ants without dangerous pesticides? Sprinkle a line of flour along the backs of pantry shelves and wherever you see ants entering the house. Repelled by the flour, ants won't cross over the line.

While the propellants and other chemicals associated with deodorants can kill individual fire ants, they definitely do not provide long-lasting and effective control.

What kills small ants in kitchen? ›

Boric acid is a fairly common form of pest control that kills insects upon ingestion. Mixing boric acid with another substance that attracts ants, like sugar or honey, will lure them in and then shock their central nervous system.

Use this white vinegar solution to spray all entry points of your home, try to spry all windows, doors, baseboards and the common paths that ants would travel within your home. Give about an hour for this solution to take effect, then after a few hours the ants should be dead.

For ants, hydrogen peroxide is fatal, but when placed between a rock and a hard place, scientists found they'll drink the substance to cure themselves, New Scientist reports. Researchers fed one group of healthy ants a honey-based solution diet.

If you have ants or other bugs around the house, pour a 50/50 mixture of Blue Dawn dish soap and water into an empty spray bottle and keep it handy. When you see the insects, spray them with the mixture.

Use Zip-Lock Bags

If you open a bag of food and don't seal it properly, it won't take ants long to find it and alert the rest of the colony, and you will have a problem on your hands before you know it.

Ziploc Bags

Food items like flour and sugar are often targets for ants and other small bugs. It is easy for ants to get inside bags of flour and sugar because they just do not stay sealed.

This home remedy is somewhat effective: grabbing a spray bottle of Lysol and dousing a few ants will kill them. Still, using household cleaners as ant control isn't an effective long-term solution. That's because ants live in colonies: where there is one ant, there are hundreds or even thousands of others.

A: Thanks for the tip. We heard about an even more unorthodox method of killing bugs: “A better way to kill insects is ordinary hair spray. Most households already have it, and the spray is sticky. It makes the wings of flying insects unusable and seals the breathing orifices to suffocate the insects.

Ants hate Vinegar. The smell of Vinegar will cause them to stay away from it or permanently leave the house. Ants crawl in a straight line, marching towards the food sources. The Vinegar solution will interfere with these pheromones, and the ants will get lost.

Cinnamon is often regarded as an effective DIY ant control option. It is believed that cinnamon acts as a natural repellent because ants cannot stand the smell. Also, if an ant inhales cinnamon, it can suffocate and die. Ground cinnamon can be sprinkled on an ant's pathway for them to inhale.

Do ants like black pepper? ›

Deter with Ground Black Pepper

Ants are irritated by the smell of black pepper, and it's very effective at killing them when mixed with water in a spray bottle. The mixture of black pepper and water has been known to work within 24 hours of application to eliminate ants.

Make a colony-killing bait by blending equal parts Borax and corn syrup. Smear on a small piece of cardboard or index card. Ants love corn syrup, and when they eat it, the Borax kills them. Sprinkle food-grade Diatomaceous earth (DE) along ant trails.

Ants hate the smell of strong citrus fruits. Save your orange, lemon and grapefruit peels and scatter them around entry points. It's a natural way to deter ants without harming them.

Ants are not fond of the smell of mint so growing these plants around your home is a great deterrent. You can also cut off sprigs of mint and place them inside cupboards and other areas of your home to ensure that ants stay away. Other scents that deter ants are citrus scents, peppermint, and eucalyptus.

After 24-h starvation three of the baits did not result in any queen deaths, with only Exterm-an-Ant producing an average of 25% mortality. In contrast, 100% queen and worker mortality was observed in colonies starved for 48 h and given Xstinguish or Exterm-an-Ant.

Because ants swarm, once you have an infestation, they can be difficult to dislodge. It takes vigilance and a combination of treatments using both home and perimeter insect control, but an ant problem can typically be resolved within a week or two. Follow-up prevention is key to ensure that they do not return.

Ants hate cayenne pepper. Sprinkle some cayenne pepper or black pepper around that area to repel ants. Make a concoction by mixing pepper + water and spray the solution at the ants. This solution will deter ants from coming back.

Ants generally don't like vinegar, citrus smells, or spices, and are also turned off by pepper and baby powder. Even the delicious smell of a morning brew will send ants running in the other direction.

Baking soda; vinegar; lemon juice; some detergents (and cleaning products); Tabasco sauce (and other spicy substances, such as red chili pepper, black pepper and cayenne pepper) usually repel ants to varying degrees, and you may have seen them trapped in these circles.

The smell of Vinegar will cause them to stay away from it or permanently leave the house. Ants crawl in a straight line, marching towards the food sources. The Vinegar solution will interfere with these pheromones, and the ants will get lost.

What kills ants other than vinegar? ›

Step 3: For more widespread control, mix equal parts baking soda and powdered sugar to create an ant bait. Ants will be attracted to the sugar and eat it, then take it back to the nest for other ants to eat it, too. They'll ingest the baking soda with the sugar and die.