Anyone Have a Natural Remedy to Keep Ants Away?

I too have ants on occasion. The very small tiny ones are usually attracted to grease. For these, I have used a product called Terro. It comes in a bottle and only a drop is used at a time - follow directions on box. It goes to the back of your cupboard and can even be taped to the shelf. If they are the bigger black ants, I have used Equal or Splenda. Just sprinkle it near where you have seen them - inside or outside. It may take a couple of days but THIS REALLY WORKS! Seems Nutrasweet started out as a pesticide! Makes one wonder if people should be using it in food or drink... The Terro also works for bigger ants.
Hope this helps your problem.
L.

Wow you have got a lot of great things to try!! I have one more for you... your dish soap. When you are cleaning the counters or even the floor, don't rinse! The ants can't track each other thru the residue. I just use the dish cloth and load it with some dish soap and water and wipe off my counters they don't usually come back. They don't like the soap!

Hello,

I had the same problem last year especially on my countertops. So first i cleaned them with a little bit bleach and water and then i put in the corners bay leaves.
They disappeared! Good luck!

This sounds weird, but it does work in most cases. Use regular household salt around the areas where the ants are coming in. I have place the salt along doorways and window seals, along baseboards or even on the brick patio as they come in from that area which ends up killing the mounds they produce. The ants will ingest the salt causing them to dehydrate and die. It has worked for me and it is cheap and non toxic to animals and children!

hi M., I had some ants in my kitchen one year and couldn't get rid of them. All of a sudden they dissapeared. What happened is I had a jar of honey in one of the cabinets and it wasn't completely closed.
The ants all went in there and drowned.
From then on, when I see ants, I put a little honey in a small cup, leave it out for a couple of days, and they all find their way to the cup and drown....

We had the same problem & tried everything from cinnamon to peppermint oil, nothing worked. finally, I used cornmeal & they were gone. Just walk around the outside perimeter of your house & sprinkle cornmeal, you can also sprinkle it on counter tops too. We did not see any ants the next morning. God Bless.

Yep, Splenda is a natural ant killer. Splenda was originally being created in the lab as an incesticide, not sure who decided it would make a great alternative sweetener...but it works. My sister in law in very rural Ohio tried it last year and was amazed at the results as well as a couple of friends in the city.

Good Luck,
J. W. MPH
Chicago Examiner Family Health Expert
http://www.examiner.com/x-7158-Chicago-Family-Health-Exam...

There is a natural insect spray called Orange Guard that I used with success last year when ants invaded my kitchen. I found it at Ace Hardware. In cabinets I remember my mom using bay leaves.

We spray Tough and Tender by Melaluca. It is a natural product based upon tea tree oil (melaluca oil). It is safe to be around kids and the ants dye fairly quickly. We find if we just keep on it, they go away within a week or less...usually less.

HI M., I don't know if this will help you but we had tons of ants that would come in through the walls in my daughters room. I used regular powder. The white powder that you put on babies butts. I took it and sprinkled it around the walls, all 4 of them. Within 2 days we had no more ants. I am not sure what the powder does, but it is completely safe and it works! I haven't tried it in my livingroom or kitchen, but the bedrooms it really worked out well. Good luck!

I would suggest getting some peppermint oil or capsicum extract and mix in some water and put in a spray bottle. Then spray the affected area with the spray bottle.

Cloves. For some reason they really hate them. I put out whole cloves or ground. And they don't come in that entry way. I do however also put out the little aunt Poison things because I worry about ant farms in the brickwork.

But the cloves will keep them away

The only time I had this problem I used coffee grounds (used) around the doorways/windows/little openings in our (very old) house. It did the job and we never had the problem again. I lived there for five years and no other problems.

M.,
I had ants at my other house. I read that you can use Dawn dish soap-run a line along your baseboards and windowsills where you have seen them or to prevent them. It works. I also recently read that you can put a line of vinegar and the ants won't cross it.

Good luck!
B.

I read in the book Green this.. to use coffee grounds. Put them around the area they ar the worst and where you think they are coming from. I hope this helps.
L.

Funny...I woke up to ants on my floor this morning. So, the first thing I did was get online to find the same exact thing you are requesting. Here are a couple of sites that you could try. I haven't done any of the suggestions yet, just thought I would share what I found:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tips/msg05184943...

http://www.thefrugallife.com/ants.html

http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf152220.tip.html

I hope this helps. I will be trying one of these today. Thinking about the baby powder option.

Good luck!

get either Borax or liquid chalk...go all teh way around the perifery(??0 of your home...the chalk they won't walk across...and they borax they walk through take back to the nest and it kills them at the nest

This time of year the ants are in your house because the ground is too wet and their home is flooded! Yours is nice and dry and they like it!

When I was a kid my parents always but green english walnuts in all of the window sills and near all doorways of the house. They also put them anywhere else they knew that ants were coming in. They hate the smell that the walnut releases as it ripens so they stay out.

You can also make a mixture of sugar and coke and set it out near where they are coming in. They will eat that until they swell up and die.

Good LUCK!

I have also heard of the cornmeal method being effective. You can place piles of cornmeal inside or outside and the ants will take it back to their nest to share with their friends. The ants can't digest it and will therefore die. It may take a few days (and if it rains, you will have to put more out..that is if you put piles outside). Good luck!

Try Crisco. It was suggested for the candy business.

I've heard Splenda works...

We had carpenter ants bad. It wasnt a big deal until the "swarmers" started showing up. They are the ones that are about 3x's as big as regular ants and they have wings.

I found that vinegar works pretty well. They don't like the smell.

But, in order to get rid of the ants completely you will have to find the colony and get rid of the colony. I do not know of any natural remedies to get rid of the colony though.

Anise oil is good to keep them away, but I'm unsure what amount you would need to use to keep them out of your kitchen... splenda sounds like a cheaper option

Hi M. J,

I had that problem too. Do you make a pot of coffee in the morning? Rather then throw the grounds in the garbage take them outside and place a thin unbroken line all the way around your whole house. It works. It lasts for quite a few years, so you have to reapply it periodically. It took 7 years before I was infested again. If you don't make your own coffee ask a friend to collect it for you, or go to a local coffee house or restaurant and ask for their grounds. They may look at you as if your crazy but who cares. Most likely they will give it to you anyway because all they're going to do is throw it away.

Good luck!

A.

I tried Home Defense (the granuals) around the base of our house - in the past, it seemed to work... except this time, it hasn't. I also tried Cayanne pepper - worked in the past. But this time around, they seem be moving the pieces and coming and going (they are coming up thru our floor boards) and they have also been seen in our closed dishwasher plenty of times as well as our bathrooms and living room.

I'm going to try the splenda and ferena and see if that helps.

I get them every year around this time. It usually happens after it rains. I spray Windex with vinager around the edges of any room they come in at. It not only keeps them from coming in, it also keeps the floor really clean aound the edges that a mop can't get to.

Terro ant traps. They are basically just a sugar based chemical free trap and they are better than any chemical ones I have seen. They work! I know they are chemical free because my maltese was a 4 lb. puppy and was able to get into one last year.

M.
First you have to figure out where they are getting. Then you can use sidewalk chalk lines in those places they will not cross a thick line of chalk. Also I jnow you do not like chemical sprays but if you really do not want bugs in the house you want to spray around the outside where the foundation meets the house. Good Luck
J.

You've received a lot of great responses, but I thought I'd add mine as well. A few years ago I lived in a building that had vines growing up the side - beautiful to look at but as I found out, vines = ants. I dripped drops of Spearment oil (essential oil, you can buy it at a health food store, Whole Foods, or I bought mine at Merz Apothecary) along the window sills and the ants were gone. Plus it's a pleasant smell. I didn't check this at the time, but you could probably dilute the essential oil with water and create a "anti-ant" spray. Good luck!

Hi M.,

Last year we had a problem with ants, and looking for a natural remedy, I read somewhere that you could put down some cream of wheat, grits, or cornmeal. So that's what I did. I found out where the ants where entering the house and put cream of wheat along the baseboards. It was a little messy, but being light in color, no one could tell that it was there unless you really looked. And it worked! The ants ate the cream of wheat and died. From what I remember reading, they can't digest the cereal, and their bodies expand. So much so, that it causes them to die. But it takes a couple of days, which gives them time to go back to the colony to die. We did have a few that died in the cream of wheat, so a few little black spots here and there. But for the most part it was a painless soloution, and we haven't had the problem again.

Hope that helps!
Lynn

Hi M., we had a major ant problem!! My mom told me to put cinnamon down and they are gone. My husband also bought a plug in called "Pest Off" It only affects insects not pets. He ordered it and I think it was aroung $15.

Good Luck

Well M. I am in the same boat as you however I have had these ants all year round. I have had small ants thoughout the winter as well and have tried a few different things and nothing has worked so I am axious to see what people say. I was told coffee grounds but that hasn't stopped them. I have yet to find where they are coming from since they are only in my bathroom (which is really weird) and my kitchen. Someone told me to poor Gasoline around the base of my house so it will deter them from coming in. But I am afraid to do that since I could very well have a fire on my hands if someone does something stupid (we dont get along with the neighbor kids so I dont put nothing past them). So please keep the ideas coming. I am really not wanting to bring in companies in with chemicals since I have 5 kids, a dog and right now we have 3 cats and 4 kittens. Mom just had some babies and they soon will be walking around.

Thanks in advance for all the great ideas I am open to them all!!

If you can locate where they are coming in, put down some baby powder there. The ants have a hard time walking thru it and also, the powder gets in their lungs and they have a hard time breathing and will then die.

Good luck,
C.

Ants follow each other through a trail that the head one leaves. So, get rid of the trail. This is what we do. When we find an ant, we spray the immediate area with white vinegar. The vinegar smell leaves after about a minute. It doesn't stain. We also spray along the entryway closest to the ants, both inside and out. This seems to do the trick. When we knew they were coming from our patio, we sprayed an entire 3 french door area from the base of the patio to the bottom of the door. It seemed to help. I have also heard that borax sprinkled in a line around crevices seems to help.

Last year I was very neurotic about this, trying anything and everything to get rid of the ants. Nothing really worked for us.

This year, at the first sight of ants I bought Terro baits from the grocery store. I wouldn't call them 'natural' but you don't have to clean/spray/wipe when you use them. They're little rectangular traps where the ants go in, get the sticky food and take it back to the nest where the queen and resulting colony is killed. The first day I set them out, there was a feeding frenzy. The next day the ants were virtually gone.

I know that the Terro traps aren't 'natural' but if you get to your wits end trying to eradicate the ants without success (like I did last year), you may wish to consider them.

Other things you can do:
-sweep the floor after every meal
-use a mop and bucket of hot soapy water and mop the floor, making sure you really hit the area where the ants are 'trailing' (they trail because they get food on their bodies and 'bump heads' to move the food along)
-no food being stored outside on counters, and if they are in cabinets - yes the ants can get in there too - make sure the food is in sealed containers (ZIP lock style bag or stronger; it isn't good enough to just fold a bag of something over)
-if you have a pet, do not leave the food out all day

Whatever you try, don't waste your money on the electronic pest things. We had one plugged in three feet from the pantry door, and had a huge mouse problem anyway. I can't imagine it being any better with ants.
(Baby powder helped us with the ants). Good Luck!

M.,

I've sprayed vinegar, but it hasn't really worked. My parents had success with Boric acid, which they put in jar lids in places where they were getting ants. I'm pretty sure it's non-toxic, since my parents don't use anything toxic anymore.

Best,
R.

Shaklee's Basic H2!!! Spray the degreaser formula along the path they may be following. Do not wipe it away. You can also try wiping down the surfaces with plain white vinegar, again, do not rinse or wipe it off the surfaces. A persistent combo of these two tactics got rid of our ants.