Natural Ways To Keep Ants Out Of Your Kitchen
If you have started noticing a few ants crawling around your kitchen floors and cabinets, you may wonder if there is anything you can do to keep them out without resorting to chemicals. If so, try using one or more of the following ways to naturally keep ants out of your kitchen.
Block the Ants' Entryways With Caulk
The first thing you can try in your attempts to keep ants out of your kitchen is to keep them from getting in there at all. You can do this by filling up their entryways with caulk.
When you see ants walking around in a straight line in your kitchen, resist the urge to start squishing them. Instead, follow the trail to see where they are coming in. Once you find the entry point, fill it up with caulk. However, since ants will try to find other points of entry, also look around for any gaps around your doors, windows, light fixtures, and electrical plates. If you find any, fill these in with caulk as well.
Erase Their Scent Trails With Vinegar
Another thing you can do either alone or along with caulking up the ants' entryways is to erase their scent trails. When ants find desirable food, they leave behind a trail to let others in the colony know where to go. However, if you spray vinegar on the scent trails, the strong odor of the liquid will erase their smell, which can confuse them. You can also wipe down your counters with a solution of half water and half vinegar to eliminate the smell of the food that is attracting them to begin with.
Bait Them Outside With Sugar Water
If you are able to locate the exact points where the ants are coming into your home, you can also bait them outside before they even reach the wall. You can do this by placing out a coffee can full of sugar water to attract the ants.
However, you also need to put something in the water to either kill or trap them. You can mix in a few tablespoons of borax to dry the ants from the inside out to kill them. One advantage of using this method is that the ants will take the borax back to the colony where others will also eat it. The drawback of this plan is that the borax can also harm animals, so if you have pets, do not use the borax method.
Instead, you can drop dish detergent on top of the water. When the ants go into the coffee can, the slimy detergent will create a film that will make it difficult to leave, trapping the ants inside and eventually drowning them. Using the above methods can help keep ants from invading your kitchen. However, if your kitchen is already overrun with the tiny insects, contact a pest control service to have them send someone to determine the extent of the infestation and discuss with you options for getting rid of the ants once and for all.
For more information, contact a company like E & R Exterminating Company, Inc.