How do I get rid of ants without killing the little buggers?
Posted by rampantrae on May 24, 2008 · Member since Dec 2007 · 11 posts
My mother has, to her horror, discovered ants around our front door and the understairs cupboard. Barring standing on them (which is technically vegan but not very friendly!) is there anything I can do to deter them? My mother is all for antkiller and lots of it.
I have heard somewhere that crushed bayleaves can keep them at bay. Does anyone else have any suggestions? Old wives' tales even?
Many thanks
Rachel
I finally got rid of the ants that were invading my house, but it took me over a month. I tried cinnamon, chili powder, baby powder, lavender oil, tea tree oil, salt, peppermint oil...nothing worked. I finally got some ant killer from Terro, the little ant hotels. I didn't want to, but I had to. They ruined most of my baking stuff, and were taking over our kitchen. Try the stuff I listed, supposedly they don't like walking through the chili powder/cinnamon, and it's supposed to mess w/ the scent of the trail. GOOD LUCK!!!!
I've heard that they won't walk over pepper.
I have problems with ants at work every now and then. I think that they follow a trail of scent, so if there is a way to change the scent they are following, they may go away.
For instance, they kept getting on my desk, so I sprayed a cleaner on the legs of my desk and they stopped getting on it for a while.
Ants tend to follow a scent trail, so observe, try to find where that is, and rub over it with pure bleach. End of scent trail, end of problem--for awhile at least. And put all your attractive stuff (cereal, sugar etc) in glass jars with tight-fitting tops.
We had this problem once... paprika and chili wouldn't work. I've heard boric acid works (I guess you can find it at a hardware store or garden store maybe?), but my roommate resolved on a natural but very unfriendly solution: yeast mixed with molasses. The ants come to eat the molasses and inevitably eat yeast, which expands inside them and kills them. It worked, but artificial ant killer might even be more humane.
We have a serious ant problem where we are and had to break down and buy some liquid ant baits. We found that they work much faster and better than standard ones. Also, nutmeg is a good deterrent. Before we had a chance to buy the baits, I placed nutmeg in the cracks they were coming in and it really did help. Good luck!
We have a serious ant problem where we are and had to break down and buy some liquid ant baits. We found that they work much faster and better than standard ones. Also, nutmeg is a good deterrent. Before we had a chance to buy the baits, I placed nutmeg in the cracks they were coming in and it really did help. Good luck!
Cinnamon works too, I hear. I've had good luck with lavendar or citronella oil.
It depends on the species of ant. Some of them don't like cayenne, some of them don't like lavender, some of them don't like detergent... they have different scenting characteristics and different diets. If you disrupt their scent trails they will stop following them. They build little roads with very durable, but humanly imperceptible ant scents and follow those. Killing them by squishing doesn't really help anyway, as it makes them send the soldiers to investigate. Good luck breaking the scent trails!
http://www.acmehowto.com/howto/pest/ants.php is helpful and not as long as War and Peace... :)
I have ants all over my counter too. Thankfully, not in my cupboards, but I will try cleaning well with the stuff that removed the mold in my bathroom (it's "green" but smells bleachy) & report back with its name & wether or not it worked