How to get rid of house ants

Under what conditions will ants start in the house

If you find a lonely roaming ant in your house, it's early to worry. Perhaps he just got off the street on clothes or shoes. But it may also be a dispatched scout who finds out how the area is suitable for living. And he will bring friends with him if he finds available food:

a pot of pasta on the stove or a leaky bag of cereal in a drawer,
dirty dishes in the sink (insects, unlike your other half, like it),
garbage in an open bag or bucket (in addition to ants, this will also attract cockroaches).

The sooner you start taking action, the more chances that insects will be exterminated before they create a nest in your apartment. And in this case, getting rid of the ants will be much, much more difficult. Harmful arthropods will march along the baseboards, along the walls and boxes in orderly rows.

How to get rid of ants if they just appeared

If insects were seen in small numbers, preventive measures are sufficient:

If possible, destroy the scouts by external mechanical impact. In short, just crush them.
Wipe the possible paths with a solution of vinegar or soap (a liter of water, a tablespoon of liquid soap, a couple of drops of citrus essential oil). For convenience, the mixture can be poured into a spray bottle.
Draw barriers. On the ant paths, draw a continuous, centimeter-wide line using crushed activated charcoal or chalk, black pepper, or turmeric. Vaseline or flavored baby powder will also work.
Seal. Block all entrances and exits to the ants: check ventilation, baseboards and all gaps. If it is not possible to plaster and fill the whole house with silicone sealant, scotch tape will be enough as a temporary measure.

How to get rid of ants if they have already settled in your apartment

Aromatherapy

Ants communicate using pheromones: insects need special smells to mark tasty or harmful food, send danger signals and reproduce. On this we will play. Having filled the apartment with pungent smells, we will inform you in the language of aromas who is the boss. So, ants don't like smells:

mint (bunches of fresh or dry can be hung around the house),
garlic (rub the baseboards and the ventilation grill with a clove),
camphor,
chamomile (buy dried flowers at the pharmacy and scatter around the perimeter of the home),
bay leaf (put a couple of leaves in boxes with cereal supplies),
aromatic oils of clove, lavender, lemon and orange.

If you have regular aromatherapy sessions, you may not need to do anything else. If this does not help, then we continue to fight in other ways.

Traps

You can arrange them in places where ants are likely to follow. Traps are made according to one principle: a fragrant bait is placed in the center, and the edges are processed in such a way that insects cannot get out. Here are a couple of examples:

Glue the cardboard or sheet of paper around the perimeter with double-sided tape, and put the sweetness in the middle.
Dissolve a couple of spoons of jam in a glass of water.
Grease the edges of a deep bowl with petroleum jelly, and crumble the cookies inside.

The downside of traps is that they only kill worker ants who are looking for food for the colony. However, the uterus and other insects will continue to live and produce new pests.

Folk remedies

The most effective way is to get worker ants to carry poisoned food into the heart of the colony. So both the young and the uterus will be hit, which means that new individuals will no longer appear.

Boric acid + yolk. Mix boiled egg yolk with honey or jam and 20 grams of boric acid. Roll the mixture into balls and place them where the ants are expected to move. Upgrade the bait until the colony is completely destroyed.
Boric acid + honey. Dissolve a teaspoon of honey and 10 grams of boric acid in a few tablespoons of water (you can also take it in liquid form). Leave droplets of the solution in suspicious places. Update as needed.
Borax + minced meat. Mix both components in an arbitrary proportion, roll into balls and spread around the apartment. Instead of borax, boric acid can be used in dry or liquid form.

Chemical attack

The insecticide market is full of all sorts of tools: crayons, traps, gels, pastes and sprays. Choose any ant repellent, but remember the precautions when using: follow the instructions, wear protective gloves, protect children and animals from poison.

If you are not confident in your abilities, contact an insect control specialist.

Are ants bothering you? If so, how do you deal with them? Share your tips in the comments.