Tips

Keep your home ant-free with these simple remedies

Jan 20, 2024

Image source: Getty Images

While summer is a great time to be with friends and family, it’s also the most popular time of year for ants to invade your home. With an abundance of food and shelter, it’s common for our homes to become a hotspot for the creepy-crawlies.

Particles of food and sticky surfaces can entice ants at the best of times, while warmer weather conditions can also cause them to set up shop at home. Bug sprays and repellents may kill and deter ants quickly, but they can also cause harm to both humans and domestic pets if not cleaned away afterwards.

Thankfully, there are natural ways people can get rid of ants once and for all. There may even be some hacks and tricks you’ve tried yourself.

Draw with chalk

It seems crazy, but the chalk your grandchildren love so much could actually be an effective way to repel ants.

Just as we don’t like walking through mud or dirt if we don’t have to, ants are quite similar. As people on social media have pointed out, the insects can’t actually stand stepping on to a line of chalk.

“Ants hate chalk,” Twitter user Christine Fox wrote. “Draw a chalk ring around your drink or outline your coasters and they won’t cross the line.”

https://twitter.com/ChristineFox/status/1014302198702850049

Deter them with herbs and spices

If you’ve got herbs and spices in your kitchen, they could do more than just make a meal exciting. Herbs and spices such as black pepper, mint, cinnamon and garlic produce smells that ants don’t like.

It doesn’t just work on ants either, as a number of other critters are turned away by the scent. Leaving the herbs in small bowls or sachets usually works, but cotton balls dipped in oil versions of the spices is also known to have positive effects.

Herbs and spices from the kitchen pantry can often keep ants away. Source: Pixabay

Keep them away with vinegar

Many people already use vinegar for cleaning, but some are unaware it can also be used as a way of keeping the ants away. Numerous blogs note that ants can’t stand its strong smell and that it causes problems with their own scent trails.

Using an equal mixture of water and vinegar, wiping down areas popular with ants can keep them away. It can take several wipes but in time, you’ll notice the ants aren’t sticking around like they used to.

Using vinegar is another great way to keep ants away. Source: Getty

Citrus scents can keep them away

Believe it or not, citrus can be quite harmful for ants, so it’s normal for them to avoid citrus scents like the plague. Many websites suggest that keeping citrus peels near entry points is an effective way of stopping an ant infestation.

Ants will realise it’s harmful and leave in search of another food source. If you don’t like the idea of keeping orange peels or other fruit waste around your home, citrus fragrances or scented spray-and-wipes also do the trick. You can even spray lemon juice and water on effected areas to stop them.