Tips and household remedies How to get rid of ants in the house
Ants are farm animals and should not be killed for no reason. Unless they populate the home and hearth, but even then the animals can usually be kept in check with simple household remedies.
Ants are fascinating creatures, and useful too. And yet you don't want them on your lawn or patio, let alone in your house.
Some species are nature's garbage collectors, while others act as a stork in the broadest sense. They carry away the seeds of many plants so that they can reproduce, but if they crawl in rows across the dining room table, they are simply a nuisance.
Tips for effective ant control
- Find out where they come from: Follow the ant trail and find out which entrance to the house they use. If the ants come from outside, simple household remedies can be effective. However, if they are already nesting in old walls, wooden walls or cable ducts, only professional pest control can help.
- Think of all possible entrances: If an entrance to the house is blocked, the ant will find a new way in. It is therefore best to prepare all windows, doors, joints and cracks at once.
- Repel rather than kill: It is better to avoid killing the ants. The queen senses the loss of her colony and lays several more eggs. As a result, the number of ants can suddenly explode.
- Be patient: Attractants in baits, whether chemical or natural, first attract many times more ants. Before the poison is swallowed, it is first carried into the nest by countless workers. The incubation period from egg to young ant is approx. 14 days. Treatments of any kind should therefore be carried out over a period of at least 3 - 4 weeks.
- Distract ants from your home: If a whole colony overruns your patio while you are sitting on it and eating, you can distract the animals. For example, with pieces of sponge soaked in sugar water or crumpled up balls of cloth, which are then put in the compost along with the ants.
- Avoid open food: Food attracts the animals. The following therefore applies: Leftovers and food in the house should be kept ant-proof in tightly closed containers. Crumbs should also be removed regularly and food bowls for animals should only be left open when they are needed.
- Seal the house: If you can find leaking joints and gaps in the house, you should seal them with silicone. This will prevent ants from getting in in the first place - unless you open doors and windows for them. Adhesive barriers can be applied here.
If just a few ants have strayed into your home, these simple household remedies and the following tips usually have an immediate effect:
The best home remedies against ants
- Build scent barriers: Like humans, ants are sensitive to many a scent. For example, you can build barriers with coffee grounds or coffee powder at the entrances. Both are also a good fertilizer in the bed.
- Fresh herbs: Strongly scented herbs such as lavender, rosemary, mint, juniper or bracken disrupt the animals' sense of direction. The herbs can be sprinkled directly onto the ant trail to deter the animals from making their way inside the house.
- Essential oils: Oils made from thyme, rosemary, juniper, cloves, lavender or tea tree are effective against ants. Simply add a few drops of essential oil to a spray bottle with water and spray the ant trail. You can also buy ant oil made from these essential oils.
- From the kitchen: Cinnamon and lemon are also effective household remedies that almost everyone has at home. Cinnamon powder can be sprinkled directly onto the ant trail. The path of the animals can also be interrupted by the scent of lemon: Place small bowls of lemon water along the path. Or rub the cut surface of a halved lemon directly onto the path.
- Baking soda kills ants: Baking powder containing baking soda is also effective against the little creatures, as this is poisonous to ants. If the powder is poured directly into the anthill, the queen can be eliminated immediately - and with it the entire colony.
Ants in the garden
Incidentally, hobby gardeners usually have a problem with ants if they have a problem with pests. This is because ants like the honeydew of aphids, especially the carbohydrates it contains. This is how they look after the aphids and protect them from predators. The ants even go so far as to transport their little "honey cows" to new plants. In such a case, you should first take action against aphids.
