Proven Ways to Get Rid of Ants in Your Apartment
You’re cooking up your favorite recipe in your apartment when all of a sudden – ants. You see ants lining up all over your counters and no matter how many you get with the so-called killer spray, they keep coming.
Clean, clean, clean
Before you start any method to get rid of ants, you’ll need a blank slate. This seems obvious, but sometimes, a few unseen food crumbs or small spills can be the culprit. Spend a weekend afternoon deep cleaning your apartment – sweep and mop all corners, take out the trash, clean out the inside of your trash can and clear out all food from counters. Lastly, spray any places where you’ve seen ants before – yes, they leave a scented trail for others to follow – with a one part vinegar with three parts water mixture in a spray bottle.
Lemon juice
Lemons are incredibly useful beyond cooking. They can be used for cleaning as well as deterring ants from setting up shop in your kitchen. Squeeze a few lemons into a spray bottle and find any holes and cracks around your apartment where the ants may be sneaking through, followed by sealing them with caulk. The acid deters them as it messes with their tracking and encourages them to go elsewhere.
Cinnamon oil
Grab a Q-tip dipped in high-concentrated cinnamon oil and draw borders around the apartment’s entry points and common areas where the ants are entering the home. It’s been proven by a 2014 study that it helps repel and even exterminate ants.
Peppermint oil
Grab a bottle of peppermint essential oil and add about 15 to 20 drops (plus a few of lemon oil if you have it) into half a cup of water in a spray bottle. Shake the bottle hard to mix everything and spray along the baseboards, any ant trail spots you’ve seen in the past and all entry points. Repeat every few days until the ants are gone. Peppermint also deters other pests like cockroaches – and even mice.
Homemade Pesticides to Get Rid of Ants
An infestation of ants can make spending time in and around your garden a less-than-pleasant experience. These pests can also damage your plants by disturbing their roots and protecting other insect pests like aphids, which feed on the plants. Instead of spraying your plants with potentially toxic insecticides, use natural remedies to rid your garden of them. Most of these natural pesticides contain ingredients you probably already have in your home.
Citrus Oil
Citrus oil, including orange and lemon oil, is toxic to ants and won’t harm your garden plants. Many natural insecticides contain orange oil, but you can make your own using 3/4 cup of orange essential oil, 1 tablespoon of molasses, 1 tablespoon of dish soap and 1 gallon of water, recommends
Spray the mixture on and around garden plants to get rid of the ants in your garden and in your home. If you don’t have orange oil, simply boil the rinds of five or six oranges in water for 15 minutes until soft. Place the rinds in a food processor along with the liquid used to boil them, to create a slurry that you can pour around your garden plants.
Soap
While you can purchase insecticidal soaps to kill ants in your garden, make your own instead, using simple dish soap. Add 1 teaspoon of dish soap to 1 pint of warm water and stir. Spray the soapy water directly on plants and around your garden to eliminate ants. Because ants don’t like peppermint oil, you can also use a liquid soap, such as castile soap, containing peppermint oil and mix it with water in the same ratio to rid the garden of ants. If ants persist, you can increase the amount of detergent in your mixture, but too much detergent may harm your plants because it is phytotoxic in large amounts.
Borax Bait
Create homemade ant bait using borax, which is toxic to ants. Combine 1/2 teaspoon of borax with equal parts honey and a sugar substitute, recommends the Sonora Environmental Research Institute. Spoon the mixture into open bottles or jars and place the containers on their sides around your garden plants. The ants will crawl into the containers, carrying the toxic bait back to their queen, and the colony will die. You can also mix 3 cups of water with 1 cup of sugar and 4 teaspoons of borax. Dip bread in the mixture and cover it with peanut butter.
Ant behaviour
These tiny insects live in well-organized societies and have a knack for making life a little less pleasant.
Field or pavement ants
Field or pavement ants are brown or black and small in size. They are constantly looking for food and thrive in sandy areas, generally nesting outdoors near house foundations or in cracks in foundations and asphalt surfaces and between paving stones. You can spot these types of ants by the sand craters they leave behind as they dig their tunnels.
Carpenter ants
Carpenter ants are usually black, with hints of red or brown, and measure from 7 mm to 10 mm (0.3 to 0.4 in) in length. They are the largest ants found. Unlike termites, carpenter ants do not eat wood. They dig galleries in wood softened by moisture to build their nests. Their natural habitat is forested areas, but some colonies settle near houses, especially in stacks of firewood, in tree stumps or in the rotting structures of fences, porches or balconies.
Are ants useful or bothersome?
In the forest, ants are a source of food for various birds and animals.
They contribute to the decomposition of trees and stumps and stir up soil by tunnelling.
Carpenter ants may be a sign of a moisture problem in a house and of a weakening of its structure. Observing where the ants gather can help pinpoint the problem
There a number of simple things you can do to deter ants.
- Outside
Get rid of any waste wood on your property, and store any firewood away from the house.Cliquer pour ouvrir la boîte d’information supplémentaireCliquer pour ouvrir la boîte d’information supplémentaire
Cut back any tree branches that are touching the house.
Repair any cracks, including gaps around doors and windows.
- Inside
Put screens on all doors and windows and repair them as needed.
Keep food in tightly sealed contenants.
Keep the kitchen floor and counters clean.
Empty your kitchen trash bin frequently.
Inspect high-moisture areas of the house, wood structural elements that are exposed to the outside, and areas where wood touches the ground.
Guide to Carpenter Ants
Carpenter ants can damage any type of building by tunneling through wood pieces. They nest in damp or rotten wood. They don’t actually eat the wood they tunnel through; they live on food, insects, and even candy. However, these insects can cause severe damage to your home’s foundation and are difficult to get under control after they infest an area.
What Do Carpenter Ants Look Like
Have you ever taken a walk around the neighborhood and noticed those abnormally large black ants that sometimes have wings? Chances are you’ve just bumped into a carpenter ant. Carpenter ants are one of the easier kinds of ants to spot due to their dark color and large bodies
Their sizes range from ¼ to ½ of an inch, making them one big ant to deal with.
Their color is typically dark, most common is black.
Male and female swarmer carpenter ants will have a set of wings, but the queen and worker ants do not.
These ants have a heart-shaped head, rounded thoraxes, and larger abdomens.
Like all ants, carpenter ants will have six legs and two antennae.
Where Do Carpenter Ants Live?
Carpenter ants love moist wood although, in a pinch, they will seek shelter in dry wood. Places like kitchens and bathrooms make a great home for these pests as leaky faucets from sinks and bathrooms provide them with all the moisture they need. They are also known to make homes near poorly sealed window frames and chimneys, as well as by any roof leaks.
Carpenter Ants vs Termites
Did you know that carpenter ants can cause more damage than termites? Although carpenter ants do not eat the wood, they will chew wood so that they can create tunnels. You can tell the difference between carpenter ants and termites by looking at their wings, color, waist, and antennae.
How to Get Rid of Ants
While there are wide range of do-it-yourself products available in the market to get rid of ants, an effective control requires a professional pest control service to manage the infestation and minimize recurrence.
Getting Rid of Ants in Your Home
Although many homeowners struggle with do-it-yourself ant control remedies, the results are often less than satisfactory. Small problems can develop into large ones and this is when many people seek out the services of a pest control professional.
experienced service technicians have identified the ants species, they will provide you with our most effective solutions to deal with them efficiently. This gives you reassurance that the problem is in good control while ensuring the safety of your family and pets. Once the ants have been dealt with, you can take necessary precautions to keep ants away for good
Getting Rid of Ants in Your Business Premises
Professional ant control service is the most effective way to get rid of ant infestation from your business. Besides treatment using pesticides,
expert will follow the PEST approach to ensure your long-term protection:
Partnership – Cooperation with clients and sharing of roles in pest management is crucial
Education and Exclusion – Talks and education materials to enforce general good housekeeping practices to remove food debris and spillages with recommendations on proofing potential entry points such as wall cracks and crevices
Sanitation – Proper waste disposal process and sanitation to reduce infestation
Treatment – Use of the correct ant control treatment for your individual circumstances