Ants are one of the most common household pests. No matter how clean your home is, all it takes is one night of not rinsing off your dinner plates and the following morning a little black line of ants are foraging for your leftovers. The common garden ant is not considered dangerous, nor are they expected to carry any diseases but an ant problem is extremely annoying. If they manage to find their way into your kitchen cupboards they can cause havoc, by burrowing into your food.
Here are eight quick and handy DIY tips for preventing an ant problem in your home:
1. Sprinkle baby powder along the door and window frames in the house as it is a natural repellant to ants. It is not quite an ant poison but ants do not like to cross lines of powdery substances.
2. Vinegar can end your ant problem once and for all – all you need is a spray bottle to ward off these bugs. Ants simply do not like vinegar. It also kills off scents of the ants trails meaning they cannot find their way back home.
3. Peppermint is like ant poison – they can’t stand the smell. Use a spray bottle to spray peppermint oil mixed with lemongrass and citronella to deter these pests.
4. Cinnamon and cayenne pepper are another two handy household ingredients that will deter ants from entering your home. Sprinkle these two spices around window sills and doors to prevent an ant problem or to get rid of one.
5. Sprinkle yellow mielie meal around wherever you believe the ants are coming from. They will attempt to take the mielie meal home and eat it but they cannot digest it properly as their system will swell.
6. Wash your dishes after every meals and keep the sink clean, so that there are no leftovers that attract these pests.
7. Keep your bins a distance from your home – for instance, keep them near your garage or at the end of your driveway. In this way, if an ant problem persists it will do so outside of the home.
8. Keep your counters, tabletops and the like dry. Ants are attracted to water and like to create a nest near sources of water.
To be permanently rid of an ant problem in your home, you may need to call in the professionals.
As experts in the field of pest identification, control and prevention we have permanent ant control methods and ant poisons that will ensure your ant problem is dealt with once and for all. No matter the species of ant that you find in your home, there are professional methods available to sort it out. While the DIY methods listed above are sound, sometimes a professional service is necessary and certainly the most permanent way of getting rid of these pests in your home.
To find out more about pest control please contact one of our branches nearest to you or, browse through our free Guide to Pest Identification and Prevention at a Glance.
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Image credit – The Wall Street Journal
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