How to Rid Your Home of Ants

Finding ants in your home can be a stressful experience, and getting rid of them permanently can be even more annoying. Many people make the mistake of using temporary methods of removing them, such as using bug spray or powders, eventually making the problem happen again. Fortunately however there are many effective ways of keeping ants at bay, and of keeping them out of the house permanently.

The most important thing to do when trying to rid your home of ants is to recognize why they are entering your house into he first place. Usually they have either found some food and have established a trail to gather it, or they are looking around for food and have stumbled inside by mistake. If they have stumbled inside by mistake then the numbers will generally be fairly small, although will get a lot larger if they find anything edible that they cannot carry alone.

To this end the best way of ensuring that ants don't want to come into your house regularly is to make sure that all food is safely away and sealed and that all surfaces are wiped clean. Peppermint oil mixed in with your cleaner sprays are particularly effective for this, as ants are repelled by mint as well as that fact that the counters will be cleansed of spilt food. It is important to be thorough with this, because as little as a single grain of sugar can attract more ants in search of food.

Similarly if you can see where the ants are getting in, which is usually under a door or through a wall crack, then simply sealing the hole can be effective. Often the best approach is to observe where the ants are going with things that they have found, which is invariably the same way that they are getting in. Once you have found their entrance, either blocking the crack using finishing putty or buying a draught excluder for the door usually work.

Ants are also attracted to humans because of the fact that we give them access to large black bags full of food every week, or as we call it, garbage. Because of the fact that ants will usually find their way into garbage somehow, the best way to keep them away from the house in this respect is to store garbage away from the house. Many people keep their trash cans right next to their back door for example, which is inviting the ants to enter the house and look around. Keeping the garbage at the other end of the yard will help to focus them away from the house itself, and will make them less likely to have to search for food in the area.

At certain times of the year, ants will swarm out from their nests to protect the males and queens as they fly around and leave the nest. The amount of ants on the ground means that much more of the males and queens will be able to fly away successfully and mate. However at the same time if nest is close to your home, then the ants will readily swarm inside your house as well. The easiest way to differentiate this kind of behavior from foraging is that they don't follow trails so much, and that they are all running around in the same area.

If ants are swarming in your house because of this, which usually happens in the middle of summer, then temporary solutions will usually alleviate the worst of the intrusions. These kinds of swarms only usually last a day or two, after which the ants will resume their normal activities, and shouldn't enter your house again unless they discovered an food while they were there. Because of this using some boiling water with dish soap mixed into it is often a good method. This not only kills all the ants on the surface of the ground, but if poured on their nests will melt tunnels as well.

It is well known that ants struggle to cross dish soap as they have trouble breaking the surface tension of the liquid and get themselves stuck in place. However there are all manner of other substances which ants will try to avoid as well. Cayenne pepper for example, as well as mint leaves are both known to be effective for repelling ants. If you know roughly where ants are entering your house, but can't pinpoint an exact spot, then leaving some mint of pepper around might do the trick.