How many times have you placed a half eaten piece of sweet on the table and went to answer the doorbell, but found on coming back a colony of ants dragging your leftover to their safe abode? Ants are persistent to say the least, their ability to detect micro-smells, blame it on their pheromone trails they can pick up smells from great distances. You cannot avoid them. They are always on their way to get your food. You are tired of dumping everything in the refrigerator, from icing sugar, to other food items for the fear of ants, and want to get rid of them forever. Most people resort to chemical pesticides that keep ants, cockroaches among other pests at bay, but then aren’t you exposing your kids and pets to residual chemicals from these pesticides.
We suggest some very natural ways to keep ants off your home. These are super easy hacks you can practice easily and are more effective than market-bought pesticides.
1. Scatter cinnamon around your kitchen
The smell of cinnamon perplexes ants by throwing their pheromone trails off balance. Cinnamon affects the ant’s navigation ability, and hence it stays away. Sprinkle cinnamon powder on cracks on the wall, around the garbage can, corners of windows, and all other places they enter your house from. Cinnamon essential oil is also a good substitute for cinnamon powder, just sprinkle a few drops around these spots.
2. Vinegar and water, a potent ant repellent
Have you ever wondered how so many ants find a way to your food all at once? Well, it is always the forager ant that finds the food first, he then marks out a trail that leads other ants from the same colony to the source of food. With each trip an ant makes, the scent trails are intensified. So, take one portion white vinegar and one potion water, blend it well and pour it into a spray bottle. Now, spray this concoction at your entrances, near pipes, dust bin, behind the oven, anywhere you suspect them to enter the house from.
3. Draw a Lakshman-Rekha for the ants
Ants and chalk don’t mix. Have you noticed ever that ants don’t traverse over chalk, they fear getting covered in that stuff and dying. Draw out bold, broad lines with white chalk at all these crevices ant use to get to your food, and they won’t come back.
4. Make ant balls with essential oils
If nothing is doing the trick for you, this one hack is definitely going to be of help. Take cotton balls and douse them in a bowl of peppermint essential oil or white vinegar and squeeze it out enough for it to not form a puddle. Stuff these balls at nooks and crannies in the house where ants usually enter from. The concentrated smell of peppermint or vinegar can fluster their pheromone trail and keep them away. Make sure you don’t dilute either of the essential oil or vinegar.
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5. A bowl of honey and water for the ants
In a small bowl mix some honey and water and leave it at the entrance of your house. This will deter the ants from venturing any further and most of them will get stuck to the bowl, feeding on it. Gradually move this bowl farther towards the exit. Keep replenishing the bowl as and when required. Ants won’t bother with entering your home after this.
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