3 Natural Ways to Get Rid of Ants

You have ants. It’s a problem, and you need an easy solution. You would also prefer not to use pesticides in your home. You know that pesticides can cause cancer and other horrible diseases. You need better options. Here are three natural ways to get rid of ants.

Peppermint Essential Oil

Image via Flickr by Bulldog Pottery – Bruce Gholson and Samantha Henne

A lot of the solutions to eliminate ants cause a secondary problem. They stink. Even some essential oils have unpleasant odors. Peppermint essential oil is different. Its smell will remind you of holidays like Halloween and Christmas. Also, the oil will end your ant issues.

Ants are a hierarchical society full of various worker classes. Trackers are one of the groups. These ants find food sources for the rest of the colony. Once the trackers find food, they leave a pheromone trail for their friends. The other ants sense these pheromones through their antennae. They follow the smell to the food site.

The strong odor of the essential oil will confuse ants. They won’t know which odor to follow. Without an olfactory map to the food source, ants will do one of two things. They will either leave the area in search of new food or they will die of starvation. Either choice gets them out of your home. And you get to smell peppermint all the time.

You’ll want to add 10-15 drops of peppermint essential oil into a boil full of water. Mix the composition. Then, pour it into a squirt bottle. You now have a perfume bottle that will drive ants crazy. Spray it anywhere you think ants may live. They’ll die within hours. The only downside is that you’ll have to vacuum a lot of dead ants afterward.

White Vinegar

Many of the healthiest options to chase away ants work under the same premise. You already understand the benefits of confusing ants. Messing with their sense of smell is a winning approach. The question becomes how you want to do it. Sometimes, the subtle choice like peppermint works. At other points, you need something stronger.

White vinegar isn’t a pleasant smell to most people. Ants feel the same way about the odor. They don’t like it due to the strength of the fragrance. A strong smell is like shouting to ant antennae. The odor overwhelms their senses. All you need to do is mix vinegar and water in a spray bottle. Then, squirt this concoction into areas where you’ve noticed ants.

Soap and Water

Soap and water is a remarkably impressive ant killer. You probably notice that when you keep your counters clean, ants stay away. The soapy solution is poisonous to these pests. That’s because the soap and water combine to create an oily substance. This fluid kills ants on contact.

You can easily create a homemade pesticide that will wipe out an entire ant colony. Simply add liquid soap to a bowl of water. You don’t need a lot of it. Take this fluid and pour it into a squirt bottle. You are now ready to spray the solution directly onto ants. They’ll die immediately.

You don’t have to live with an ant infestation. You also don’t need pesticides to kill them. Instead, use one of the three solutions above to kill ants while keeping your home free of pesticides.