Protect Your House From Ants
Ants are known to be very hard workers, who once they find a source
of food, are very persistent in making their way towards it. And if this
source happens to be within your house or kitchen, you could find
yourself baffled by the long lines of ants that have made your home a
marching haven.
So, what do you do to get rid of them? A pesticide is fine, and there
are many sprays available on supermarket shelves, each one of which
promises better results than the one before. But wait and think before
you reach for any of them. Pesticides by their very nature are poisonous
substances and definitely to be avoided in a home full of children and
pets or anywhere near food. You may inadvertently poison yourself.
Natural ways to rid yourself of ants
The first thing you have to do is find out the place from where these
ants are entering your home. You may find an opening or aperture through
which the pesky creatures have easy access to your home. Go back along
the trail of ants that have come into your home and surely you will find
an unnoticed hole or opening through which these creatures are making
their way. See if you can block this access by caulking it and closing
it permanently or temporarily put some petroleum jelly around this
access and deter the ants from coming in. This will give you time to
think of a permanent way of blocking the access if caulking it is beyond
your DIY skills.
If the ants are finding their way into your home through doors, windows
and other openings and small places below them, a simple solution is to
sprinkle baby powder or coffee granules around these areas. Ants will
not cross this barrier. Salt can also work as an effective barrier as
will a spray of vinegar.
Another solution is to use Cream of Wheat as bait. The ants will
first take this cereal and carry it back to their nest. On eating this
ants find this Cream of Wheat difficult on their digestion and literally
explode. To my mind, even if they are just ants, the solution is a bit
diabolical.
Green sage in all your cabinets can deter ants from entering them,
and the same trick can be used to keep the ants out of the flour and
sugar containers which are always their first targets.
Keeping away the ants
To keep the ants away from your house, you need to mind some of your
day to day activities: • Ants need food and water to survive. So if
you want to keep them off your property see that such sources for their
food and water are not easily available to them.
• Clean up after all meals and take the trash out of the house or see
that it is kept in airtight containers that allow no ingress to the
ants.
• Leaving crumbs on a table is an invitation to ants. So, clean up
after you have finished eating.
• Keep trash bins or recycling bins as far away from the house as
possible.
• If you do need to keep food on kitchen counters, see that the items
are properly wrapped.
• Refrigerate perishable food and see that the door seals on your
refrigerator do not allow any ants to get into it.
• See that there are no pools of standing water any where around the
house. Areas around potted plants are always neglected and may have such
pools created by your efforts at watering your plants.
So try out this natural ways of tackling those pesky creatures. They
will work as well as the pesticides and sprays and probably save you a
load of money and also the worry of keeping your loved pets or children
away from the harmful effects of these modern day solutions. And take
this few easy steps to keep away the ants. |
