Help! What's the best way to get rid of ants?
I’m going nuts here. Every morning I wake up and find dozens of ants wandering around in my kitchen and living room. It doesn’t seem to matter how many traps I set out or how deep I clean my home to get rid of food scraps or whatever the ants seem to be after. Does sugar water get rid of ants? I feel like I heard something like that somewhere but I have no clue if any of that stuff actually works. What will actually solve this problem? I don’t even hate ants like that, but leave my living space alone, ya know?
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Ants follow waterlines very consistently. So, we'll often see ants in kitchens and bathrooms and they’re not always coming in through the windows—if there’s a water line running through a crawl space they can come in that way, too. We also see ants on the weather wall of the house, which is typically the southern wall. Physically excluding ants is nearly impossible. They’re just so small that caulking your windows or blocking your crawlspace just isn’t going to work most of the time. I’d recommend traditional bait traps. You just have to be really persistent. Good luck!
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Sugar water won’t do anything to ants (besides make them happy). It’s the same with all of those “hacks.” Cinnamon is another popular one that I hear from time to time—that won’t do anything, either. With ants, there are sort of four levels of control, and if one level doesn’t work you escalate to the next level. Level one is exclusion—seal up any cracks or openings in your home. Level two is sanitation efforts; get rid of any food or water that the ants would be looking for. Just continue keeping your home clean. Then, level three is physical traps, glue traps, vacuuming, things like that. If that still isn’t getting the job done, level four is pesticide. That will end your ant woes if it gets that far.
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Sometimes Level 3 is better than Level 4. I live in an apartment complex, and the pest control company that management just switched to hasn’t been as reliable or helpful as the company before them. The replacement company decided that fumigation was the way to go, and they couldn’t beat the infestation. It’s been three months.
Well, last week I did a mix of boric acid with sugar and water that I saw on Reddit. It said to put the solution in plastic bottle caps, but I used a couple of cotton rounds that I typically use for nail polish removal. Worked like a charm once I figured out where they were going. Took a week and a half to get them all.
Odorous House Ants also typically have more than one Queen—that’s the sort I was dealing with. They were coming not only through the wall, but also through the pipes, and through one of the electrical switches. Really annoying.
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Well, last week I did a mix of boric acid with sugar and water that I saw on Reddit. It said to put the solution in plastic bottle caps, but I used a couple of cotton rounds that I typically use for nail polish removal. Worked like a charm once I figured out where they were going. Took a week and a half to get them all.
Odorous House Ants also typically have more than one Queen—that’s the sort I was dealing with. They were coming not only through the wall, but also through the pipes, and through one of the electrical switches. Really annoying.
Okay, I know that one poster mentioned “hacks” not working, but my grandmother swears by coffee grounds. She claims they mess with their sense of smell which makes it impossible for the ants to retrace their steps. I don’t know if it really works or not, but it seems like the kind of thing you could try out pretty easily without risking anything. The next time you make coffee, just pour the grounds out along the entrance where they’re getting in. I've also heard that you can use Borax or food-grade diatamaceous earth, and dust it lightly along the perimeter where they're coming in. Worth a try!
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Nobody has brought this up yet, but make sure the ants you’re dealing with aren’t carpenter ants. Carpenter ants can do serious damage to a home. They eat the wood in the frame of your home, which can cause structural damage. If you have even an inkling of a feeling that you’ve got carpenter ants, call an exterminator. It’s not worth the risk trying to DIY that one.
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I leave out a little bit of bait food and then follow the ant trail to find cracks and holes they're using to get into my house. Then I seal up the cracks with tape and spray the ants with Windex to kill them quickly.
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There are barrier sprays you can buy to create a chemical barrier around your home. They tend to be a little pricier than ant bait or traps, but if you’re prioritizing keeping the ants out instead of dealing with them when they get into your home, this is probably worth it.
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Dealing with this now! I made a mix
5 T sugar, 1 tsp borax, 2 T warm water…dissolve…I slathered on 3x5 cards & scattered a few on bathroom counter & floor. Within MINUTES, hundreds of ants were feeding! After awhile, most went back in the wall to their nest. Then more showed up. It’s been 24 hours. I had no clue there was a NEST inside the bathroom! Will wait another day or so to clean up the dead bodies!😂
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5 T sugar, 1 tsp borax, 2 T warm water…dissolve…I slathered on 3x5 cards & scattered a few on bathroom counter & floor. Within MINUTES, hundreds of ants were feeding! After awhile, most went back in the wall to their nest. Then more showed up. It’s been 24 hours. I had no clue there was a NEST inside the bathroom! Will wait another day or so to clean up the dead bodies!😂
I haven’t seen it mentioned yet, but there are these like…”hive” poisons you can buy that are really good if the ants keep coming back. Instead of trapping or killing any ants that enter your home, the ants think these poisons are food. They take them back to the colony and all of the other ants eat the poison. This way, you can wipe out the whole colony that keeps visiting your home instead of trying to wipe them out in waves whenever you see them.
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First, don't use sugar water, it makes the ants come in the first place(ants like sugar). Next, get rid of the ants already in your house so they can't breed and come back. Then, keep them from getting in by closing gaps and cracks, keeping your door and windows closed when you don't need them open, and put sugar and sweet stuff away and closed. They should stop coming for the most part. Hope this helps!
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Reader Tips from Simple & Effective Ways to Get Rid of Ants in Your Home or Bedroom
For me, it was really just about not leaving food out. It was super irritating, but for a full month I basically vacuumed every day and never left a single plate or cup in the sink. The ants just sort of gave up eventually and stopped coming into my home.
I know cinnamon is a popular natural hack, but I really didn't have any success with it. I could only deal with the problem using those liquid traps you get at the hardware store.
Reader Tips from Natural Ways to Get Rid of & Prevent Ants
Bay leaves have worked for me for the past three years. Buy whole bay leaves in the herb section of your grocery store and place one or two in the places you see ants. I think it messes with their ability to smell!
I like to use rubbing alcohol to kill ants. I've always got a bottle in the kitchen to begin with and the alcohol doesn't stain anything whenever I spritz an ant.
Reader Tips from How to Kill Ants
The bait stations and liquid traps are awesome. Just make sure that you replace them every few days whenever you see dead ants in them. They tend to dry out kind of fast and stop working after 2-3 days in my experience.
Soapy water works perfectly fine for me. I don't know why everyone else seems to need vinegar, alcohol, or pesticides. I just spritz the ants with a little soap water and they die a few seconds later. Easy!
