How to Get Rid of Ants

Figuring out how to get rid of ants is difficult to say the least. If you have food or anything laying around the house, you are bound to see them eventually (unless you live in a city with no wildlife). Fortunately, you aren’t completely out of luck if you do have any type of ants in your house.

How to Get Rid of Ants in the House Naturally

Getting rid of ants naturally is a bit harder than by using a product, but is is possible. The most important steps you can take to immediately limit ant infestation are as follows:

• Make sure you have no food unwrapped in open locations!
• Make sure you thoroughly clean your dishes!
• Make sure you wipe down your kitchen counter!
• Make sure you keep your trash outside!
• Soak up any standing water since ants need water as well as food to survive!
• Ensure that there are no rotting fruits or vegetables that have been left outside of the fridge!
• Make sure you close up any holes to windows or doors!
• Have any aphids, whiteflies, or mealybugs outside? These bugs leave sap behind that attracts ants!

Interested in some Natural Ant Killer Home Remedies?

Natural Ant Killer Remedies

The points above may be common knowledge, but, if you’ve taken those steps, let’s go on to some natural and organic ant killer remedies to take the fight up one level!

Natural Ant Killer #1 :: The “Acid Reflux”

Ingredients: Boric Acid, Corn Syrup, Eye Dropper

Directions: Let’s take down these ants by giving them a bit of “indigestion”! Mix 1 tablespoon of boric acid with 2 1/2 tablespoons of corn syrup and heat both until you visibly see the boric acid disolve. Once this is done, take the mixture and mix an equal amount of water with it. With your eye dropper, pick up this mixture and drop it where the ants frequent. Do this for 2 weeks or until you see the ants disappear.

Review: Works well if you have a slight infestation, but it is far from perfect since it only gets the ants that reach those locations. The other ants aren’t affected. We find that this is good to limit ant infestations, but it isn’t the definite answer to how to get rid of ants.

Rating: 2.5 / 5 stars

Natural Ant Killer #2 :: The “Chili Bomb”

Ingredients: Red Chili Powder (can be replaced by borax or dried pepperment)

Directions: Tell ants to go away! Find any location of ant congregation and pour red chili powder on them! They will quickly disappear and won’t frequent that place again. This can be a fun way of wrecking their “house” just like they wrecked yours. Unfortunately, this doesn’t kill, it just deters.

Review: I’m not really a big fan of leaving chili powder on my floors or in cracks in my house. Therefore, I never was a huge fan of this method. Also, how many times will you find every location of ants? Since this is a deterrant rather than an attractor, it will be harder to get every ant.

Rating: 2 / 5 stars

Natural Ant Killer #3 :: “Citric Rain”

Ingredients: Lemon Peelings, Blender

Directions: Mix lemon peelings with water in a mixture until you have a nice citric liquid. Find the nearest ant hill and ambush with a bit of “citric rain”.

Review: Ok if you know where the ant hill is. Otherwise, this won’t be too helpful. Also, there are questions on whether this actually kills or just annoys the ants. Our results have been mixed.

Rating: 2 / 5 stars

How to Get Rid of Ants With Ant Killer Products

There are a few products that I highly recommend if you are going to fight the battle against ants unfairly. Please note that some of these products do contain chemicals, so you will need to be careful about which products you buy if you have children or pets.

Garden, Fire, and Carpenter Ant Identification

There are three types of ants that you must be aware of. These are your enemies. Each varies in level of annoyance.

Garden Ants

Black ants are broken up into two varieties — the black garden ant and the black carpenter ant. The first type of ant we will take a look at is the garen ant.

• Queen Size: 7-9 mm
• Worker Size: 3-5 mm
• Nutrition: nectar, small insects, seeds, farm aphids

Garden Ant Random Facts (from Wikipedia)

• Flying ants are either males or immature queen ants
• Most mating is between June and September
• Once queens mate, they will discard their wings
• Queen ants generally don’t eat while her eggs are hatching (about 8-10 weeks). During this time, she
  uses the protein of her degenerating wings to stay alive. If she runs out of food, she may eat her own
  eggs.
• Ants generally enter homes during summer months

Garden Ant Overview

While the garden ant isn’t dangerous, it is one of the most annoying insects around. When they enter your house, it isn’t just one, it is generally hundreds or thousands. Without the proper strategy in place, you may have these unwelcome guests for the entire summer!

Carpenter Ants

The carpenter ant is a more noticable ant than it’s much smaller “brother” the garden ant. While bigger, it is generally much less of a bother to humans.

• Worker Size: 1-2 cm
• Nutrition: plant juices, friuts, dead or alive animals, all types of sweets

Carpenter Ant Random Facts (from Wikipedia)

• Carpenter ants generally live in dead trees (or dead wood) and speed up decay
• Winged males seek sunlight and are often found near doors or windows if inside
• To find the main nest of carpenter ants, you will need to follow the worker ants who are going to and
  from the nest.
• Any moist wood will be frequented by Carpenter ants.

Carpenter Ant Overview

The carpenter ant may never be seen at your house if you don’t have decaying wood anywhere near. You typically find these ants outside — near sheds or trees. These insects are harmless and should only be bothered with if they are tearing apart the infrastructure of any wood that is connected to your house.

Fire Ants

If there is one ant to fear, it is the ferocious fire ant (also known as a ginger ant or tropical fire ant). Keep a distance from these or else you might get bit and stung!

• Worker Size: 2-6 mm
• Nutrition: plants, seeds, crickets

Fire Ant Random Facts (from Wikipedia)

• Unlike the garden and carpenter ants, fire ants are able to bite and sting
• A fire ant bite can be deadly to a select few humans
• Fire ants live in soil and usually near moist areas
• While fire ants generally don’t build mounds, the mounds that they do build can reach 40cms
• Queen fire ants may live up to 7 years and have the ability to produce 1500 eggs per day
• In contrast, male ants generally live 4 days
• Between 30-60% of people living in fire ant infested areas are stung each year
• Fire ants can kill lizards in under a minute

Fire Ant Sting Facts and Treatment (from Wikipedia)

• Stings swell into red bumps
• Assuming the sting bump doesn’t become infected, it will generally disappear in a few days
• There are some that are allergic to fire ant stings and go into anaphylaxic shock requiring emergency
  treatment. Other symptoms include chest pains, loss of breath, serious swelling and slurred speech
• You should generally treat a fire ant sting with a topical steroid cream

Fire Ant Overview

Fire ant stings unfortunately hurt and feel like fire (hence the name). For most, this is a minor nuisance. However, some will need medical treatment. If you are in colder environments, you generally don’t have to worry about fire ants when planning your attack on how to get rid of ants.

How to Get Rid of Ants Videos

For those who are are visual learners like me, I put together the top 3 youtube videos on best ways of getting rid of ants.

How to Get Rid of Ants Naturally

How to Kill Ants

Contact us or leave a comment if you have any other ideas on how to get rid of ants.