How to Get Rid of Ants

To get rid of ants, put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

find where they are getting in or the ant hill outside and put grits around it. As gross as it sounds, the ants eat them and then explode as their bellies can't handle it. Sorry for being graphic, but it works. I've used it on red ants (the biting kind) when I lived in Florida.

H.,
I don't know if black ants will respond to chili powder but many kinds of ants do. You can sprinkle it around and most of the time they go. However, if they are carpenter ants you may have a bigger problem. ACE Hardware stores sell a product called Terrot. You just put a little liquid on a card and place the card in some hard to find place. Works the best that I have ever used in a short time.
M.

Here's a great list I found.
http://greenbabyguide.com/2008/06/22/natural-solutions-fo...

In addition, you should seal up any cracks in the walls, near windows or the foundation, especially in the basement where bugs can get in.

We had them in our RV and someone told me about bay leaves. I put them in little dishes and in back of drawers. We went the whole summer with no black ants and very few spiders. There's a very good exterminator, L'il Bugger, in Manalapan ###-###-####, if you're close to them. Good prices.

Hi H.,
Try the chalk. For the other products contact me. ###-###-####) www.saferforall.net
Hope that helps.
C.

Ants, ants, ants everywhere ... Well, they are said to never cross a chalk line. So,
Get your chalk out and draw a line on the floor or wherever ants tend to march. See for yourself.Spray PreSpot or ToughNtender or SolUmel there....

Hi H.,

I have those teeny tiny blackants that always seem to appear in my bathroom every spring. Only the bathroom! They must like the moisture. What I use are those little ant traps. I've also seen little yard stakes that you stick in the ground near your front door. They're so tiny that you would never know they're there. I'm sure there are other non-toxic ways of ridding them from your house, but this is what I've used.

Take care,
A.

H.,

I'm a Shaklee distributor and last summer I had a table at our county fair and we were given out samples of our sports drink. The ants were around our tables and coolers. I used or Basic H which is a multipurpose cleaner and can be used as a bug repellant on your body as well as other uses. It worked well. It is vegetable based and is completely safe. If you want I can mail you a sample. E-mail me.

T.
www.myhealthylifestore.com

Hi H.,
The best thing i have found is orange peel. Put it where you see the ants. they don't like the smell. Or any spray that is orange scented. Someone told my Mother about this years ago. It really does work.

Thanks,
Rose

We had ants coming through out window in the kitchen and I tried a couple of things. The one that worked the best was I sprayed the widowsill with KIDS Herbal Armor insect relellent by ALL TERRAIN. Its DEET free and worked great!

The teeny ones or the giant ones? I got rid of the teeny ones by finding where they were coming in from, then I put a salt line around it to contain it and put an ant trap in the middle of the circle. By chance, Iw as going away for the weekend, and when I came home, there were no ants at all. It was awesome. I have not yet found a remedy for the big, huge ants, which are carpenter ants and come into your home to eat wet wood in your walls. If you have a leak, take care of it, and you may need to call a professional!

believe it or not go to the grocrey store and by cucumbers.put cucumber peels around the out side of the house and out side the window cills. that works great. you dont need to worry about the kids getting sick on poisons. its wonderful my sister told me this. call me at ###-###-#### and let me know if it works i know it will

You can try Boric acid. It is usually behind the counter at a pharmacy. It's a powder, pour it into soda caps and place it near where you are seeing the ants. It is highly poisonous so hopefully these are areas wher ethe littleones or an animal can't get to the bottle cap. Or try HOT SHOT its a spray I have seen at Home Depot. It's a clear liquid that is odorless and I don't think it's harmful to kids/pets you can read the label to make sure. G.

I know this sounds weird, but honest to God, if you take white chalk and draw a square around them, they will not cross the chalk line and you can clean them up with a papertowel. I have done this in the past and without even identifying where they come from, they seem to disappear.

Hi H.
From what I understand if you are seeing them in the house now, they're inside. I just had my pest guy come here myself and he put down little dabs of what is essentially a sugar that the ants will take back to their colony and it will poison them there. My suggestion is to get a pest guy in to treat asap. If you are in Bergen county I have a great guy.... (the sugar solution he uses was safe for pets too as this was my concern)
C. F

If they are big ants you have a problem and need an exterminator. The big black ants are carpenter ants and can do more damage to your house than termites.

I was having the same problem last year, and also needed something that was non-toxic, because of my pets (my son is now grown). The ants have been terrible for the last 2 years....it isn't even Spring yet, and we're finding them already, just from the few warm days we've had.

Spraying outside, along the foundation of your house may help...just make sure that you buy something that is non-toxic once it dries, and it should be pretty safe.

What worked for me, inside, was placing Bounce Dryer Sheets around the areas where I thought they were coming in, and also on my kitchen counters, under and behind things. Within 2 or 3 days we had no more ants!

Of course, you'll have to be more careful where you put them, because you have young children, but if you tack them under doors, and put them in window sills, with the window down on top of them. they should be fairly safe. You can also place them underneath things on your kitchen counters, where your children can't reach them.

I've also heard that placing baking soda over the trails where they are coming in works as well, although I haven't tried it. Just a couple of suggestions.....

D.

Two options I know of. First, I have purchased a non-toxic powder made from clove oil and diatomaceous earth. It was an effective deterrent, but if I couldn't figure out how the ants were getting in, I couldn't block them. It was kid-safe, but fairly expensive. Second, and much cheaper, use NutraSweet. It was developed as a pesticide, after all! Mix NutraSweet powder with apple juice into a paste and place it around the areas where you see ants (I put mine in the plastic and metal lids from glass jars). It works like an ant bait - the ants take the NutraSweet and carry it back to the nest where many ants eat it - and it kills them. It is also relatively safe to eat (at least the FDA says so) so you don't have to worry about kids getting into it. Good luck! I'm hoping mine don't come back this year.

Hi. We have the same problem every year. It must be the start of the warm weather that brings them out. I have a 16 month old so using chemicals is out of the question. I read that talcum powder will stop them (for some reason they won't cross it). We put some at their entry site, and its seems to work. Good luck!

Hi H.,

Everything I use in my house is eco-friendly. We all need to be careful as moms to use non-toxic products as often as possible - it is so much safer for you and your family. I work with a company that manufactures non-toxic chemical free products that are less expensive than what you buy at the store. I don't sell the products but I can show you how to get them. Let me know...and yes...something to take care of the ant problem too! Email me if you would like more info ____@____.com

S.

Hi they look for sugar and sweet, so make sure everything is sealed up and shut tight.Sometimes chili powder works-or hot pepper flakes, but Borax (although not nontoxic)really works.
Ants someone once said are on their ancient paths going to where thay need to go and will only pass through. It was true for us every year in our apartment in Brooklyn. They would show up pass though and be gone.
Good luck!

Ants don't like bay (ther herb). I bought the bay essential oil and dripped it on any where I saw them coming in. They really hate it.

We also had a problem with ants that would return year after year to our kitchen, on the outside walls only. It was suggested to me to try pouring a line of regular table salt along the cracks where they would come up through. Apparantly the salt dries up all the fluids in their little ant bodies and they die. At least this is an inexpensive and chemical-free remedy...safer if you have pets and young kids in the house. I have not yet tried it, as the suggestion was made after they "left" last year. As long as they return in April (their favorite time for their annual visit!), we'll be sweeping up salted ants in no time!

Hi H.,

I know this one. LOL Use Vinager, my mother-in-law told me this one. Put vinager and water in a spray bottle and spray the area for 2 weeks even if you don't see them. My mother-in-law had a major problem and cleared it up this way. They like sweets so there are getting it from somewhere. Watch them, you should see where they are coming in and out from. They will find any little crum. And with kids as we know, we can not find it all. ;/ This is a natural way. Good Luck! :)

in the military housing they used boric acid. killed ants but harmless to humans...

Hi H.,
Get an empty spray bottle and combine water with palmolive. Spray the perimeter of the rooms where you have found the ants. I've used that method before. It got rid of the ants and it cleaned the dust off the molding around the room.
We also bought one of those things that you plug into an outlet that keeps bugs and rodents away with some high pitched sonar that only they can hear. I don't know how it works, but it helped. Good luck!

I didn't read any other responses so I apologize if this is a repeat. I had the same problem in y kitchen - they were coming under my old door. Well, I have littel ones & it was around my food so I didn't want to use any chemicals, so I just used white vinegar in a spray bottle. I had to spray every day for about a week but it did the trick! My kitchen smelled like vinegar, but it go rid of the ants. After my experience I found ant bait poison at the store - they are little enclosed disks that you poke the holes on the side, ants go in & eat the food & take it back to their nests to share, but the food is poisonous to them & they die. You don't touch the poison & neither can your kids! I have some in case the ants return this summer! Good luck!

Those are carpenter ants and since you are seeing them nowthey probably have a nest in your house. The sooner you get rid of it & them the better.

We had a small nest in our previous house and it was very simple to get rid of but I never would have found it myself. I have regular pest control guys come to our house 2x a year checking for this stuff and they found it and got rid of it. I never saw another ant after that.

If you want short term you can set traps & use oils & other home remedies but that is just a band-aid.

An easy way to fumigate your home for bugs, including ants, is to put 10 drops of Melaleuca oil in a quart of boiling water. Let the water simmer until gone. Any bugs in your home will be dead in a matter of hours. Contact me if you want to know more about the oil: ____@____.com It IS completely safe for pets and kids.
L.

hi
i just wanted to add wiping with a vinegar/water solution to erase their trails- as someone mentioned, and also boric acid. it would be a good idea to figure out what kind of ants you have though. good luck!