How to Rid Your Home of Ants Without Killing Them or Using Harsh Chemicals
What You Will Need:
Putty or Tape (any kind really)
A sponge
Kitchen Cleaner or Soap
Jars or other airtight containers
A rubbish bin with a sealed lid
Before you begin, make sure that your rubbish is in a sealed bin. You don’t want a bin with no lid, as that in and of itself is an ant-magnet. Make the investment, and put your garbage in a container with fitted, tightly sealed top.
Okay – now that that’s done, check to see if there is any main little bit of food lying around (could be a bit of spilled sugar, or something that fell on the floor… anything… no matter how tiny) that the ants could be looking for. Are they congregating in a certain area? Find what they’re after, and get rid of it.
Next, take any food that you have lying around that is not in a a sealed container and put it in either an airtight container or in the fridge. That means everything – even things like rice in a plastic bag, or cereal in a box, etc. You want to have everything where the ants can’t detect it.
Now, trace the trail of ants (if there is one), find the main opening where they are coming into the house, and seal it off with tape or putty. If I use really sticky tape I use two pieces stuck to each other so that it blocks the hole, but the ants don’t get stuck to it. This will prevent new ants from coming in, though somehow, miraculously, it doesn’t prevent them from leaving. Somehow, every house has an ant back door with a turnstile so that the ants can leave but not get back in. Seriously.
This is the time to start cleaning the kitchen (or whatever room the ants are in). Clean everything, and I mean clean it! Get every bit of dried up food, sugar, etc. off of the floor, countertops, cupboards, and appliances. Every bit!
By the time you have finished doing this, the congregation of ants will probably have dispersed. If so, you can now clean the area whre the ants were previously. If the ants aren’t all gone yet, wait for a couple of hours until they leave, and then clean that area. It’s very important to clean the areas where the ants left trails, as the smell of other ants is what attracts more ants.
Okay… Voila!
By now your home should be free of and tiny little hungry ants.