- Harm from ants
- Ways to get rid of domestic ants
- Vinegar based products
- Prevention of the appearance of ants
Are you worried about annoying ants? Are you tired of their presence in your own apartment, garden, or summer cottage? There is a remedy for these insects, and it is ordinary vinegar!
Plain vinegar can help get rid of ants.
In this article, we will tell you how you can effectively and quickly get rid of ants with the help of simple and available products for every housewife - vinegar and soda.
Reasons for the appearance of ants in the apartment
Ants need a power source
Forest workers get into the dwelling in a variety of ways. Natural migration (mating flights), from neighbors, from basements, on fruits from the market, on clothes and shoes from the street.
If these are single individuals, then nothing terrible will happen, without a queen in the anthill, they do not multiply and will die in the coming days.
It is much worse if the resettlement takes place by the whole family and the construction of a new nest with a forage base in the apartment. Food sources are crumbs, food leftovers on dishes, trash cans, food not covered from small freeloaders. Their sweets are especially attracted. Therefore, it is necessary to deprive the ants of the power source:
- carry out a thorough cleaning;
- put food in a tightly sealed dish;
- Provide trash bins with lids.
note! Keeping the room clean is the key to defeating these insects.
Prevention measures
The list of preventive measures so that annoying insects do not appear in the apartment after the treatment:
- Cleanliness and order in the apartment must always be respected. In the kitchen, there should be no food residues on the floor and tables. Animal feeding bowls should be washed regularly.
- The trash can must be emptied and the trash must not be stored for a long time.
- Store food in tightly closed cabinets, but it is not recommended to leave it open.
- Inspect skirting boards, walls and doors. If cracks are found, they should be covered immediately.
- Outline the ventilation hole with a pencil against the invasion of insects.
Attention! Observance of elementary order will help prevent a re-invasion of pests.
Outwardly, ants seem harmless and do not cause any harm, but this opinion is erroneous. Insects can become carriers of infectious diseases, so you should be wary and follow the rules of basic hygiene, and when unexpected guests appear, you must complete all measures to scare them away from your home.
What you need to know for effective ant control
In the war with small invaders, it is necessary to determine which species of ants settled in the house.
- Red or Pharaoh ants. They do not live in the wild, since they are of tropical origin. They make nests in apartments and private houses.
- Thief ants. Most often black or red. They differ in their small size. They can also dwell on the street. In dwellings, nests are arranged in the voids of furniture, they prefer rotting wood.
- Sod ant. They live in the wild. Anthills are arranged outside of housing, on the street.
To finally get rid of the ants, you must try to find the nest where the queen is.To do this, it is necessary to trace in which direction they are carrying food. Move furniture as necessary.
Important! If you do not find a nest, then after a while the ants will appear again.
Everything is much easier if the anthill is outside the apartment. Then it remains to block their access to the room, to close up all the cracks.
How to get rid of ants with vinegar
To defeat ants, you need to understand their behavior.
Murashi foragers are looking for food. They leave peculiar marks on their way - a trail of pheromones, along which other insects find their way to food more efficiently, without spending resources on searches.
Receptors that help to recognize the smell of pheromones are located on the antennae of insects. Knowing these nuances, is it possible to get rid of ants with vinegar? Their receptors are very sensitive and cannot tolerate pungent odors. Insects lose their familiar paths, lose food and eventually leave their homes.
Simplicity of preventive measures
Getting rid of ants is relatively easy, but much easier to prevent them altogether. All that is needed is not to leave open food and bread crumbs on the table and on the shelves, in the refrigerator; keep the house clean.
And it is also recommended to apply chalk to the most "dangerous" places from time to time, which will perfectly repel insects. Living in a clean and tidy apartment and having no extra hassle is worth the effort.
Competent and regular maintenance of the land will also allow you to quickly and inexpensively solve the problems associated with the appearance of numerous harmful insects.
How to prepare the remedy
The solution requires 9% table vinegar. You will need to dilute it with water in equal proportions.
Two-thirds of the resulting product must be poured into a spray bottle and sprayed on all places where ant paths, baseboards, pipes, back walls of kitchen furniture lie.
Vinegar solution
If it was possible to find a nest, then it is processed. Window sills, tables, furniture, household appliances are wiped with the remaining solution. Especially those surfaces that are adjacent to the floor and walls.
The effect is immediately visible. The movement of the ants becomes chaotic. On the second day after treatment, the number of insects decreases several times, and then the entire colony moves to another place.
The treatment must be repeated after a week. For some more time, it is necessary to wash the floors with the addition of vinegar so that the invasion does not recur.
Minus: The smell lasts a long time.
Pros:
- It is harmless to children and pets, provided that it does not get on the mucous membranes.
- Doesn't harm furniture.
A more aggressive method is using acetic acid.
Dilute vinegar essence 80% with water in a ratio of 1:10. This solution literally eats away at the insect's body. An anthill is poured with it. If it is not available, then spray it on the ants in the immediate vicinity of the nest so that the acetic acid gets into the anthill.
Important! It is important to observe precautions during processing. Work with rubber gloves and a respirator to avoid burns and inhalation of toxic fumes.
If the ants haven't gone away
If you can't get the ants out with vinegar, or you didn't have it at hand, then you can try other drugs.
- Ammonia. Ants cannot stand it, because this smell interrupts everyone else. To prepare the solution, it is diluted with 100 ml in a liter of water, shaken. Also used like vinegar. The duration of the treatment is up to 3 months. Children and animals should be removed during the work.
- Boric acid is used in combination with mashed potatoes or egg yolk. Mix well, roll up small balls and spread out in insect habitats. They bring poison to the nest and gradually die.Coffee grounds act in a similar way.
- Essential oils of clove, cinnamon, citrus fruits help well in the fight against ants. The cotton balls should be soaked in undiluted oil and not removed until the entire colony is gone.
Alternative options
Housewives are well aware of other means of dealing with such a scourge as insects. This is salt, and other simple and improvised means. Below are the methods of pest control that are most in demand among our population.
Option number 1
Home remedies in this case can be selected from the following list:
- cinnamon;
- lemon juice;
- mint;
- harsh perfume;
- talcum powder from baby powder.
Each of them allows you to get rid of ants through exposure to a strong odor, which can scare away insects so much that they will not dare to return here ever again.
Option number 2
The smell of coffee grounds is no less effective. It also allows you to get rid of pests once and for all. This smell is extremely attractive to insects. And the whole secret lies in the fact that coffee grounds are a real ... poison for them. Diligent laborers bring it to the anthill and feed it to the uterus, with the death of which the infrastructure of the insect center is destroyed.
Option number 3
Soap also has harmful components. It destroys the protective layer of the insect's skeleton, which dies very quickly from dehydration.
To get rid of pests with this product, you just need to prepare soap shavings or a highly concentrated soap solution - and use the finished product.
We suggest that you familiarize yourself with: The benefits of a bee sting
Option number 4
Many manage to get rid of the misfortune with the help of such a mechanical means as duct tape. Ants in the blink of an eye stick to the tape that beckons them. Powdered sugar and other convenient sweet foods can be used as bait. The regularity of using the tape in the apartment: as needed.
How to get rid of ants in the garden or at their summer cottage
Ants in the garden
Ants in the garden or in the country can destroy the entire crop. Underground nests spoil plant roots. On the foliage of fruit trees and shrubs, these workers breed aphids and use them as a pet. If the pasture is depleted, they transfer the aphids to new plants. The harvest is ruined. The use of pesticides after the formation of fruits threatens serious health problems. Vinegar against ants helps here too.
If the anthill is on the surface, then you need to get rid of it. Move to the nearest forest or outside the dacha association. The most convenient way to do this is with a shovel.
If the nest is underground, you have to work hard. Spray trees, ant trails with a 1: 1 solution of vinegar and water. In parallel, treatment against aphids is carried out.
Note! In order for the ants to finally leave the site, spraying must be done at intervals of two weeks throughout the summer season.
Acetic acid against ants in the area is indispensable if the number of insects has exceeded all reasonable limits. The proportion is the same as for an apartment. A one-time treatment gives a good effect, but it must be fixed by repeated spraying with a vinegar solution.
Vinegar and soda helps well in the destruction of underground anthills. Fill the holes in the ground where the workers run away with soda, and vinegar is poured on top. The chemical reaction destroys the nest and kills the uterus.
Protective plants
Like many other crawling insects, ants try to avoid strong-smelling plants. They are not poisonous for them, pests just try to avoid them. But, many gardeners and gardeners are well aware that they help from ants and many other insects perfectly:
- marigolds;
- lavender;
- peppermint;
- melissa;
- catnip;
- nasturtium;
- rosemary;
- dill;
- parsley;
- fennel and other aromatic herbs.
Plants that ants are afraid of are not dangerous to their health. They just attract lacewings, hoverflies, ladybirds, ground beetles, which actively destroy aphids. That is, in places where such plants grow, ants will not be able to provide the colony with a sufficient amount of sweet honeydew, and therefore they try to settle away from them.
Fragrant plants can be used as borders around garden beds. Most of them are unpretentious and useful in the household. In addition, they scare away not only black and red ants, but also other pests. In addition, it is a truly natural and environmentally friendly product.
You can also use a strong decoction of green plants that scare off pests, treat insect congestion areas by simply spraying it from a spray bottle. It should be remembered that the aroma disappears quickly and must be repeated regularly by processing.
To prevent ants from crawling into linen and kitchen cabinets, bunches of dried lavender or mint can be laid out in them. This technique allows you to give things a subtle pleasant aroma.
