Need all natural way to get rid of ants

[grumpy28]

Hey all. We have some black ants decide they like our house better than the outdoors. I refuse to put any chemicals inside my house. Anyone know of any all natural way to get these pests to leave (and stay gone!). TIA

 

[forr2grls]

If you don't mind the mess you could use used coffee grounds.Sprinkle them wherever you see the most ants.Don't know if it will make them leave the house.I do know it works outside sprinkled around perimeter of home.Keeps them out!

Paula

 

[disneychrista]

Clove works too. I had a bunch of ants surrounding the dog dish . I sprinkled clove around and the ants went away.

 

[grumpy28]

Thanks for the ideas! Hopefully something will work! Anyone else??

 

[IDoDis]

Some good old ant bait works great. We buy ours at Home Depo. The chemical doesn't get "in your house." You just take the paper off the the little packages of bait (the bait is like peanut butter and is inside a plastic thing so you never touch it). Put the bait out and let the ants eat the bait. The ants will take the bait back to the nest which will kill off the nest and the queen. The temporary fixes are just that -- the ants find some other place to go near or in your home (maybe where you can't see them) while the nest keeps multiplying. If you use the ant bait, it will kill the nest and all of the ants. It takes a couple of days until you see no more ants, so if you can tolerate the gross buggers for a couple of days so that they can get some of the bait back to the nest, you'll be in good shape. Then you can just throw the little bait containers away.

 

[kristinanderic]

I have yet to try this theory, however I was told Cinnamon worked. You can use cinnamon sticks or powder.

Again, I haven't tried it yet, but spoke to a woman who sweared by it and used it in foodservice.

 

[SeaWitch]

Another spice choice - Sage. Ants do not like it and will not cross it... it will drive them away!

 

[jensmom]

You can also try baby powder, they don't like it because it dehydrates them so they stay away. Works great, especially on kitchen countertops, etc.

 

[WDWorld2003]

We have used diatomaceous earth for many pests. We bought it at our local health food store. It's all natural and worked for a pest problem (small beetles - not ants). You do have to be careful when putting it down so you don't inhale it... it is safe for pets (they can even eat it.)

 

[tinytink]

We have used diatomaceous earth for many pests. We bought it at our local health food store. It's all natural and worked for a pest problem (small beetles - not ants). You do have to be careful when putting it down so you don't inhale it... it is safe for pets (they can even eat it.)

ground black pepper works for me.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

How about checking with a store that sells exotic animals and buy an anteater?

 

[HaleyB]

Another spice they don't like is red pepper.

If you want to kill them try instant grits or instant mashed potatoes. Sprinkle the powder around where they enter/exit or on the nest if you can find it. They will eat it and dehydrate.

 

[WildGrits]

Instant Grits.

Sprinkle a decent layer around the whole perimeter of your house (outside).

This doesn't work so well during rainy season.

This works great on fire ants. I use to yearly cover the whole swingset area till it looked like snow.

 

[myAAbatteries&aTD]

Thanks for all the ideas! We just had some ants in the house and I was wondering what to use....

 

[rflorek]

If you don't mind the mess you could use used coffee grounds.Sprinkle them wherever you see the most ants.Don't know if it will make them leave the house.I do know it works outside sprinkled around perimeter of home.Keeps them out!

Paula

The coffee grounds trick doesn't work for me (maybe it's the type of coffee we use? It's not decaf.). I sprinkle the used grounds around the house, and the next day, there's an ant hole right in the middle of the grounds. They don't seem to mind the coffee at all.

 

[Crazoo]

Another vote for the ant traps. Not sure if you'd consider that "chemicals in your house" since you're not really spraying anything. It's just a small piece of plastic.

 

[blackmonmama]

I'll be trying some of these, but FYI if you want a spray/something immediate, Lysol seems to work as well as bug spray. It certainly doesn't make me as nervous to spray around my kids.

 

[grumpy28]

Thank you so much for all the ideas!

 

[pandamom]

I've used instant grits before and it seemed to work.

 

[justanotherprincess]

for some reason ants don't seem to like chalk -- maybe it's like the baby powder and dries them out or something but they won't cross over a chalk line. I've made chalk lines where I've noticed the ants come in and we haven't had a problem since.