Repellent plants
Catnip, pennyroyal, peppermint, sage, and spearmint. Tansy which is often recommended as an ant repellant may only work on sugar type ants. These are the ones that you see on peonies and marching into the kitchen.
Warning: You do not want to plant Tansy anywhere that livestock can feed on it as it is toxic to many animals. Do not let it go to seed either as it may germinate in livestock fields.
Catnip, pennyroyal, peppermint, sage, and spearmint. Tansy which is often recommended as an ant repellant may only work on sugar type ants. These are the ones that you see on peonies and marching into the kitchen.
Warning: You do not want to plant Tansy anywhere that livestock can feed on it as it is toxic to many animals. Do not let it go to seed either as it may germinate in livestock fields.
Barriers
Sprinkle leaves and flowers from sage, mints or tansy around the outside of your house or plants that are bothered by ants. These plants can also be used as a living barrier for ant control, bearing in mind that they are invasive in their growth habit and using cuttings from these plants as a barrier is more effective. We grow tansy in an out of the way place to harvest the cuttings.
Sprinkle leaves and flowers from sage, mints or tansy around the outside of your house or plants that are bothered by ants. These plants can also be used as a living barrier for ant control, bearing in mind that they are invasive in their growth habit and using cuttings from these plants as a barrier is more effective. We grow tansy in an out of the way place to harvest the cuttings.
- Vinegar sprays in and around the hose foundation will repel ants. Keep way from the soil and concrete. Lemon juice concentrate can also be used: mix 50/50 with water and spray.
- Ants will not walk through a line of talcum powder or chalk dust. Diatomaceous earth may also be used as a barrier in and out of the household.
- Using a silica areogel/pyrethrum spray applied to the base of plants like eggplants and peppers can control fire ants from girdling the stems and killing the plants. This is a good barrier as it stays "put."
- Caulk all cracks and crevices in the building to deny them access. Be sure to use high quality pure silicone caulking as these are less likely to shrink or crack once applied.
- Distribute cucumber parings as a repellant. Cucumbers contain a compound known as "trans-2-nonenal" that repels ants as well as cockroaches!
- Try sprinkling some of those instant grits around the nests. See what happens!
- For fire ants try this: Pour half a cup of Epsom salts into the nest and all around it.
- Sticky barriers like Tanglefoot makes an excellent barrier and can be applied to tree trunks to disrupt the ants from farming of aphids. This will naturally biodegrade itself towards the end of the season. NOTE: On young trees with smaller trunks or those with thin bark (aspens, birches etc.) do not apply directly to the bark surface. Instead use some thin fabric tied around the trunk with the sticky stuff applied over this. Remove at the end of the season.
- On smaller plants a bit of petroleum jelly smeared around the base will stop ants immediately.
- Pour apple cider vinegar down entrance holes to the nest.
- Using a sugar soaked sponge works well for light invasions of ants. Use a large sponge with big holes in it. Soak it in a strong solution of sugar water and place it where you want to catch the ants. Rinse the sponge out every day in a container of soapy water. Fix it up with the sugar water again and repeat as often as necessary.
- Dusts such as Silica Aerogel can last a long time. Their mode of action is to dehydrate the ants. They work slowly and are easy to use in tight areas such as cracks or crevices.
- Make a strong hot water and hot pepper tea. Use the hottest peppers you can find, finely chop them in a food processor, mix with hot water. Pour directly on the nest.
- Douse the nests with boiling water several times. Cruel and can be effective.
- Repeated flooding of the nest every few days using your garden hose can often be enough to get them to relocate. You must be persistent with this method.
- Use equal parts of sugar and baking powder. Place around ant infested area and nests.
Make herbal teas to use as ant repellant sprays from tansy, catmint, peppermint or sage.
To make teas: Take enough cuttings from these plants to tightly pack one 8 ounce cup. Bring 1 quart of water to a boil. Stir in the plants. Take off the heat and allow to cool. Strain this mixture, add 1 teaspoon of castile soap and use as a direct spray. You can also substitute 1 teaspoon of coconut oil soap in place of the castile.
Last Resorts
- Pyrethrum mixed with isopropyl alcohol kills ants on contact. Take 16 ounces of ready to use pyrethrum, mix in 1 tbsp. alcohol. Use this as a drench directly on the active nest.
- Boric acid: Mix 1 cup of sugar, 4 teaspoons of boric acid and 24 ounces of water in a glass screw top jar. Shake thoroughly until you can see that all the crystals are dissolved. Now put 1 cup of this mixture into a smaller jar which you have filled halfway with loose cotton. Firmly screw the lid back on, seal around the band with weatherproof tape and using an awl punch a few small holes in the center of the lid. Put this near the entrance of the nest or wherever they have made a path to your house. The key is the ants will get into the jar to eat the sugar and return to the nest and pass it on to the rest of the colony. If you find many dead ants by the jar dilute the solution and try again. With a proper mixture the colony may be destroyed in a few weeks. It does take the destruction of the queen to completely eradicate a colony. Keep this away from kids and pets!
Or just transfer to a ant free flat... :-)
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