Home Pet-Safe Remedy to Rid Ants

Habitat

• Ants usually build their nests in the soil near building foundations, under concrete slabs, in crawlspaces and walls, in structural wood or in trees. Unlike most insects, they’re social and live in large colonies where they divide the tasks of caring for the young, keeping their nest clean and foraging for food.

Scent Trail

• Ants create a trail to a food source by releasing pheromones, or scent messages, from their bodies. One pet-safe way to repel them inside your home is to get rid of their scent trail using a solution of 50 percent lemon juice concentrate or vinegar and 50 percent water. Golden Harvest Organics of Ft. Collins, Colorado suggests spraying the solution anywhere you see ants.

Know the Enemy

• Different kinds of ants react to different repellents. “It is very important to have an accurate ant identification in order to determine the best method of control,” according to an Ohio State University Extension Service fact sheet. The fact sheet recommends taking a specimen of the ants invading your home to an extension service office for identification. Most state universities have extension services.

Inhospitable Environment

• “Successful ant management usually requires a combination of tactics,” according to the website Greensmiths.com. In addition to using repellents, the website recommends creating an environment that’s inhospitable to ants by caulking all cracks and crevices that could provide entry to your home, vacuuming and mopping floors and cleaning counter tops often, trimming tree branches so they don’t provide a “runway” from the ants’ nest to the roof or siding of your house, storing firewood and trash cans away from the house and choosing landscaping materials that minimize such honeydew-producing insects as aphids. These insects attract ants.

Pet-Safe Repellants

• Ants will not walk through a line of chalk dust, talcum powder or food grade diatomaceous earth, according to Golden Harvest Organics’ website. Cucumber peel, catnip, mint teabags or crushed mint leaves and cinnamon are other pet-safe ways to repel ants, according to the website Eartheasy.com. Place any of the repellents next to the ants’ entry point in your kitchen or other areas of your home. Eartheasy.com also suggests leaving small, low wattage lights on at night in places where the ants are most active. The change in light can disrupt their foraging patterns.

  A band of petroleum jelly or double-sided tape around table legs will discourage ants from climbing up to the tabletop, according to Greensmiths.com.

Outdoor Barriers

• Planting catnip, peppermint, sage or spearmint around the outside of your house may keep ants away, according to Golden Harvest Organics’ website. Sprinkling diatomaceous earth around the foundation of the house should also keep ants away. All are safe for pets and wildlife.