Ants are quite small insects but they can prove to be annoying when they invade our kitchens in search of greasy or sweet foods. Most of us think that keeping the kitchen tidy and clean is enough to keep ants away. This is not the case. Even the tiniest drop of ketchup is enough to gather a huge family of ants.
So how do we ant control in our kitchen? The best way to go around the ant’s problem is by preventing them from ever considering your kitchen or home as an easy target. This is done by using quite a number of preventive and active measures.
Natural Remedies Used for the Ant Problem
One of the ways we can get rid of ants in our kitchen is through natural remedies. There are quite a number of people who prefer natural repellants to chemical insecticides. Natural remedies are very good because some ants can hide and even run away. If they had insecticides on them they might spread it to the whole house or even to the food you eat.
Some of the natural remedies that act as both an active and preventive measure include:
- Cleaning kitchen surfaces and floors with vinegar or peppermint oil. Ants do not like the smell of peppermint oil and vinegar.
- Sprinkling ground cinnamon or cayenne pepper to an ant-infested area and along with doorways and window walls.
- Make natural lemon juice and spray it in kitchen areas that have these ants.
- Placing instant grit in paths that ants normally use. This is very effective because when the ants eat the grits they die. This is because the grit works as a dehydrator to the ant’s body and as a result depriving them of water.
Ants can also be controlled through pesticides like boric acid or powder used between walls or behind kitchen tiles. However, we have seen that it is not quite safe to use a pesticide especially if it is not home friendly.
Defensive Mechanism against ants
There are quite a number of defensive mechanisms that one can use when it comes to preventing ants from entering your home. They say prevention is better than cure.
You can prevent ants from invading your home by using a deterrence mechanism. We all know that ants like to get into our kitchen through doorways, and many other entryways. It is always important to put defensive barriers on these entryways. This will prevent them from getting into your kitchen. Some of the items that can be used as barriers are powdered chalk and desiccating dust.
Fact to remember
It is important to note that barriers will not work on ants that have already found their way to the kitchen but they prevent any further ants from coming in.