My apartment is being ant infested. Small regular ants . I found the hole where they are coming from and filled it but they are still coming. Is there anything I can put around that is not toxic and will keep them away. I read about the fact that vinegar is a common deterrent but this is not working. Is there some kind of product to lure them and trap them and then just throw out the trap. I don't want to kill them if I don't have to.
You're kidding, right? You'd rather somehow catch ants and let them go somewhere else? You have no good options other than to exterminate them, and countless products are available for that task. You can use Raid sprays and traps to get rid of them, and then a preventative treatment may be necessary to ensure that they're not going to come back around after a few weeks.
Your best bet is the humble school teachers' chalk. This is what we use on our kitchen counters. No toxic content. I've heard cinnamon powder also works wonders and is dirt cheap by the pound. Hope this helps.
@AthenagdlytThis is the info I was looking for . Something non toxic that will keep them away @troutski I have never had trouble with ants before. I could leave sugar on my floor overnight a few months ago and none of them would come. They found a way in . I have blocked this route. I believe what ever ants are coming are the ones already in my apartment. Why kill them if I can just capture them in a feed trap and release them ? And I wanted a non-toxic approach. Once I get rid of the ones present in my apartment then I will try chalk or cinnamon to keep them from coming back. As I said I tried the vinegar approach. If more toxic and permanent methods of eradication are needed then I will explore it at that time .
I also heard that if you do baking soda around where the entry way is or where they go, it'll stop them too. But make sure you do this after you've cleaned the floors and stuff because ants leave a chemical trail for their fellow brethren to let them know where it's going. Wipe off all the counters and floors and stuff and make sure it's 100% clean, and then put some baking powder in the areas where they frequent. I heard that they use their legs/feet as way to feel and stuff, and they HATE feeling powdery stuff on their leg. Also, I heard this from an old Japanese man (because my boyfriend and I went to buy Raid to kill ants; we tried everything and was sick of it) and he said that if you mix powder sugar and baking soda together and leave it by their entry way for them to eat, they'll eat it. HOWEVER, because they don't have the stomach enzymes to process the baking soda, over a short amount of time they will actually explode (the gas buildup from the baking soda and their stomach contents).
I use a product called Home Defense to spray the area the ants are in and around the windows and doors to keep them out of the house. I do spray the areas again if it rains. Just to be sure it is still working. It works good for keeping the bugs out of the house and does not have a bad smell.
I also have a problem with ants in my home. We've tried using Raid and baking soda. I never heard of using chalk or cinnamon powder. I am definitely going to give those suggestions a try.
I've had this issue in my house where I was being eaten alive at the ankles and I started using Ortho max spray did the trick without paying a ton of money to an exterminator. Unfortunately, they don't seem to sell it anymore don't know why it worked so well. When it went off the market I just bought like Raid ant motels and it worked just as well.
Table salt. I used to live in a town that got so hot that the ants would look for shelter indoors. The ants would not past the salt barrier.
This is going to sound crazy, but it works. Do not let dogs or children near it or eat it though. Every summer my house is attacked with red ants that bite. Ouch! What we do is take 1 cup of borax powder (the detergent) and 1/2 cup of regular sugar. Mix it up and put it around the edge of your house. Especially where they are the worse. They like the sugar and bring it back to where the colony is, but the soap kills them. Works in less than a week for us.
Here's a link that tells you the natural ways to get rid of ants:Log In The last tip is not practical though, because it tells you to use perfume since ants can't tolerate them. I have done that before, but only when I don't have Baygon at that time.
I think the best thing to do would be to find what is attracting them to your house. In my experience, ants usually only pop up when they find a food source and as long as you are able to contain the source then they will go somewhere else. If it's not possible then as others have said, you could just use chalk. I'm not too sure but I think there is a special type of chalk you can buy for these situations, so you might want to look into finding those.
Try pouring kerosene on the hole where they come from. If that doesn't solve the issue, throw a lit matchstick too for good measure. At home, when there are ants, my mom simply uses a cheap chalk that could keep ants at bay and kill them after some time. I forgot the name of the chalk. All I know that it has some Chinese characters written on the box. But then again, there would always be ants if you have a lot of leftover food hanging around your house. It's also good to consider conducting a general cleaning in your house to eliminate the food that is attracting all the ants.
I use Raid Ant spray. It works wonders. My mother use to put sulfur on ants and it use to kill them. She also put it around the door.
I have had good results with Terro ant traps. They have a bait the ants take back to the nest that kills them off. I don't think they are a good product if you have small children or pets that could get into it. It is toxic only if you get the stuff on you or mess with it, but it does not have any odor or vapors that I am aware of, and no mess as all the bate is contained in the little container that the ants just go in and out of.
I usually get ants in my house during the summer. I usually use Raid to get rid of them. I found another solution that doesn't have toxins that works too. I went to the health food store and found some peppermint oil. This keeps the ants away. I got some for my mother because she had ants in her car. She parked on the grass and it caused her to get ants in the car. She used the peppermint oil and it got rid of the ants.
Cinnamon is a natural ingredient that ants don't like. Cinnamon kills the nasty creatures once they eat it. I sprinkle cinnamon anywhere and everywhere I could imagine an ant to be found. My husband even sprinkled cinnamon outside around the house. We've not seen many ants since this.
I probably did the worst thing you can do and taped up the hole with duct tape because vinegar didn't work. They just found another entrance and are still coming and going when they feel like it even though I have my floors cleaned everyday. They are coming in through a window in my bathroom. I actually could not find any chalk in my house and then forgot about that good idea so I will try some cinnamon sticks which I have. If that doesn't work I'm going to buy some type of poison that just kills them. They don't bite, these are regular small black ants but it just looks dirty and especially when they are coming in lines from out side I hate it.
Another trick is using a solution of lemon juice and baking soda in a spray bottle, or try a line of table salt to kill them? The acid in that will prevent them coming in. Use the lemon solution to clean and also to leave a barrier which will put the ants off coming in. If you have any white spirit vinegar, add some lemon juice and spray the area with that if you don't have any baking sods.
I came here to suggest this too. It definitely works 100% which I learnt from a friend I was staying with for a few weeks. They have problems with lots of little black ants, and they keep popping up every few months. They invaded the kitchen while we were there and the borax/honey mix attracted all the ants away from everything else. Not only that, but it stopped them. I personally haven't tried it yet, but I'm told it gets rid of the ants for a few months. Cheap and easy to do.
