Ants in my Pants

Does anyone have a natural solution for killing and/or chasing away ants? If we merely leave a used baby bottle out, or a dead fly falls to the ground, or the laundry hamper isn't emptied fast enough, we are swarmed. And, you see, this has become more than just an ant problem. This is entering the realm of a marriage problem.

Brent is fed up with these critters. He is ready to send me and the baby and dog off to my folks' house so that he can put powdered poison out. I am fed up with them, too, but I recognize that, in general, our house is a mess right now. The ants come because we give them something to come for. I still have a few more days of work to accomplish before our two major culprits (the kitchen and the master suite) are in clean, organized, maintainable order. I am still painting cabinet doors which should be rehung by tomorrow. (Yeah!) But the closet in the master bath just got its first step in rehab this week...I won't get to that room until Wednesday, likely.

And here's the other major difference in thinking between me and The Mister.
He is happy with conventional methods of just about anything - he's all about accomplishing the task as efficiently as possible. He doesn't want to wrestle or hassle any more than he has to. While I value efficiency (believe me, I don't like to haggle with stuff), I value equally the way something is accomplished. And I am really, really serious about trying to weed out the chemicals, poisons, and unnatural concoctions in our home environment. So this is a real conundrum for me.

I found this info on the Simple Gifts Farm web site. Have you tried any of these methods before? Which ones have or haven't worked for you? Please leave a comment.

----from Simple Gifts Farm web site ---

Apparently baby powder or talcum powder is not appreciated. I’m told if you dust the ants and the trail, they’ll stop coming.

I have used vinegar to destroy their trails and if you can get it close to the source, they’ll get confused and not come in for a while. I used it at full strength but some folks have diluted it with water. The other benefit to this of course is that it cleans the counters etc as you wipe out the ant trails.

Cinnamon – from the spice rack – is increasingly being used in garden insect control trials and products. You might find it of use to dust the outdoor nests. As an indoor natural ant control I don’t know how it would work but you can only try. It would likely be more effective as a barrier to stop them from coming indoors so if you can sprinkle it around where you see them coming into the house, you’ll likely have better results.

Black pepper has the same story as above. I can’t vouch for either of these products. But if nothing else, your ants will have herbally spicy food to eat.

I’m told that some gardeners have had great luck simply spraying the ant areas – their trail, their entry points etc with insecticidal soap. Some have reported that ivory soap works very well too.

Bay leaves have been used for centuries for ant control. Put a leaf or two behind canisters on the counter, in your silver drawer, food shelves, anywhere ants have congregated. I haven’t had the heart to take any leaves off my bay tree yet but this is reputed to work.

Whole cloves are supposed to do the same thing. They’d keep me away for sure.

Peppermint sprayed around the edges of your house and ant entry points will deter ants as will growing peppermint and other mints in your foundation planting. I caution you against this as you’ll quickly be over-run with mint instead of ants. But spraying a mint extract or heavy mint tea might help; as long as it leaves a minty smell behind it is strong enough

A reader recommended giving ants a bowl of uncooked Cream of Wheat cereal. Apparently the product swells in their stomachs and kills them. Personally, I don’t believe this – right up there with the old feed chewing gum to moles/voles to block them up hoax – but I pass it along for your amusement.

Diatomaceous earth will cut up ants as quickly as it cuts up other small insects. You can scatter this around and it is not dangerous to humans or pets unless breathed in quantity.

How about red chili pepper paste or hot curry paste? Spray it or mix it into a paste and put it on their trails.

There is some non-scientific experience that says that putting a product containing aspertame (nutrisweet etc) beside the ant hill kills them off. This works as a nerve poison.

So there’s the word on natural ant control. Some of these will work better than others but at least you have the whole bag now. Good luck.