Every time you make the sugary jujubes, do you start worrying instead of relishing? Do you fret if a drop or two of the caramel goes spilling on your tabletop when your children take a spoonful of it for their ice-cream topping? Then surely, you are worried not just for the family’s calories but more for the ants and their menace in your home. Are you also worried about the overly industrious carpenter ants that may be weaving tunnels through the walls of your home even as you are totally unaware of it?
Indeed ants of all shapes and sizes are the cause of worry just like any other pest. They come from all the hidden spots at the sight of sweets and might end up polluting your cakes, pastries, sweet meats and anything that would have appealed to your sweet tooth. Let’s check out few hacks that can let you eat these sweets in peace, with NO WORRIES from ants.
Hacks to save you and your home from ant attacks:
Ants of various types, carpenter ants, sugar ants or red ants, need to be kept away from homes and not just to protect your sweets or home in general, but because they are as bad as any other pest. Ant bites can give you red rashes or cause allergies that might only give you pain if not anything else. Ants can be drawn to food with a great sense of smell and hence, it is recommended that you block that sense or fool it. Let us check out few home remedies to ensure that these pests do not affect you in any way.
- Hack 1: Lemon Juice:
Lemon or citrus fruits have strong pungent odor of their own and this can distract or confuse the ants. So, spray a little bit of lemon juice around the doors and openings where you suspect the ants to come from.
- Hack 2: Vinegar:
Vinegar is equally pungent and just make sure that you mix one part of vinegar with water and spray it liberally or have napkins soaked in it and wipe the kitchen counters with it. Choose white vinegar for the same.
- Hack 3: Cinnamon:
Now that you have understood that smell is what we can tackle the ants from marching your home, just stick to that rule. Cinnamon is available in oil forms or sticks or even ground powdered form. So, use any of these at the very places, you dread the ants from trooping in.
- Hack 4: Sidewalk chalk:
There is something as easy about these plain white chalks or the colored chalks that are available in home improvement stores across the world. You just draw lines along the doors, windows, near the walls and across the threshold and the ants simply find it very difficult to cross this line.
- Hack 5: Cornmeal:
While sidewalk chalks are usually the best ways to keep ants at bay, you would certainly be relieved if you used something else that was a lot safer than that especially if you have kids or pets around your home. So, try sprinkling cornmeal near the entrance, or wherever you spot the anthill, or see ants trooping in to your home. The effects are quite visible in some time.
- Hack 6: Honey trap:
All you need is a small disposable bowl, and a big dollop of honey. If you know where the ants come from, just have your bowl placed near that quite casually. Slowly move the bowl out of the house and have ants take a detour to your kitchen.
- Hack 7: Peppermint Oil:
Peppermint essential oils are readily available in the market. Just 20 drops of peppermint oils along the windows, doors and any other wall openings or gaps and the kitchen smells great, plus no signs of ants too!
- Hack 8: Cotton Balls:
This is one of the age old methods of repelling ants. Douse cotton balls in vinegar or essential oils, squeeze out the extra oil from it and place it in the cracks or near the windows. You can once in a while wipe the windows with it and add a drop more of vinegar or essential oils in it to last longer.
- Hack 9: Baking Soda and powdered sugar:
Mix baking soda with some quantity of powdered sugar and keep it at entry points or places where ants are the most. Baking soda does not agree with ants and this will exterminate them.
- Hack 10: Coffee grounded:
Coffee with its strong aroma is good for keeping ants at bay. They do not like the smell and just sprinkle a little here and there to make sure they leave your home and live away from it.
These measures would be one of the most trusted methods of extermination that can be done using simple home remedies and not cost you a bomb too. So, isn’t it time for you to bring out the desserts?