During the spring season, ants wake up from the long winter hibernation and start to invade homes in quest of food. Using harsh pesticides to eradicate ants from your home can be highly precarious for the health of your family as well as the environment. Contrary to that, eco-friendly pest control methods are much more effective and safer for the surroundings than traditional techniques and offer long-term results.
This article will shed some light on the most prevalent eco-friendly ant control methods that can help you eradicate these annoying insects this spring.
Peppermint
Using peppermint is one of the most sustainable and eco-friendly methods to exterminate ants in the spring season. As ants hate the smell of mint, you can plant it around your home or use its essential oil as a natural remedy to eradicate them. Just put a few drops of peppermint oil on a cotton ball and wipe the counters or surfaces where the ants are likely to congregate. Placing these cotton balls in severely infested areas can also be incredibly effective in eliminating ants from your home.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is a highly productive ant-repellent that does not affect the environment. You can sprinkle cinnamon powder on the ants’ path or around an anthill opening to eliminate these annoying insects completely.
Mixing a few drops of cinnamon oil with water and spraying it on ant trails, windows, and crevices is also quite beneficial in keeping ants at bay.
Baking Soda
Using baking soda is another environmentally friendly method to eliminate ants from your living space. It can be mixed with powdered sugar and placed in areas where ants are prevalent. Moreover, you can also cover the ant mounds with baking soda and spray them with white vinegar, resulting in the eradication of these pesky insects.
Borax
Borax has a minimal toxicity level for humans, but it can be devastating to ants since it disrupts their digestive system and kills them gradually.
Borax takes nearly two days to eradicate ants, and this method of gradual poisoning lures worker ants to take more and more bait and distribute it to the entire colony and queen. Once the queen comes in contact with the poison, the whole reproduction process stops. Borax is mostly used to eliminate fire ants and sugar ants.
Remember that ants aren’t just attracted to Borax. Combining it with some of their favorite foods is essential to entice them to bring it back to the colony. In order to do that, you first have to make a mixture of Borax, sugar, and water. The next step is to soak some cotton balls in this mixture and place them at the infested spots. Ants will get attracted to the sugar and take it back to their colonies along with the Borax, leading to their slow demise.
Boiling Water
Filling ant holes with boiling water can help you eliminate ants instantly by killing the majority of the insects inside their colonies.
Anthills may look small from the outside, but there are massive colonies beneath them. Putting boiling water in just one hole is usually insufficient to wipe out the entire colony. Therefore, make sure to treat every hole with boiling water near your property.
Vinegar Spray
White vinegar, available in almost every grocery store, is an inexpensive and effective remedy to repel ants and destroy their pheromone trails. Ants usually leave these trails to signal to the rest of the colony when they locate a food source.
A vinegar spray can be prepared by mixing vinegar with water in equal proportions. You can spray this mixture directly onto the ants or in areas where you mostly encounter these vexing insects. The best part is that ants can smell this vinegar even after it dries and continue to suffer for an extended period.
Final Thoughts
All these methods are highly productive in eliminating ants from your household and don’t pose any harm to the environment. However, if you are dealing with a severe ant infestation, it is favorable to contact a professional pest control company.
Carlsbad Pest Control ensures to effectively manage any pest infestation without bringing harmful pesticides to your home and property. Our eco-friendly treatments are specifically designed to target pests and are entirely safe for humans and the environment.