How to Get Rid of Sugar Ants? – When springtime comes, one of the first pests you come to dread are sugar ants. They come and raid your kitchen, crawling all over the sweet stuff you have and carrying them off to the burrows that lead to their homes. When they are not invading people’s homes, sugar ants are of immense help to the ecosystem as they also consume dead animals and unwanted plants. However, they are still little pests when it comes to your home, so you need to find effective ways to get rid of them.
8 Natural Ways to Get Rid of Sugar Ants?
If you prefer not to use chemical products to get rid of the sugar ants that invade your home, you will be glad to know that there are quite a few natural ways to repel them. Here is a look at some of the best organic ways to repel and destroy these pesky little insects.
1. Cloves
Like many other insects, sugar ants dislike the smell of cloves a lot. To use it as an ant repellent, you can use crushed or whole cloves. Squeeze them into any crevices that the sugar ants use to enter your home, including crevices in baseboards, as well as along the travel patterns they use, like under countertops, sinks and cabinets. If there are sliding windows in your home, put cloves near the drainage slots in your windows’ sliding tracks and also where screens insert.
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2. Diluted White Vinegar
Ants hate vinegar, hence it is one of the best solutions for a sugar ant problem. All you have to do is to mix one-to-one white vinegar and water and use the solution to wipe down the top, bottom and edges of your countertops. It wipes away the scent of the trail they use to go back and forth, thus keeps them away from your home. Apart from being an effective ant repellent, white vinegar works amazingly well as a cleaning agent to remove food residue that you may not normally see. You can even use vinegar to get rid of sugar ants in the bathroom!
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3. Ground Cinnamon and Crushed Mint Leaves
These are highly effective in eliminating sugar ants. The crushed consistency makes it easy for you to apply in all types of places that give sugar ants the access to your home. You can spread the mixture along the routes that ants travel as well. You can also “dust” ground cinnamon into small crevices and cracks.
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4. Bay Leaves
If you are wondering how to get rid of sugar ants naturally, try bay leaves! These leaves work like cloves. As bay leaves are thin, you can easily slip them into thin cracks under counters and around the windows in your home. Another superb idea is to wrap bay leaves in cheese cloth and place them on pantry shelves and in drawers. You will notice that the sugar ants avoid these areas.
5. Camphor Oil or Clove Oil
These oils are another effective way to get rid of sugar ants and keep them from entering your home. All you have to do is apply one of these oils with a cloth on the areas that sugar ants use to enter your home, such as the bottom of doors and around window sills. Use this method every few weeks to keep these tiny brown ants out.
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6. Keeping Your Home Clean to Repel Sugar Ants
You can use the natural sugar ant repellents mentioned above, but you should also keep in mind that it is important to keep your home, especially the kitchen, clean at all times to prevent a sugar ant infestation.
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7. Keep Your Kitchen Sink Clean and Dry
If there is one thing that sugar ants love, it is a dirty sink. If you are going to leave dishes in the sink overnight, make sure that you rinse them off first. Also, after washing dishes, rinse and wipe down your sink thoroughly to make sure that there are no residual food, sweets or moisture. Pouring a small amount of bleach down the drain can also eliminate the smell of rotting food which is one of the things that attracts sugar ants to your kitchen.
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8. Wipe Down Surfaces with Bleach
To prevent sugar ants from invading your home, wipe down your counter top and other surfaces in your kitchen with bleach. This will not only sanitize your kitchen, but also help in breaking down the pheromones that ants use to follow each other while they are looking for sources of food or collecting food.
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Other Tips to Get Rid of Sugar Ants
Apart from the methods mentioned above, there are many other ways to eliminate sugar ants and keep them from invading your home. Here is a list of helpful tips to help you with sugar ant invasion:
- Keep an eye out for the spot sugar ants use to enter your home. Once you have located it, use a soapy wet sponge to wash their trail away. Ants use the same trail every day to come and go. So when you get rid of that trail, they get confused and keep away.
- Another effective way to repel sugar ants naturally is to use coffee grinds near the spot ants use an entrance. These insects hate the acid and smell that coffee has as it burns them. You will find that this method works wonders in ensuring that sugar ants stop entering your home.
- Did you know that baby powder can work really well as an ant deterrent? Well, sugar ants hate any strong scents or powdery substances, so applying baby powder near the entrances they use will definitely ensure that they stay away.
- Garlic is another effective sugar ant deterrent. Hang garlic in your cabinets and the pantry. As mentioned earlier, ants hate strong scents so the smell of garlic will surely keep them away.
- This may sound a little strange but drawing chalk lines across the entryway of ants can help in repelling them. For some reason, ants do not like walking through chalk lines. You should definitely try this method out.
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As you can see, you do not really need strong chemicals or complicated methods to get rid of sugar ants from your home. In fact, you will find most of the items you need to eliminate them right in your kitchen. So, the next time you notice sugar ants in your home, look around your kitchen and get rid of them naturally and keep them out permanently.
