{"id":544736,"date":"2010-04-27T14:24:11","date_gmt":"2010-04-27T18:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/green.yahoo.com\/blog\/the_conscious_consumer\/131\/stop-the-ants-from-marching.html"},"modified":"2010-04-27T14:24:11","modified_gmt":"2010-04-27T18:24:11","slug":"stop-the-ants-from-marching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/544736","title":{"rendered":"Stop the ants from marching"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\"image
\n
(Photo: Getty Images)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It’s definitely unnerving to see a line of ants marching
\nacross the kitchen floor. But you don’t need to hire an expensive professional
\nexterminator or spray toxic chemicals to banish nuisance ants from your home. <\/p>\n

Pesticides can harm your family’s health as well as your
\npets’. Plus, they don’t
\nget to the root of the problem<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Instead, try these tips for preventing ants from entering
\nyour home in the first place and banishing them once they get there. (Carpenter ants<\/a> are a
\nmore serious problem, so make sure that those aren’t what you’re seeing in inside.) <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keep the ants from coming in
<\/strong><\/p>\n

Seal cracks or holes where outdoor ants are entering the house. This will require less than an hour of your time and an inexpensive tube
\nof caulk<\/a>.
\nIt’s also a good idea to trim the branches of trees or shrubs that touch your home
\nso that ants can’t crawl in through windows and doors. <\/p>\n

Sprinkling cinnamon, cayenne pepper, or cloves where ants enter or gravitate to can deter them from moving in. Bay leaves, fresh mint, or
\npeppermint tea bags also work well. <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Starve the ants <\/strong><\/p>\n

You’ll need to be a fastidious housekeeper while you’re
\ntrying to get rid of ants because they feast on the tiniest crumbs or drops
\nof water. If ants can’t find anything to eat or drink, they will leave.<\/p>\n

Keep food in containers with tight-fitting lids. Wash and
\ndry dishes immediately. If you need to leave dishes in the sink, submerge them in
\nsoapy water. Wipe down your counters thoroughly. Sweep or vacuum up crumbs
\noften. Take your garbage outside regularly.<\/p>\n

Don’t leave pet food and water dishes out overnight. If you
\nneed to, then place bowls in pans of soapy water. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Fix dripping faucets, leaks, and eliminate any standing water.\n<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Banish ants from your house <\/strong><\/p>\n

Mix a teaspoon of liquid soap and water in a quart-size
\nspray bottle and spray areas where the ants are active. This will drown the
\nants and destroy the chemical
\ntrails<\/a> left by worker ants so it will prevent more ants from invading your
\nhome. Vinegar and water should also do the trick. <\/p>\n

The Natural Resource Defense Council recommends making
\nyour own ant traps<\/a> from a mixture of borax, sugar, and water. Be careful
\nwith these if you have young children or pets because it’s not safe to ingest. Ants
\ncan’t digest cornmeal properly so that’s another way to get rid of them — sprinkle it around holes or ant trails. <\/p>\n

If all else fails and you decide to go for pesticides, use
\nbaits in closed cases instead of sprays. <\/p>\n

You can also try to locate the nest and destroy the colony.
\nPlace honey or syrup on cardboard<\/a>
\nalong ant trails and follow the thick trail of syrup to the nest. If the nest is
\noutside, pour one or more pots of boiling water over it. <\/p>\n

Indoor nests can be
\nvacuumed up with a HEPA filter. Add a little cornstarch to the bag to suffocate
\nants, and dispose of the bag outside of your home.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Environmental journalist Lori Bongiorno shares green-living tips and product reviews with Yahoo! Green’s users. Send Lori a question or suggestion<\/a> for potential use in a future column. Her book,<\/em> Green Greener Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-smart Choices a Part of Your Life is available on Yahoo! Shopping<\/a> and Amazon.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Check out Yahoo! Green on Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Photo: Getty Images) It’s definitely unnerving to see a line of ants marching across the kitchen floor. But you don’t need to hire an expensive professional exterminator or spray toxic chemicals to banish nuisance ants from your home. Pesticides can harm your family’s health as well as your pets’. Plus, they don’t get to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3953,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-544736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3953"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}