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Ants are a big problem, especially when they start building a nest in the foundation of your home. You can find many treatments in the store, but all of them are pesticides with harmful chemicals that will kill the ant.
You do not want to expose your family or pets to the toxins in the ant deterrent, as it can make them ill. A fact is that insect killer is sufficient to fend off ants.
On the other hand, some solutions are all-natural that can do the job well, and this includes peppermint oil. The truth is that essential oils have become popular over the years to ward off ants and other insects.
The primary ability of these oils alleviates health conditions and is an effective way to rid home ants effectively.
How do Ants Respond to Peppermint Oil?
Before investing in any essential oil, even peppermint, it helps to know why these products are an effective ant deterrent.
The reason the peppermint oil helps to keep the ants away is the scent. The majority of these products have a strong fragrance that is pleasant to humans, but the pungent smell turns insects off as it interferes with the ant’s pheromones used for coordination.
By spreading the drops of peppermint around the home mixed with water, masks the trails of the ant, making it impossible for them to lead others of the colony to the property and helps naturally kill ants.
On the other hand, which essential oils should you use to ant kill natural without harming your family? You can find a wide selection of these products to utilize in the home.
Learning Which Essential Oils Deter Ants
Now that you know essential oils help keep ants away from home, you need to know which work effectively as an ant deterrent. Several of the oils you can use as a natural insecticide, but some of them are more powerful to kill ants.
Some of the best essential oils as pest control against ants are peppermint, tea tree, orange, and vetiver mixed with water. Now, if you want to control ants, tea tree oil is useful to get rid of ants. When you place it between the food source and ant the tree oil, it prevents them from moving to the food.
Therefore, it is an effective ant deterrent to keep fire ants and other aggressive species away. The tea tree will not kill them but prevents them from making your home their abode. Now, if you want to kill ants naturally, consider using patchouli as it has a high ability to turn away different species of ants with an exceptional mortality rate.
How do you use the essential oils effectively in the home?
The best way to rid of ants in your home is to use an oil-based spray for killing ants naturally. You will need some ingredients to make the ant spray. You will need a spray bottle, water, tea tree oil, orange oil, vodka, and peppermint oil.
Take a large bowl, add a quarter cup of water, and mix it with ten drops of tea tree, 15 drops of the peppermint, and three drops of the orange. Add a quarter cup of the alcohol as it is a solvent to make mixing easier. Now pour the mixture into the spray bottle and keep it stored in a dry place.
To make the ant repellent work effectively, make sure to apply it to all the areas affected by the ants. Spray into small cracks and crevices where you notice the ant entering or existing. The blend is non-toxic but prevents spraying it near food or furniture.
Get Rid of Ants with Peppermint Oil
The best solution to rid ants is mixing all the oils, but if you do not have the ingredients available to mix with water, you can use mint oil to defend the yard and house of the infestation. All you need is a few drops of peppermint oil on a cotton swab.
Wipe the areas where you find the ant roaming with the cotton swab. When doing this, you do not use too much of the product. You can do the same with tree oil or use the two ingredients together and place the swab on a cabinet to keep ants away from food.
Another excellent ingredient is clover for ant control as it interferes with their pheromone and is effective at killing ants. It has a strong smell and helps to dilute it with oil before use.
These are some products you can use, but if you do not have it available in your house, we recommend looking at the following section. You may also be interested in how peppermint oil can repel spiders – read more here.
Other Natural Solutions
Currently, if you do not have any of these ingredients in the home, you can make a mixture of vinegar and water in a spray bottle to remove the ants. Preferably, use white vinegar or apple vinegar as it kills ants.
Another common household item is cinnamon to prevent infestation. Sprinkle some of the powder where you see the colony moving around, and it will interfere with the scent trail, causing the ant to leave.
On the other hand, you may have food-grade diatomaceous earth in the home, as it is a standard garden product and useful to get rid of ants.
One more product that helps to kill the insect you find in many homes, and that is baking soda. You can combine one part of the baking soda with one part castor sugar. The sweet smell attracts the insect, and the baking soda kills them.
The substance reacts with the acid found in the digestive system and causes them to explode. For it to work effectively, you need to place the mixture in locations where they move the most in jar lids or a container to hold the powder.
Now, all that you need to do is to wait it out as the baking soda does its job.
Prevention of Ants Entering the Home
Ants forage for food and are the main reason they enter your home searching for greasy and sweet food particles. For this reason, they love to visit the pantry, storeroom, and kitchen. The scout ant enters your house through small cracks around the foundation, doors, and windows.
Once they find a food source, the scouts return to their nest and leave trails of pheromones for the others to follow. The worker ants leave the nest, follow the path to the food source, and carry it back to the nest. For this reason, it is crucial to keep your kitchen and home clean, preventing them from finding any food.
On the other hand, it helps to look for small cracks and nooks in and around the home to fix and prevent access to your place. By doing this will not only deter ants from entering but will keep other rodents and pests out of the house.
Control Effective Management
While using regular applications of the peppermint oil and other essential oils help to deter ants, make sure to use other control methods. You can find different species of the ant and helps to identify them before you deal with them using a plan of attack.
With all the methods mentioned, you will need to reapply the mixture of oils for it to work effectively and keep an eye on where they move around by fixing up the holes where they find entry to the home.
For a successful eradication of the nests in removing them from home, you can consider calling in an ant pest control service to help. Using essential oils offers you the ability to use it for other purposes in the house, including naturally kill of ants.
However, if the ant infestation is severe to use these oils, get help from an ant control expert to take care of the invasion.
