Ants in the House

Ants drive me crazy.  They are everywhere this year!  At first I was worried that they’ve always been there and I just couldn’t see them because of all the clutter or the carpet in the living room.  However, after talking to lots of people, it seems that most people are having a problem with ants this year so I think it’s just the way our weather is.  They must like it this year.

The worst thing is that it’s not just one kind.  I keep finding all different kinds of ants which is so creepy.  There are the big black carpenter ants, the smaller black ants, small little reddish ants and little tiny slow moving ones.  Even my horse trailer was covered in some weird looking ones after sitting in the grass for a few hours.  I don’t know if they got inside but they were all over the outside.

After reading an article about carpenter ants, I’m even more worried now. It’s likely that they’ve been here for awhile and I just didn’t see them as much. I read that they can do as much damage as termites. Also, my cat, Oskar, is eating them.  Gross! I have some ant traps out so I’m worried that they are eating the poison and then he’s eating them.  I don’t think that can be good for him.

Natural Remedies for Getting Rid of Ants

I’ve been looking for ways to get rid of them naturally.  Keeping the kitchen clean is one way to get rid of them – that’s something that we haven’t mastered yet.  All of the food in the house should be cleaned up, no crumbs should be left anywhere! Spills should be wiped up immediately.  Even pet food areas need to be cleaned up every day.  Make sure that any extra food is cleaned out of the food dishes. This technique obviously doesn’t kill them but it will deter them so they don’t find your house attractive in the first place. It’s better to keep them away than to have to kill them.

Are the ants already invading your house?  Try using borax and powdered sugar. Once you have the correct mixture, you put that around and then the ants eat it and take it back to their nest where it will kill all of them.  The trick is to not use too much borax or they will die before they get back to the nest and the poison won’t have a chance to kill the queen.  As long as there’s a queen, there’s a problem.

Another thing to try is food safe diatomaceous earth.  It’s another, more natural, way to deal with the problem but sometimes it doesn’t work as well as the other remedies.  It’s safe to use around pets and children though so it might be worth a try.  I might even have some of it around since I think we used it many years ago.  I think that I was storing it in the garage.  You can find it at most home improvement and hardware stores.