Every April, my mission has been how to get rid of ants in the kitchen. Every Spring it’s inevitable – I wake up to small black ants in our kitchen. They crawl over the counter, into our sink, and across our floor.
It’s irritating because I keep our home clean, but somehow they always appear each spring.
Killing Ants Indoors Without Harmful Pesticides
When killing ants indoors, I prefer to use natural methods since indoor pesticides come with health consequences. Even the EPA states that “pesticides are inherently toxic.” They remind us that “it is important to remember that the “-cide” in pesticides means “to kill”. ”
When it comes to our health, the EPA mentions that exposure to pesticides may result in:
- Irritation to eye, nose, and throat
- damage to the central nervous system and kidney
- increased risk of cancer
Those health challenges should be reason enough to not use pesticides in your home.
Army of Ants Are Persistent
Let me tell you, those little ants are pretty smart and they can learn to adapt. They’re hard workers too. I’m always amazed to watch their persistency.
After dealing with ants in the kitchen, I now understand why they are typically referred to as an army. Even though a ton of them might have died by the hands of me and my husband, they continued to send out more and more troops every day.
It made me wonder how many babies can a queen ant produce? I was shocked to read that a queen ant can lay around 300,000 eggs over a few days time. The queen ants can also live for 30 years. No wonder there may never be an end to the number of ants that can appear.
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How to Get Rid of Ants in the Kitchen Naturally
Each time I see ants in our kitchen, I try to figure out how to kill them, or at least get rid of them. I’ve tried many different natural remedies to get rid of ants over time, but only a couple of things worked to get rid of the ants in our kitchen.
Following is my personal experience and recommendation to get rid of ants.
Keep Your House Clean
Of course, make sure you keep your kitchen clean. Any crumbs on the counter or floor will attract ants. They love dirty dishes in the sink too.
Seal Off Cracks
First off, try to find the actual spot of where they are entering your house. Look along the walls, between cupboards, along window ledges, along the seam where your tile meets the wall. Look under your sink and behind things too.
There were times which I purposely set some sugar out to attract the ants, so I could watch where they would come from and return to. They are hard workers and always want to take crumbs back to the other ants, so you can easily follow their journey.
Once you see where they are coming into your house, use caulk to seal off any cracks you think they might be entering through.
For me, that worked for a time until they found another way to enter. I told you they were smart!
>>READ MORE: How to Kill Weeds Naturally Without Harming Yourself<<
Does Cinnamon Repel Ants?
At that point, I saw them coming in along our floor in a large gap under our cupboard. The gap was too large to caulk, so I set a cinnamon stick on the floor near the cupboard. I also sprinkled some salt along the base of the cupboard on the floor. Ants don’t like cinnamon or salt.
That deterred them for a bit, but they found a way to bypass that by crawling up a wall instead of crawling along the floor.
Use Baking Soda to Kill Ants
By this time, there were fewer ants, but enough that I was getting totally frustrated with them and was tired of waking up and having to kill them each morning.
After experimenting with different natural remedies, I finally found the thing that ultimately got rid of ants in our kitchen.
I used the lid from a lemonade bottle and put some baking soda and powdered sugar in it. The sugar attracts ants and the salt in baking soda helps to kill them.
It took the ants a day to notice the cap, but once they did, a few ants began to climb into the cap.
The next day I woke up to find a couple of dead ants laying in the cap and fewer ants on my kitchen counter!
Within a couple of days, all of the ants disappeared! No more waking up to find them crawling across our floor or counters.
I actually still leave that lid filled with baking soda and powdered sugar on my counter. It’s a small sacrifice to make in order to keep the ants away.
So the next time someone asks you how to get rid of ants in the kitchen, tell them to try a baking soda and powdered sugar mixture. They will be thankful you did!
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