The unfortunate truth is that if you see one ant in your home, it’s not likely they’re alone. Ants travel in groups, and one ant often means that there will be hundreds if not thousands more.
These pests are not the kind of house guests you’ll want to have in your home for long. They can get into everything and will be more than happy to invade your kitchen and ruin your food.
If you’ve run into this problem, it’s essential to learn about how to get rid of ants in your kitchen. There is more than one method you can take to get rid of ants, but you’ll need to determine which might be best for your current situation.
Ready to learn more? Read on and we’ll walk you through what you need to know.
Pepper & Peppermint
What might you already have around your house that could be efficient in fending off these six-legged creatures? One surprising thing ants seem to be wary of is pepper. If you have black or cayenne pepper around your home, it might work in warding the ants away from important areas.
Sprinkling pepper along the baseboard of your home and around cabinets and other such areas can help fight ants away.
What many find even more efficient than pepper is actually peppermint. Peppermint is a known insect repellant that not only works on ants but mosquitoes and other flying insects.
You can create a peppermint-based spray that can work as a deterrent in all areas of your home, but especially in your kitchen. What do you need to do? Pick up some peppermint essential oil and mix a dozen or so drops with 2 cups of water.
Put this mixture into a spray bottle and use it around the home. Spray it along baseboards, along windows, and at any and all entrances that ants may come through. Allow it to dry.
However, if you have pets around the home you may want to avoid this DIY approach. Peppermint has the potential to be harmful to cats and dogs, who might become ill with too much exposure.
Protect All Food
If you want to eliminate an ant problem, the most important thing you can do is to cut off their food source. That means protecting all of your food and ensuring that the hordes of ants that have arrived can’t get to it.
Once the ants realize there is no food to be found, it is likely they’ll retreat and hunt for it elsewhere.
How can you protect your food from an ant infestation? You’ll need to stock up on containers and plastic bags. Keeping all exposed food in airtight containers should cut off ants from being able to access these items.
If you need to put your focus towards any items, in particular, it should be those items that are sweet or high in sugar content. These items tend to attract ants more than any other.
Make sure you are not leaving crumbs around your home, as these can be a primary ant attractor. Even if you seal up all the food in your kitchen, leaving crumbs out elsewhere might still call an ant army to your door.
Look over all of your counters, under cushions, and around your garbage cans. Are there other rooms in the home where you tend to eat? Clean those up and ensure you’re not leaving crumbs out.
Once again, if you have pets you might need to take special care when feeding them. After they eat, clean out their food bowls and ensure there’s no food leftover.
If your pet is used to having food available to them all day, they might need to make a change until this kitchen ant infestation is over.
Cut Off Their Entry
Where are the ants coming in from? Sometimes, if you can trace the source of the ant infestation back to their point of entry, you can cut it off.
Ants are minuscule little creatures, and sealing every possible entry point to your home is going to be impossible. However, if there is a major crack through which they are entering, sealing it off might be able to end the flow of ants.
Filling these holes up and lacing them with some form of repellent can keep ants away at least for some time. You can speak with a professional pest service about what sort of repellant might keep ants away for good.
If you can keep ants away from entry points? You might be able to successfully keep them out of your home altogether.
Look Outside
Taking a trip into your yard can help you resolve your ant problem as well.
While ants can travel quite far in their search for food, it isn’t likely that their home is actually too far from your own. Finding the hill in which they’re bringing their food back can help you end things at the source.
Go outside your home and look around. See if you can follow the trail back to a hill somewhere in your yard. Some ants tend to build right up against the side of a house itself.
Carpenter ants, specifically, tend to make their homes in old or rotted wood. Looking around in stumps and other such areas might produce evidence of a home. Once you’ve found the nest, pour boiling water on it to end things once and for all.
How To Get Rid of Ants in Your Kitchen
There is nothing more irritating than the sudden appearance of ants around your home, especially near your food. You’ll need to learn how to get rid of ants in your kitchen if you want to regain your space — and your peace of mind.
The above tips and tricks should be able to help resolve the issue without the need for too much stress.
Still, having a pest problem? Contact us for immediate assistance and further advice. We’re happy to help.