The best way to get rid of ants is to keep them away. Seeing a few ants in your house doesn’t seem like a big deal. But once they find a food source, others will follow their trail. You could soon have large numbers of ants trouping in and out of your house. It is best to deter them early. Use these scents to disorient and deter them.
Scents That Keep Ants Away
Using scents is an effective way to prevent ant invasions of your home. Scents should be used with other preventative methods like sealing window cracks, door sills, wall penetrations, and foundation cracks. To be truly effective, sprayed-on scents should be renewed weekly. If not, the odor will disappear and the ants will reappear.
All ant-repellant scents should be applied to window and door sills, baseboard and floor junctions, and on any surface you see ants to disrupt their trails.
Vinegar
Ants hate the smell of vinegar. They do not walk across vinegar. Wiping or spraying white vinegar over counters and floors eliminates the pheromone trails that ants follow. Mix vinegar with equal amounts of water and spray where needed. Repeat weekly. Do not use apple cider vinegar. It repels ants but attracts fruit flies and other pests.
Pepper – Black and Cayenne
Make a black pepper or cayenne pepper spray by mixing one part fine ground pepper with ten parts water. Spraying it around entry points keeps ants out and it acts as a deterrent for a long time. The pepper spray should be renewed if it is vacuumed or washed away. Neither pepper kills ants.
Coffee Grounds
Sprinkling dried coffee grounds around entry points to your home keeps ants away. Coffee grounds are toxic to ants. They can be used both inside and outside the house. The grounds can appear dirty inside. Outside, they add nitrogen to the soil. Coffee grounds also keep ants away from garden plants.
Peppermint
Peppermint is toxic to ants–making the smell enough to keep them away. Growing peppermint plants at your front entrance or close to windows keeps ants from entering the house. Essential peppermint oil spray also works well but has to be renewed regularly.
Cinnamon
Cinnamaldehyde–a chemical found in cinnamon–affects an ant’s sense of smell. They cannot detect food or follow pheromone trails. Sprinkle dry ground cinnamon powder at likely entry points. Or mix essential cinnamon oil with water to spray around openings. For best results, cinnamon deterrents should be renewed weekly.
Garlic
The sulfur in garlic produces its distinctive aroma which repels ants. Crushed garlic cloves placed close to ant entry points keep them out. Another option is to chop the garlic in a blender and soak it overnight in water. Strain out the garlic bits and use the water in a spray bottle to treat baseboards, window sills, and door sills. Garlic is non-toxic to children and pets.
Chalk and Baby Powder
A line of crushed chalk or baby powder acts like a fence that ants will not cross. The calcium carbonate disrupts any existing scent trails and prevents them from leaving new ones. Chalk and baby powder do not work as a residual deterrent if they are wiped, blown, or vacuumed away. The line has to be renewed once it is gone.
Citrus Peels
Anything smelling of citrus–lemon, orange, grapefruit–is an excellent ant repellent. You can wipe down window sills and door sills with citrus mixed in water, spray the area with citrus essential oils, or even place fruit peels in the area. Citrus is a long-lasting ant deterrent but should be renewed occasionally. Artificial citrus does not work.
Essential Oils
Most essential oils deter ants. The fragrances that people enjoy and appreciate offend ants. Essential oils keep ants from entering the house and disrupt the pheromone trails they leave that get them back to the colony and provide a path to whatever food source they find. Mix about 20 drops of your favorite essential oil with water in a 32-ounce spray bottle, shake well, and apply it to obvious entry points–window and door sills, wall penetrations, gaps, cracks, and baseboards.
In addition to repelling ants, eucalyptus oil, cinnamon oil, and clove oil also kill them if they are sprayed on ants. Some of the most potent ant-repelling essential oils are:
- Tea Tree Oil.
- Eucalyptus Oil.
- Peppermint Oil.
- Cinnamon Oil.
- Clove Oil.
- Lemon Oil. Also Citronella oil and Lemongrass oil.
