Home Remedies For Sugar Ants & How To Get Rid Of Sugar Ants Naturally
There are plenty of home remedies that you can use to get rid of sugar ants. However, do bear in mind that these natural methods work only for initial ant infestations. If the ant infestation in your house is severe, then experts recommend using chemical methods or calling a professional. However, the combination of natural and chemical methods can be effective as well.
When it comes to homemade remedies, they have to be used in the right concentrations and applied regularly. But the best part is that you can certainly find at least a couple of these remedies in your house right now!
Pepper
We all know that pepper has a very strong smell and it is practically unbearable for sugar ants. Of course, it would be difficult to use a lot of pepper, but you can certainly combine it with some other methods. For example, add a pinch of cayenne pepper to an essential oil and water mixture and spray the ants entry points.
Coffee Grounds
The chances are high that you have a lot of this substance left after you have had your morning coffee. It can stain a lot of surfaces, so use coffee grounds only outside of the house. The great news is that this easy recipe can help keep a wide range of pests away from your house.
Bay Leaves
Place a bay leaf in your pantry. As simple as that. It acts as a natural ant deterrent.
Essential Oils
Cucumber Peels
Vinegar
Soap and Water
Diatomaceous Earth
Cornstarch
Boiling Water
Chamomile
Homemade Sugar Ant Traps
Kill Sugar Ants With Borax
An instrumental ant killer is Borax, which is made up of sodium borate. Known for its cleaning power, Borax is an effective fungicide, herbicide, insect killer, and a desiccant. It is a common ingredient found in commercial ant bait.
When the sugar ants ingest Borax, it affects the ants digestive system but leaves time for them to return to their colony with the poisoned food.
They share the food with the rest of the ants in the nest, and it will eventually kill all the sugar ants. For the ants to be attracted to the Borax, youll need to mix it with something sweet like sugar or honey.
How To Get Rid Of Sugar Ants In Bathroom
As you already know, moisture attracts ants and they will be happy to drink the water. You would have to get rid of any freestanding water in your bathroom if you want to prevent an ant infestation.
Seal all the cracks and openings along the floor and walls and replace the broken tiles. Clean your toilet regularly and use a disinfectant spray whenever you can.
The chances are high that your bathroom is the exact place where you want to come and relax. So, you can accomplish two goals at once, if you use essential oils. You can use peppermint or tea tree oil in your bathroom to get rid of any ants and make the place smell nice and fresh. Add around 20 drops to a spray bottle, add some water and use the mixture to spray it over the ants and trails.
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What Are Sugar Ants Attracted To
As their name suggests, sugar ants are mostly attracted to sugary, sweet substances. Of course, sugar is available in many different forms, so it is useful to understand what type of sugary substances these ants are attracted to. The most obvious forms of sugar ants are attracted to include syrup, powdered sugar, and white and brown sugar.;
However, sugar ants will eat just about any sugary substance, such as fruit, soft drinks, nectar, candy, cake, and honeydew. While honeydew can of course refer to the fruit, it also refers to the liquid that is rich in sugar and that is secreted by certain insects, such as aphids. These insects are commonly found on houseplants.
Interesting Facts About Ants
facts about ants
- There are more than 12,000 species of ants around the world. The vast majority of these are relatively harmless to people, although you wouldnt want to share your dinner with them.
- Ants can carry bacteria, making them potential transmitters of disease or infection. For example, Monomorium ants have been
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Cut Off Their Food Source
Eliminating the problem before it starts is the best way to get rid of ants. You can do this by making sure you have no food sources readily available for them.
This will entail keeping food tightly sealed in containers or plastic bags. Keep in mind that ants are attracted to sweet and starchy things like sugar, honey, and cornmeal.
Youll also have to be vigilant about cleaning up crumbs from your home. Dont forget to clean:
- under and around standing appliances in your kitchen
- in couch cushions
- in garbage pails
- areas of the home where your family eats or prepares food
Pet food can also attract ants. Remove pet bowls as soon as your pet has finished eating. Give the bowls a rinse to eliminate the scent of the food.
Are They Harmful Or Destructive
Other than breaking and entering your home and contaminating any food they touch, most sugar ants arent considered harmful or destructive. The one major exception is carpenter ants, which can be very destructive.
Carpenter ants like to build their elaborate nest mazes inside moist wood. If that wood happens to be inside your home, carpenter ant activity can weaken its structural integrity over time.
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What Are The Sugar Ants
There are more than 10 thousand species of ants. But in the kitchen, you usually meet sugar, or pharaoh, ants.
Sugar ants are small light brown or yellowish insects. They are called sugar because they like sweet food: sugar, honey, jelly, cakes. They were first discovered in the Egyptian pyramids in the 18th century. That is why their second name is pharaoh ants.
Also Read: How to get rid of carpenter ant infestation.
Seven Ways To Get Rid Of Sugar Ants Naturally And Prevent Them From Entering The House
Sugar ants and their colonies can be difficult to get rid of. However, there are several safe ways to eliminate them at home and prevent them from entering the house with the help of natural, nontoxic solutions that are easily available and that dont add chemicals or toxins to the home and environment. These methods can also be used to help get rid of other species of ants.
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How This Product Works
Electric traps are an expensive device, but they will be effective for several years. The bait inside the trap attracts sugar ants, but when they come inside they are affected by an electric shock. These traps should be put in dry places in compliance with safety rules.
The only disadvantage is that sugar ant traps can destroy workers, but life and reproduction in the anthill will remain unchanged.
The traps of the following brands are the most efficient: Clean House, Blockbuster, and Combat.
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Raid Ant Bait is a plastic station with a pesticide inside. The apertures of the station are too small for your kids, pets and even larger insects to get inside, so the bait stays there. Ants come to feed on it and take the rest to their colony, thus providing poison to every other ant, including the queen. The bait can last for up to three months and control high-level infestations. There are eight traps in the box, which are recommended to place altogether if theres a severe ant infestation in your home.
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Ultrasonic repellers, which are used for mosquitoes and rodents, are not recommended for sugar ants. But these repellers do not work, because these insects do not produce and do not perceive ultrasound. Ants perceive all information using chemical signals pheromones.
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Syngenta Optigard Ant Bait Gel Box
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HARRIS Borax Liquid Ant Killer includes 9 bait trays and is able to kill all common household ants . Borax is the active ingredient used in the product. It is a naturally occurring mineral powder that will help you get rid of sugar ants. You can spread all 9 bait trays over a large area .
The bait is sweet and the ants would be happy to bring it back to their colony. The product kills the ants slowly, thats why the workers will have plenty of time to poison the entire colony.
The bait will kill the ant within 48 hours. It might take the product around 2 weeks to fully eliminate a mild infestation. Make sure to remove all food sources. Otherwise, the ants might get distracted from the bait.
You have to be very careful with borax and make sure that your children and pets do not come across this substance. Please do make sure that your cat or dog stays away from the poison.
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Here Are Some Tips And Good Practices To Consider If You Are Dealing With Sugar Ants;
- Endeavor to keep your countertops, sinks, and cabinets clean.
- Ensure you keep your floors free from food crumbs.
- Avoid keeping foodstuffs open.
- Store your food in a refrigerator or in airtight containers.
- Use strong trash bags that are difficult to puncture.
- Endeavor to clear spills, foods, and drinks as soon as possible.
- Strive to vacuum your floors, especially carpeted floors, as often as possible.
- Strive to empty your garbage bin regularly.
- Seal up crevices and other openings around the house and strive to keep the windows closed or you could use window nets to prevent insects from gaining access to your home while keeping your home well-ventilated.
Make A Trap Out Of Baking Soda
Another non-toxic way to kill sugar ants is by making ant traps with baking soda. Baking soda consists of small salt crystals that are composed of bicarbonate and sodium ions.
When the sugar ants ingest the baking soda, it reacts with the acid in their digestive system. This reaction generates carbon-dioxide gas, which makes them explode.
Youll need to mix the baking soda with powdered sugar to act as the bait. This method is handy for getting rid of sugar ants because they take the small sugar crystals with the baking soda back to their nests, which destroys the ant problem at the source. It is also the safest method for killing ants if you have pets and kids at your home.
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How To Get Rid Of Sugar Ants
Come springtime, sugar ants will begin to invade homes in search of food and water. Though these ants arent dangerous to humans, theyre rather annoying pests that can be difficult to control. Heres everything you need to know about getting rid of sugar antsfrom which natural remedies and chemical solutions are best to prevention methods that keep these ants from coming back.
Ways To Prevent Them From Entering Your Home In The Future
Getting rid of the sugar ants in your house is only half of the battle. Youll still need to find ways to prevent them from invading your space again, and they will if given the right conditions.
Dont worry, there are a few proactive steps you can take to lessen the chances of another infestation.
One of the most effective ways to prevent another sugar ant invasion is to keep your home clean. This entails sweeping, vacuuming and mopping as often as possible. Also, wiping down countertops, wiping down the sink and washing dishes in a timely manner are very important tasks to add to your cleaning routine. Make sure to take out the trash at least once a day.
As mentioned earlier, its critical to keep food stored in plastic containers. Make sure to wipe away drips from bottles of ketchup, honey, molasses or any other sweet and sticky item.
Quick Tip: Dont forget to check the outside of your home for entryways such as holes and cracks. These areas can be sprayed and sealed.
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How To Identify And Kill Sugar Ants
Ants are America’s leading household pests, and much of the credit for that title goes to tiny invaders known as “sugar ants.” Sugar ants aren’t a single species. From region to region, what the locals call “sugar ants” varies considerably. But wherever you go, these sweet-loving pests have two things in common: They’re very small, and they disrupt homes. If sugar ants have your household in an uproar, don’t despair. You can kill sugar ants indoors and out and prevent their return.
How Do They Spread
One reason why ants can be difficult to eradicate is a phenomenon known as budding. Budding, sometimes referred to as fragmenting or fracturing, occurs when the queens in an ant nest detect a threat or foreign invader in their surroundings.
To evade the threat, the queens will each go in a different direction and start a new nest. If youve ever discovered ants in your kitchen, only to find theyve somehow ended up in the laundry room and bathroom too, youve probably been the victim of budding.
If youre trying to get rid of sugar ants, you definitely want to avoid accidentally triggering the budding process, because it could make your ant problems considerably worse!
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Q Are Sugar Ants Attracted To Water
A: Like any animal, ants need water to survive. In particularly dry areas of the country, leaky pipes, sinks full of dishes, bathrooms, and even condensation will draw ants. With that in mind, fix any plumbing leaks, wrap pipes;which have;condensation, thoroughly rinse dirty dishes and drain the sink of any standing water. A sink-based garbage disposal may be a big draw for sugar ants as well. To destroy their pheromones, pour a little bleach into the garbage disposal every few days and activate it. That should be enough to destroy any attractants.
How To Kill Ants With Borax A Deadly Ant Killer Recipe
Whether indoor or outdoors, ants can become a nuisance in every home and to everyone. These tiny little pests burrow their way into your homes and gardens in search of food, and can leave both your plants and pantry suffering. Fortunately, theres no need to live with them anymore, you can easily get rid of them with borax.
Borax is an odorless white powder, known mostly for its uses when doing laundry, but it also has antifungal, antibacterial and antiviral properties that are beneficial to both the home and environment. Its important to note that borax is toxic if ingested, so be sure to keep it away from your pets and children.
Many persons tend to confuse borax with boric acid, but there is a minor difference between the two. Borax is a mineral that comes from the ground while boric acid is a derivative of borax when it goes through further processing. Another small difference is the uses of the two products; borax is labeled for laundry use whereas boric acid is labeled specifically as a pesticide or an insecticide.
The truth is that either of the two can be used as an effective home remedy to get rid of ants naturally, its up to you to choose which is more readily available. Ensure however that whichever you choose, you use it with caution and keep it away from pets and young children.
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Borax & Peanut Butter
The third and final method of getting rid of ants using borax is to make a peanut butter and borax paste for the ants. The difference between this paste and the others above is that this paste will be very effective for those ants that specifically search for protein rich foods. This means that although this mixture may not work for all types of ants, specific types such as fire ants will be drawn to this mixture.
To make this home remedy, you need:
- 1 part peanut butter
- 1 part Borax
- ½ part water
Simply mix these ingredients together to form a paste that will become an ant bait. The side benefit of this bait is that it does not need to be re-baited daily as the other two above, which makes it even more convenient and easy to work with.