All Natural Ways to Keep Out Ants

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All Natural Ways to Keep Out Ants

Staff Writer · Dec 2, 2010

Once found inside your home, ants are almost impossible to get eliminate. Because of this, it is extremely important to be proactive and keep out ants before they invade. Below are tips for how to keep ants out of your residence.

Where Ants Commonly Appear

Ants commonly enter in a home through water pipes and small holes in walls shared with other units. Ants are attracted to food, meaning that they can also appear near an open garbage can or unkempt floors. Sometimes, ants will enter a home through the areas around a smoke alarm or at the crevice where a sliding glass door meets the wall. The key to keeping out ants is to be neat and clean and combine using bleach-based cleaning solutions with ant traps in the areas ants are most likely to appear.

Be Neat

The single best thing you can do to prevent ants from entering your home is to keep it free from open food. Make sure your garbage cans are covered, that no food lies in your sink overnight and that any food spills on the floor are properly and swiftly cleaned. Use a bleach-based cleaning agent for hard to remove spills. Also, keep garbage cans away from walls to prevent ants from climbing up walls to get to your food. Always tightly close garbage bags containing food.

Wipe With Bleach

Bleach is the single best solution to prevent and eliminate ants from your home. Moreover, unlike other types of ant killers, it works on all types of ants. To use bleach to keep out ants, wipe down the countertops, floors and other areas where ants could enter your home with bleach. Do not dilute the bleach, or it will not be effective. Because bleach stains, make sure not to use it anywhere near fabrics. Add bleach to a bucket of water and wash your floors with it once a week.

Spray with Bleach-based Sprays

If using straight bleach is too harsh, try spraying the areas in which ants commonly invade a home with a bleach-based aerosol or liquid spray. Do this at least once a day in addition to washing your floors with diluted bleach once a week. These sprays will place a small amount of bleach in the areas, making them toxic to ants.

Place Traps

Along with the above mentioned preventative measures, using a toxic food source on areas in which you expect ants can prevent an ant infestation. Many companies produce ant traps and bait, but the best ones are liquid that you can place on a small piece of cardboard and place anywhere in your home. Note, however, that using these traps may actually draw ants into your home, particularly if you have not kept the area clean from food spills. Therefore, use these types of baits with caution and make sure to clean around them at least once a day, even if they aren’t attracting ants.

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