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Ants Don’t Care About Property Values
Ants, roaches, pillbugs, spiders, moths, and all the other creepy crawlies of the world serve an ecological purpose. Think of them as nature’s recyclers. They’re like ecological cleaning robots that organically reproduce. Accordingly, they don’t really “think”. You’re not going to find much of a personality in a bug. They’re a lot more like a software program.
This is a good and a bad thing. It’s a bad thing in that if the “software” of an ant colony decides your home is a good source of food, they’ll set about to “recycling” whatever they can find. Many other insects can be similar pests, we’ll focus on ants in this writing. And here’s the good news: because insects—especially ants—are much like robots, there are hacks to befuddle them.
Following we’ll briefly examine four natural ways you can get rid of ants without making your home an unhealthy place. Chemical solutions exist, but where mineral and herbal remedies can do just as well, it doesn’t make sense to take the risk.
Aromatic Cinnamon
Where are the ants coming in? You can put some cinnamon essential oil around those areas. It’s strong but pleasant in small doses for humans. Imagine a vat of cinnamon oil the size of your body. That’s a drop of essential oil to an ant.
When you block their egress with some of this essential oil, it’s too much for them; they seek other entry. Put cinnamon oil around windows and doorways, or any suspected entryways. This makes your home smell nice, and it keeps the bugs at bay.
Refreshing Peppermint
Similar to cinnamon, peppermint can repel ants. Essential oils for many different varieties of mint are available, so you can mix and match until you find one whose aroma matches your home’s aesthetic. As with cinnamon, put this essential oil around window edges, doorways, and wherever else you expect they may be gaining entry.
Tart Lemon Juice
Lemon juice can repel some sorts of insects. It has a history of repelling ants, but it may not always work. Still, as with cinnamon and peppermint, you can use lemon juice or an extract even more concentrated around common ant entryways.
Boric Acid (Borax), Sugar, Water
While Borax is relatively safe for humans, it can get lethal in large doses, so be careful. Borax is the name of a product made from boric acid. Boric acid will kill roaches, and it will kill ants—but you’ve got to be a little sneaky.
Make a solution of about one part borax, and three parts sugar. Mix it into a paste with a little water, and put it in strategic places. The ants will take it home and then they’ll pass away. Do this a few times and you should be rid of them. But be careful. Borax isn’t especially toxic, but it’s not a mineral that’s good for you.
Keeping Ants From Impacting Your Property
You don’t want an ant colony embedding itself inside your walls. They’ll get everywhere and swiftly diminish structural integrity. They can cause extensive damage, and it could get costly. Getting rid of them is key, but you want to do it in a way that’s safe for your home and your family.
For a closer look at a few more natural ant remedies, you might want to check out this article Organic Lesson wrote. There are many ways to discourage these pests in a safe way. Do a little research, and figure out the method that’s most agreeable to you.
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