“Dead Ant… Dead Ant… Dead Ant…” I sang to the Pink Panther tune this morning.
Yep! The days are warming up – I know, because I had an ant invasion this morning. I followed the trail of little bodies from my front door, across the white tiles, down the hall and into my kitchen where a crumb of carrot muffin had dropped from my LTSH’s (Long Term Suffering Husband) greedy choppers the day before.
Baby Orphaned Tawny Frogmouths
Now, Grasshoppers I can take, I don’t even mind the occasional cockroach (I’m used to them – try bringing up baby orphaned Tawny Frogmouths and you’ll get used to handling Wood Cockroaches, as Baby Tawnies love them), I breed crickets and I like spiders… but ants… I haaaaaaaate ants!
So… what did I do to deter them? I didn’t kill them, just sent them packing.
I boiled a jug of water, put 5 drops of Grapefruit Oil in my mop bucket, and added the jug of water… mmmm, doesn’t that smell delicious… and then I mopped the tiles at my front door, and voila! No more ants. The smell overpowers the ant’s scent trail… and the bonus is your house smells fresh and delicious.
I had made the mistake several years ago after reading that ants aren’t keen on mint, on getting a bottle of peppermint oil and pouring it all over the place. I got in on my hands, breathed it in – basically used about half a bottle of Essential Oil.
Now, if you know anything about Essential Oils, you will know that they are concentrated and very strong. I should have known things were not good when I started getting head spins. Peppermint is a mental stimulant… and guess what, within a few hours I had a major headache, which became a migraine, which led to non-stop vomiting and a very worried LTSH who carried my inert body into the local hospital to be put on a drip and receive the good old ‘stop vomiting needle’.
So, here’s the lesson: when using Essential Oils, use them sparingly.
As I said, you only need about 4 or 5 drops of Grapefruit Oil in the bucket with a jug of boiling water. I find this works for me. But other ideas include finding the ants entry point and sprinkling ground cloves or Cayenne Pepper around it. Other deterrants use Borax, but as it is poisonous (think of your children and pets) I won’t use it. And forget the alternative – the good old Insect Spray – it’s just as poisonous. I love the TV commercials that show some baby crawling along the floor shortly after the child’s mother has sprayed the insect repellant. Sure! That’s great – you’re child doesn’t get bitten by the ant or crawl on the same floor that a cockroach crawled on, but they do get residue from the poison on their hands and knees (and we all know children like to put their hands in their mouths) and your child breathes in the toxins too…
Maybe with a little research and experimentation you might find other alternative insect repellant ideas. If you have something that works for you, please share.
Hi Deb,
I find baby powder works well for deterring ants from entering the house.
As a young person (many years ago!) we used to use ashes from the wood fire to keep out ants.
Great website!
Ross
Hi Ross – I recently babysat my Mum’s ancient cat. She’s an inside cat, and her food bowl and water was kept in my Laundry. One day after she’d eaten I forgot to pick her food bowl up, and we had an ant invasion. So I tried your baby powder remedy… and it worked! I sprinkled the baby powder at the door (the ant’s entry point) and cleaned up the stray ones still inside the house, and voila! No more ants. Thank you!