From pouring vinegar to stowing the dog food and crushing up mint, here's what works and what doesn't when it comes to ridding your home of ants.
13 Home Remedies for Getting Rid of Ants
Updated Jul. 23, 2024
From big, black, fuzzy carpenter ants to teeny, pale ghost ants, there are a lot of species of ants that can try to take up residence in your home. Some sugar ants are just slightly annoying to share kitchen space with, while species like fire ants can cause serious allergic reactions. If you’re trying to get ants out of your living space, here are some home remedies for ants that work, plus a couple that don’t.
But first, limit your anti-ant campaign to inside your home, says Aaron Anderson, a pesticide program specialist with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. “Ants might be annoying outdoors, but they are beneficial to ecosystems by turning over soil and helping disperse seeds,” he says. “And pesticide use outdoors risks impacting all sorts of other invertebrate life in your yard.”
When to Call a Pro
If you find ants in multiple areas of your home or have a large number of ants and persistent problems, you might want to call a pro. “Home remedies are convenient when they work. However, ants are some of the trickiest pests to control,” says Emma Crumbley, and entomologist with Mosquito Squad. “Their large colonies, changing diets, ability to climb and persistence in foraging require careful consideration when creating an ant control strategy.”
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Identify The Species
The most important step to properly getting rid of house ants is to identify the species you are dealing with, says Cody James Pace, an entomologist with Terminix. “Each species has its own biology and characteristic behaviors, so there are certain things you would do for one species that may not work for others.”
One way to identify what species you’re dealing with is to ask the community on iNaturalist or someone from your local university extension office.
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Start With Sanitation
The first step in any ant invasion is eliminating what attracts them. “Most species of ants that have invaded your home are simply looking for food, shelter and water,” says Pace. “The harder you make it for them to get these resources, the less attractive your home will be to ants.”
- Promptly clean up dishes, crumbs and beverage spills
- Wipe up grease in the kitchen
- Store food, including pet kibble, in airtight containers
- Refrigerate fruits and veggies when possible
- Dry standing water in the kitchen and bathrooms
- Fix leaky plumbing issues
“It is always better to be proactive about sanitation issues than being reactive,” says Ben Hottel, Technical Services Manager at Orkin.
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Exclusion
Preventing ants from accessing your house is an important key to stopping infestations. To do this:
- Seal openings by caulking cracks in doorways and siding
- Ensure doors and windows are flush with good weather seals
- Keep gutters clean
- Move firewood and other habitats away from the structure
- Cut back brush and tree branches that are touching your siding or roof
Also, check for ant nets in indoor potted plants, says Anderson.
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Disrupt the Pheromone Trail
“The only home remedy for cleaning up ants that I recommend is using warm water and dish soap to clean up spills and any area you see ants trailing,” says Pace. “This will remove their pheromone trail to the food source.”
Other household ingredients can mask their trails as well, such as flour (but that can be messy), citrus (but only temporarily) and white vinegar (3:1 vinegar to water ratio).
- Note: It’s a common misconception that vinegar kills ants. It doesn’t unless you use it to drown them, says Josiah Kilburn, an ant researcher at Morehead State University. It can, however, repel them and in some cases prevent them from recognizing one another, he says.
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Follow the Trail
Instead of disrupting ants’ pheromone trail, a more straightforward solution is to see where it leads, says Crumbley. “When ants forage for food, they leave behind a pheromone trail that other ants pick up on and use to locate food and bring it back to their colony,” she says. “If you follow trailing ants, you can find whatever is attracting them and remove it, or find the colony’s location and remove them.”
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Sprinkle Boric Acid
When ants are so numerous that basic prevention and sanitation methods don’t solve the infestation, boric acid can be effective. “I do want to note that this should only be used indoors, where the risks to non-target insects are much lower,” says Anderson.
Use boric acid alone or mix nine parts of cornmeal with one part boric acid, adding a generous helping of soybean oil or peanut butter to create a paste. Place the homemade bait near gaps and crevices—anywhere ants are on the march. For safety reasons, be sure to keep pets and kids away.
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Spread Aromatic Spices
Strong-smelling essential oils, powders, and crushed plant leaves from cinnamon, mints, catnip, thyme, cloves, geranium and rosemary can repel ants (and smell good to humans, too). Sprinkle them across their paths, on kitchen countertops and along floorboards.
But don’t count on live garden plants to work as a deterrent, says Crumbley, “Blended plants, plant oil or a mixture of steeped leaves in water would have a repellent effect for ants, but nothing is stopping the ants from hanging out in the same pot as the plant itself,” she says.
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Try Coffee Grounds
This popular ant-repelling tactic has been around for years: Sprinkle coffee grounds around the stems of indoor and outdoor plants and flowers. Some say the smell repels them; others claim ants don’t like the feeling of the grounds under their feet. Either way, it sometimes works!
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Tempt Them Away From The House
If you can’t beat ’em, divert ’em! Extend a trail of foods that ants like from your house to your outdoor compost pile, where they can feast to their hearts’ content. The whole key here is finding out which foods the ants will follow, be it sugars, fats or carbs.
“That’s because different ant species prefer different foods, and seasonal changes can impact the kinds of foods the colony needs,” says Crumbley. “For example, if the queen needs to lay more eggs, the colony may forage for more protein-rich foods instead of sugar-rich foods.”
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Don’t Bother With Pepper
Some home remedies for ants call for pouring ground black or cayenne pepper and scent trails or mixing them with water to spray on home entry points, but Crumbley recommends you avoid this method. “Pepper is not as aromatic as the other items, and ants can trail through it,” she says. Also, “Other pests like roaches and earwigs leave behind droppings resembling pepper, so leaving pepper out may mask evidence of other pests in your home.”
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Water Outdoor Ants
If ants have set up shop in an inconvenient place outdoors, like in a pathway or where they’re harming your plants, try watering them. Not so much as to drown them, but regular watering often encourages them to move elsewhere. And have patience; it may take a week or more for them to create their new home elsewhere and move into it.
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Common Mistakes With Home Remedies for Ants
Some of the most common mistakes people make when trying to use home remedies for ants include not correctly identifying the species and using pest control strategies that are ineffective on ants, says Hottel. “Chemical treatments can actually spread ants around a structure, so it is important to know what you are doing with indoor ant management,” he says.
Also, it’s not all that helpful to spray chemicals where you see ants. “Treating an ant in motion often won’t solve the problem,” says Pace. “In fact, treatments by homeowners can cause ants to bud and fracture the colony, so instead of one nest, there are now two.”
To effectively treat an ant problem, Pace says it is critical to treat the source of the issue by finding the colony and ensuring all other preventive measures are in place, including sanitation and exclusion. “When it comes to home remedies, things like essential oils, boric acid and diatomaceous earth are all only going to move the ant to a different part of your home and will not eliminate them,” he says.
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FAQ
What do ants eat?
Many species of ants, like sugar ants, seek out sugary foods. Others will happily eat things like pet foods, which are full of protein. “Different ant species eat different things, but almost all of them can find something to eat where we live,” says Anderson. “I have to be sure to clean up my cats’ food dishes quickly in the summer!”
Can ants be dangerous?
Most ant species are not dangerous. However, fire ants and Asian needle ants can bite and sting people and pets, and in some cases can cause anaphylactic shock.
“If you live in the Southeast or South-Central United States, make sure you are aware of these ants, and get any ants you are worried about identified by university extension agents or a pest management professional,” says Hottel.
Some species, like pharaoh ants, are also capable of spreading bacteria, says Hottel. And carpenter ants can damage wood in a way similar to termites.
How do you get rid of ant eggs?
Ant eggs are typically buried deep within a colony, so targeting the eggs isn’t the best option. Plus, queens can quickly make thousands more. The better route is to practice prevention and exclusion and, if necessary, get rid of the whole colony.
Is it safe to use home remedies to get rid of ants?
Most home remedies to get rid of ants are harmless, but keep in mind they are only effective when you specifically target the species you’re dealing with. Also, take precautions with kids and pets when using products like boric acid, and completely follow all instructions on pesticides and other anti-ant chemical products.
About the Experts
- Cody James Pace is an Associate Certified Entomologist and Market Technical Director for Terminix. He’s also taught classes for Washington State University, holds pest control licenses in several states and regularly contributes to pest podcasts and prevention magazines.
- Aaron Anderson is a Pesticide Program Specialist with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, where he works with the public to help reduce pesticide use in residential landscapes by promoting alternative pest control measures and pollinator-friendly gardening practices.
- Emma Grace Crumbley is an entomologist at Mosquito Squad and a self-described bug nerd who uses her expertise to educate people about the fascinating world of bugs.
- Ben Hottel is a Technical Services Manager at Orkin, where he helps guide training, education and operations for pest control technicians and programs.
- Josiah Kilburn runs a research project at Morehead State University about the ants of Kentucky.
Originally Published: March 22, 2024
