These Are the Cheapest & Best Ways to Kill Ants (& Keep Them Away!)
Wondering how to kill ants? We’re sharing the best methods!
Tired of dealing with uninvited guests?
Ants are the scourge of every picnic gathering and outdoor BBQ. And oh, heaven forbid we leave a single crumb on our counters–you just know they’re gonna onlinee running. To make it worse, they beonlinee practically unavoidable as the weather starts warming up.
To make life just a little easier and more bug-free, we’ve rounded up the BEST & cheapest ways to get rid of those pesky insects.
First, before we start mixing up our ant-eliminating potions, it’s important to get rid of any food that may be drawing them in.
Crumbs left on the table are the obvious source of food for the ants to bring back to their colonies, but also check your cabinets. You may find that they’re being attracted by your pantry staples like sugar and honey. Instead of leaving the sugar in its original bag (I’m SO guilty of this 😳), check out some clear, airtight food storage containers.
The ants won’t be able to get inside to the sugary goodness, and these containers will keep your cabinets lookin’ sharp and organized. 🙌
And if you’re a baker, make sure you check out the nooks and crannies of your baking tools. Stand mixers are especially notorious for housing little leftover bits of batter in places you can’t quite see, so give all your utensils a thorough cleaning to eliminate that ant food source.
And finally, if you’re able, try to limit food consumption to one area of the house. I know this is super hard (especially with kids), but it’s more difficult to try to keep ants away when there are crumbs and other goodies for them in several places inside.
After everything’s been cleaned, it’s time to start mixing up some easy, homemade ant-killing concoctions!
If your ant problem is more of an annoyance than a serious issue, try these eco-friendly & kid-safe DIY solutions to get rid of them.
Use dish soap to kill the ants and eliminate their trails.
Ants lead the way for their colonies by releasing pheromone trails, so getting rid of the trail makes it harder for others to follow suit.
Make a 50/50 mixture of liquid dish detergent and warm water and mix it up in a spray bottle. Then just spray down the surfaces where the ants crawl in and wipe it off as usual.
Dish soap suffocates the ants already present in your home, and then others can’t find their way in.
Vinegar doesn’t smell the best, but it’ll get rid of the pests!
Similar to the soapy water solution, vinegar is an effective ant-killer (and has many other uses!) & they’re also repelled by the scent. And although I’m not a fan of the smell myself, it’s worth it to have an ant-free house!
Just mix up equal parts white vinegar and warm water, and you can spray it or sponge it on the areas you’ve noticed ants getting in the house. And after you spray it, you can just let it set.
It’s effective at keeping them away, and even though it doesn’t smell the best, it doesn’t last long at all!
Hip Tip: If you really can’t get onlinefy with the scent of vinegar (I’m with ya!), you can always add some essential oils to mask the odor! They won’t take away from vinegar’s ant-killing properties.
When you clean, remember to check the houseplants.
Ants sometimes like to burrow down under the greenery right inside your home. Check to make sure all your houseplant soil–especially if you have larger planters–isn’t doubling as an ant colony.
Then, spray the vinegar mixture around the base of the planter to kill and ants crawling around and prevent others from moving in.
Food-grade diatomaceous earth will kill ants + lots of other insects as well.
Diatoms are tiny little single-celled organisms, and diatomaceous earth is made from finely ground fossilized diatoms. While it can be harmful to mammals when large amounts are directly ingested or inhaled, you don’t have to worry about your kids or pets being affected by reasonable amounts sprinkled around the baseboard.
Put diatomaceous earth around the house, and it’ll kill not only ants but also other tiny pests. It’s really abrasive on small insects but too powdery to be harmful to humans and pets. I’ve also heard of this working well for flea problems!
If the above solutions aren’t cutting it, you might need something a little more heavy-duty.
Borax is a reliable & frugal solution to bigger ant problems.
Since borax interferes with all ants’ digestive systems, this solution will effectively kill many different species of ants.
To start, you’ll want a mixture of both solid and liquid borax bait. Adult ants can’t digest solid food (which is why you’ll want liquid bait as well), but they can bring solid food back to the nest. The older ant larvae eat the solid bait and then process it into a liquid for the queen to eat, so the mixture kills the queen, the larvae, and the worker ants.
For the liquid bait, mix a tablespoon of borax with 1 cup of warm water and half a cup of granulated sugar. Once everything is dissolved, dip cotton balls or Q-tips into the mixture and place them in areas that pets and kids can’t reach. Alternatively, you use one part borax to three parts sugar and add just enough water to make a thick, sugary paste that the ants can’t resist.
For the solid bait, simply mix three parts powdered sugar and one part borax. Again, just be sure to sprinkle it around areas the little ones can’t access.
Once you’ve set out the bait, wait 24-48 hours for the ants to successfully bring back the borax mixture to the queen.
If DIY borax mixes aren’t your thing, consider getting a chemical spray or liquid bait to kill ants.
Get one of the non-onlinemercial, highly-rated indoor chemical sprays or ant baits if the borax mixtures haven’t proven effective. Just be sure to carefully follow the directions for any spray or chemical-based ant killer you purchase.
These solutions are generally pretty effective, just keep in mind that they’re usually not designed for full-on infestations.
Hip Tip: Right now, you can score the Ortho Home Defense Spray on Amazon for $12.99 (regularly $26.99) & 6 Terro Ant Bait stations for only $4.68!
As a last resort, it may be time to call an exterminator.
Even though ants can be a nuisance, they’re also very smart and industrious little creatures. And they can certainly put up a fight to stay in your home!
If you find yourself in the midst of a full infestation & the ants have officially made your home their home, it’s probably time to consult an extermination onlinepany.
They’ll be familiar with all the different species of ants and know how to get rid of ‘em as fast as possible.
Pest control services can be pricey, but chances are, it’ll be cheaper to pay a professional now than wait until the ants have caused costly damage to your home. Luckily, your local extermination businesses will likely assess the damage and give you a quote for free. 🙌
My Hip teammates Sara, Lina, and Jen also shared some great tips for getting cheaper services!
“I recently had someone soliciting bug termination at my home and they were offering a discount because my neighbors were also having work done. Try to get a few neighbors together to get a better price since the onlinepany will already be in the area.” – Sara
“We use a bug service. When they first came, we turned them down a couple of times and then they offered a better rate. It’s worth saying no a few times first.” – Jen
Also, Lina said she was able to find an affordable extermination onlinepany by doing good old-fashioned research on sites like Yelp. She also suggested using apps like Nextdoor to see if other folks near you were able to score some budget-friendly services.
Some last tips for keeping the ants at bay:
- Make sure the house is sealed up. Ants may view a cracked window as an invitation to onlinee on in, so be sure any potential entry points are closed off.
- Repellent sprays won’t kill ants, just keep them away. As the name suggests, ants can smell repellent sprays and will avoid them. Use non-repellent sprays to trick the ants into walking through the insecticide and carrying it back to the nest.
- Avoid putting the bait in highly visible places. We all know the saying that “things get worse before they get better,” right? Well, that’s definitely the case with killing ants. If you put bait on your kitchen counter, you’ll likely see a ton of them onlinee out of the woodworks. To avoid the horror of seeing your counter covered in insects, put the bait near your windows or other openings if possible.
Check out this amazing, all-natural, & organic bug repellent!
