I killed 50 ants today in 10 minutes.
Turns out that spilled sugar and a sticky molasses jar attract ants like…well, like spilled sugar and a sticky puddle of molasses!
The microwave cabinet where I keep my sweeteners (since I don’t use a microwave anymore) was taken over by ants, the little kind that don’t even feel gross when you smash them with a fingertip.
That was my first line of defense: kill any visible intruders on sight. My poor kids had to wait 10 minutes for their breakfast because I was a focused maniac: “Paul, go by the sliding glass door and see if there are any more ants coming in the house. You see one? Kill it! Get him with your hands! It’s okay, we’ll wash hands before breakfast…”
Even the 2-year-old got in on the fiesta and has a kill shot to her name.
Before we could eat, I also sprayed down the entire unit and all along the baseboards of the kitchen, especially in front of the slider (where I know the ants get in the house) with my homemade natural insecticidal spray.
Homemade Natural Method to Kill Ants in the House
I’m a big fan of natural remedies and am even learning to make my own herbal treatments for the medicine cabinet.
I’m not going to put out poison in my kitchen (unless the ants and earwigs take over completely). My mom copied this recipe down out of something she was reading once at my house, and I am sure glad I was able to find it last week when the ants first came marching in. Imagine my glee when not only ants but earwigs, too, my most hated nemesis that hide in every washcloth and towel in our house, died within 60 seconds of being squirted.
Added bonus: this home remedy is so simple to mix up, my husband could do it:
1 tsp. dishwashing soap (not detergent)
1 tsp. cooking oil (we used virgin olive)
1 qt. waterMix in a spray bottle. Spray on any soft-bodied insect that invades your house or garden: ants, earwigs, aphids, whiteflies, mealy bugs, etc.
Also spray a barricade line where ants might be entering your house. The only drawback is that it doesn’t work once it’s dried, so if you really want prevention, you have to spray often throughout the day.
Other Natural Home Pest Control Methods
A few years ago I was visiting a friend and we decided to wage war on the ants in her house, naturally. A quick Google search netted us many home remedy options for natural pest control for the ants:
- Make a line ants can’t cross with:
- cinnamon
- chili powder
- salt (use your yucky white stuff, not the real salt)
- cayenne pepper
- chalk
- cornmeal
- baby powder
- black pepper
- Squirt the ants with undiluted vinegar.
- Make a homemade ant poison trap with corn syrup (or any sticky sweetener) and borax (one major reason I won’t use a homemade dishwasher detergent made of borax)
We attacked those we could see with straight vinegar with mixed results, and we decided to cordon off the pantry with a thick line of cinnamon. When the kids got up in the morning and discovered the strange line of brown powder in the kitchen, they and their active imaginations decided there were ghosts in the house. If you try it, make sure to leave a note for others! 
For me, the homemade insecticidal soap is the most effective thing I’ve ever seen to kill ants on contact.
Fruit Flies, Too?
Aren’t I lucky? Along with our friends the little black ants and the terrifyingly pervasive earwigs, we also have been bombarded with fruit flies in the past 24 hours. I absolutely understand how primitive (and not so primitive) peoples in history assumed the fruits like melons were actually full of fruit flies. It’s incredible how quickly they appeared en masse after I cut a cantaloupe!
If you’re as lucky as me, you might want to read last year’s post on How to Naturally Get Rid of Fruit Flies in your House.
Don’t miss the organic gardening series, including How to Naturally Control Bugs in the Garden.
And if you need a snack after all that insect fighting, check out the 30+ recipes in Healthy Snacks to Go.
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Photo from dbgg1979
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I wish my apartment had the tiny ants, instead we got carpenter ants (with that gross feeling when you squish them too)! I’m going to try the vinegar or the soap/EVOO/water mixture and see if that helps.
.-= Jessica´s last blog ..Trip To DC =-.
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yay! when I saw the title of this post I was wondering if it works for earwigs. Lucky me! Although I did notice some ants last night
.-= Wendy´s last blog ..Don’t Ask When I’m Having Kids =-.
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What a timely post! Our kitchen has been taken over by fruit flies and our patio by ants. I can’t wait to get home and try your home-made insect spray!
.-= Hollie´s last blog .. =-.
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Another thing that you might try is putting out a tray of baking soda mixed with icing sugar along the pathway they are using to enter and exit your home. The icing sugar attracts the ants, but because ants have formic acid in their bodies (which they use as a defense mechanism) the baking soda combines with the the acid and they die. They also seem to then write off our home as a danger site and I don’t have ants following the same path in again.
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We had horrible ants in California and found a mix of peppermint oil (the pure essential oil) and water worked wonders. We killed them with it, then sprayed it to remove their scent trail. Best thing I did, though, was to find where they were coming in at and caulk the opening closed. After a year, we had that apt tight…now our new place, it’s working here too.
The other thing that works more long term…Diatomaceous earth. I put that stuff down in my house where the ants were coming in and they are just gone and stay gone. I do that after I clean up with the peppermint. It’s natural, safe for my pets and me and really lasts. It works really well on hardwood floors too – just put it down, use a broom to push it into the grooves and then sweep up the excess. Works on most of these soft bodied pests I find.
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Susan Reply:
June 24th, 2011 at 10:54 pm
I’ve used peppermint oil too.
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This is a big wine making area, and in the fall when there are piles of pressed grapes the fruit flies are thick!
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Will this work on pests in the garden too? Will is harm plants?
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Katie Reply:
July 1st, 2010 at 3:08 am
RoseAnne,
Katie
Insecticidal soap should be a perfect squirt for the leaves of plants. I have another post coming in the next week or so with a recipe for an outdoor whole garden spray similar to this one.
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I’m not sure why insects make me all squirmy, but I am glad I stumbled upon this post! Thanks!
.-= Robin´s last blog ..Food for Thought =-.
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Thanks for the good info! I can’t enjoy bugs as much as some. “Tis the season.
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This is one time I usually just buy. Terro brand ant poison is the syrup & borax stuff, you can buy it ready-made in a bottle or already in little bait containers, and it works WELL. And it’s easy to find.
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I’ve use the syrup and borax combo with success on sugar ants. It takes a few days to work b/c first the ants have a feeding frenzy, but they take the borax back to the nest which is poisonous so it’s a more thorough extermination than just killing indoors.
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Great info! My mom always told me that they would avoid cream of tartar…
.-= Jennifer Bruining Parenting in Blue Jeans´s last blog ..Giveaway- Powder Pouch =-.
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My husband has gotten some bites on his legs and noticed spiders in his shoes and in our towels. Could it be the earwigs. If they are spiders, what natural way can we get rid of them?
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Katie Reply:
July 1st, 2010 at 3:09 am
Christy,
Katie
I wish I knew the answer to that one!
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I tried the chalk line and it didn’t for my ant. Maybe they are the type that cross the line? My husband suggested that we draw little chalk outlines around the ones we squished as a warning to the others
Other than an environmentally friendly ant killer that uses wintergreen, I stuffed a piece of steel wool under my baseboard near an outside door where I expected they were coming in the house. It’s been a week and so far no ants. *crosses fingers*
.-= Condo Blues´s last blog ..Please Make Lisa Nelsen-Woods the First Salada Green Tea Spokesperson- =-.
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I had read, years ago, that Windex & the like killed ants.
When i changed to natural products, i found my water/vinegar (& sometimes Thieves’ Oil cleaner) will kill them every bit as quickly as ammonia-based products.
We tried the ant trap with sweet/borax (inside something where our cats couldn’t get to it) with mixed results. What worked best last year was a line of Diatomaceous earth (DE) all around the house. DE is not harmful for pets or people (it is used in gardening) but it is crystalline & cuts up the ants. I’ve a feeling we didn’t put a thick enough line around the house this year because they are getting in, but this is one thing for which they can’t develop an immunity.
I’ll be trying some of your other suggestions, too.
The little ants aren’t gross to kill with your fingers, but i find that they have a weird, nasty smell to them.
.-= Kathryn´s last blog ..Brief =-.
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Great tips! Do you have any for getting rid of house flies? We are experiencing an invasion the likes of which I’ve never seen. My husband is killing 10-15 flies every day, and it doesn’t matter how clean the kitchen is. They ignore the fly strips and only a few have landed in the trap outside. The only thing we’ve found is to squirt them with water THEN smack them with the fly swatter- the water makes it harder for them to fly.
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Katie Reply:
July 1st, 2010 at 3:10 am
Stacy,
Katie
I’m hoping someone else chimes in on this one, because I have no ideas for you.
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Monica Reply:
July 6th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
I use apple cider vinegar in jar with a narrow neck. Actually it’s a ceramic vase that originally held those scented reeds. The scent was just too strong and perfumy, so I got rid of it and now use the vase. It captures them easily and they can’t get out. I rinse and refill weekly.
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Katy Reply:
June 24th, 2011 at 10:32 pm
I do essentially the same thing with a squirt of dish soap. I had a terrible ex-roommate who somehow infested our kitchen with houseflies after only a month, and this worked worlds better than fly paper or chasing them with a swatter!
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Bev Stone Reply:
January 10th, 2012 at 9:21 pm
YES, finally I can help!!!! lol My neighbor man told me this tip. Use a spray bottle, add a squirt or pump of liquid dish detergent (I think liquid hand soap works too). Fill the rest of the way with water. The soap blocks their body ‘openings or breathing areas’. Just spray them, even in the air and they nearly drop on the spot!! This works for wasps, bees, most bugs, ants….I use it for everything and if they don’t drop dead on the spot, it will only take mins.
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Wow! It was great to see this post. I had an invasion of ants yesterday in my kitchen. We have had problems with them off and on. I’ve tried some of those other remedies. They just don’t work for us. I will try this one next. I get the feeling our house is sitting on a giant anthill.
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We used to have a HUUUUGE problem with ants. My parents did something last year… some guy came and it probably had to do with chemicals and so they never came back. This year they came back early, then went away and now we do not have many… very weird as no one came to stop them!
If we get a lot of ants again then I will have to try out your methods! When you have several they can get super annoying! And, we got the carpenter ants!
We have fruit flies too… not too much of a problem though for me.
But, we have a massive problem with what my sister calls “toilet flies”… do you know what I am talking about? Do you know how to get rid of these things? Anyone? The little bugs that love the bathroom and stay in one spot forever without moving…
.-= Primal Toad´s last blog ..Primal-Paleo Smoothie Recipes =-.
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It was with ants that we taught our two year old not to go in the street. He killed so many of them, that he understood, that if he went in the street, he would get squished like an ant.
I found that just cleaning my floors constantly with vinegar really helped with keeping the ants away. Even kept my husband out of the kitchen (sadly) for a little while.
.-= Kris´s last blog ..Chilled Avocado-Tomatillo Soup pp 25-26- A Diptych =-.
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A much needed post right now in our house. Thanks for this!
.-= Melodie´s last blog ..We Interrupt This Breastfeeding Post… =-.
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Hi Katie!
I posted my tips and ideas for dealing with ants and fruit flies in the kitchen. Hope your house is staying insect free these days!
Just linked to this post today on my blog.
http://www.liverenewed.com/2010/08/natural-insect-control-in-the-kitchen.html
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I’ve been known, when in a panic, to use masking tape to catch/kill ants or pick up the dead ones!
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Hi! I am a fan on facebook and this is my first time on your site – I love this post! I try to keep toxins out of our house, too – and these are all such great ideas. Thank you!
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Katie Reply:
June 28th, 2011 at 3:17 am
Welcome, Michelle! I feel like I recognize your Avatar from Twitter…good to see you over here!
Katie
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My first choice when finding them in the house is to kill them with home made cleaner. Vinegar even diluted 50/50 with water will do it. I also use Thieves’ Oil by Young Living with the vinegar, that does it too.
To prevent them from coming in the house, we put a line of diatomaceous earth (food grade, you can get it at a feed store, not pool grade) around the house in spring. Works wonders and i notice fewer spiders too. It is safe for people and pets to eat, you don’t want to breathe it. However, we don’t get a lot of rain here. Still, if you know where they are coming in, this does an awesome, safe job of killing little critters.
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I’ve heard splenda works like a charm, they actually stumbled on splenda while they were trying to make an insecticide.
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also put vaseline on the cracks or where ever they are coming in.
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