Wondering how to naturally get rid of ants in your house? A homemade insecticidal natural ant spray for hand-to-hand combat, a homemade ant trap to catch them all, and various “lines ants won’t cross” to keep them out or contained are all found here! No toxic or expensive ingredients! It’s possible to even make your own organic ant killer.
I killed 50 ants today in 10 minutes.
Turns out that spilled sugar and a sticky molasses jar attracts 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 used my natural ant spray 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.
1. Homemade Method to Naturally Kill Ants in Your 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 for a natural ant spray is so simple to mix up, my husband could do it:
1 teaspoon cooking oil (we used virgin olive)
1 quart water
Mix in a spray bottle. Spray on any soft-bodied insect that invades your house or garden: ants, earwigs, aphids, whiteflies, mealy bugs, etc.
Also use your natural ant spray as 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 use your natural ant spray often throughout the day or use other strategies below. This is a good first wave of terror on the bug world, though.
2. Getting Rid of Ants Long-Term: Natural Ant Poison
If an initial on-contact kill with the natural ant spray doesn’t get rid of all your ants, you need to give them something poisonous to take home to their friends.
Make a homemade natural ant poison trap that will kill the ants but not be toxic to your family. (You still don’t want your kids to eat it on purpose, but it’s not like toxic chemicals.)
- Cut an index card in half.
- Mix about a 1:1 ratio of corn syrup (or any sticky sweetener) and borax (one major reason I won’t use a homemade dishwasher detergent made of borax).
- I just use a spoon or my finger and do it right on the card; then I don’t have any ant poison dishes to wash.
- Put the index card where you know they’ll find it, even on the carpet (see above).
Check out my non-toxic ant poison video to see how SIMPLE it is to make this stuff – it takes 45 seconds!
Note: the sweetener will dry out in a day or two, so when the ants stop feasting, replenish with new sweet poison to make sure they are really gone.
Did you know that essential oils have a shelf life?
Katie here, popping in to tell you that those essential oils that have been sitting in your cabinet for a couple years and are still half full may have expired. Read more about what I learned when researching this topic, and you can even have the handy printable I made to help me remember how long which oils last.
Pest Control Options: 3 More Ways to Get Rid of Ants
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:
Border Options to Keep Ants Away:
- cinnamon – they will NOT go near cinnamon, so even if your daughter says, “Mom, you’re wasting food!” just do it. Make a cinnamon line so they can’t get on your counter. 😉
- chili powder
- cayenne pepper
- chalk (a reader in the comments says this doesn’t work)
- cornmeal
- baby powder
- black pepper
- try food grade diatomaceous earth, found on Amazon, sprinkled around the exterior of the house or even inside as a line ants can’t cross. (You can also read about my parasite diatomaceous earth cleanse.)
Squirt the ants with undiluted vinegar
Just keep a spray bottle under the sink ready for use!
Lavender and mint sachets safely repel ants
Put them in closets, drawers, pantry, etc. repel ants is a great tip left by a reader (add bay leaves to take care of moths and other insects). I think that’s so cool! (and simple!)
With my friend, 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.
Organic Ant Killer
If you are looking to keep what you bring into your home organic and non-toxic, it’s possible to make an organic ant killer.
Simply buy the above mentioned ingredients with the USDA certified organic label and make your own organic ant killer formulas. It will save you money to make your own organic ant killer.
Got Bees?
If you happen to have a bees’ nest (or more likely, a wasps’ nest), check out how to get rid of wasps and a wasp nest.
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 my post on How to Naturally Get Rid of Fruit Flies in your House.
What About Other Bugs?
Got you covered there too with our big non-toxic bug spray review…and for the scarier bugs, you’ll want this breakdown of insect repellents and how safe they are compared to the risk of Lyme and West Nile. And what about the bugs inside you? Here’s how to get rid of parasites with essential oils and other natural tools.
Don’t miss 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.
Photo from dbgg1979
I’ve been successfully using a barricade of dish soap (dishmate lavender) smeared on a piece of plastic bag. It sits on the floor where they enter through an improperly installed front glass door, and I have twice tried to remove it only to find out the ants return within a few hours.
I’m now on my third barricade which has been going on for 2 weeks and not a single ant in sight.
I tried this ant spray and I was amazed at how quickly it worked and how effective it was! I’ve never seen something natural work so quickly. What is it that makes it work so effectively?
P.S. I tested it on a fly that happened to be sitting on the window and it worked for that too!
Lorena,
It’s cool science! It has to do with the insect’s exoskeleton – the soap allows the water to get through the exoskeleton, ultimately drowning the insect from the outside. Cool, eh? 🙂 Katie
It’s super cool
I have large spiders and even larger centpeids, please help how to get rid of them
Windex kills ants on contact. It’s quick and easy. Other glass cleaners would probably work too. Only problem is that it does not stop them from coming into your house, but it is safe to spray in the kitchen.
I learned this trick from a bird breeder when I had ants invading my trailer and attacking my bird as they were after the fruit bits in his seed cup and on the floor of the cage. Mix Listerine regular kind and its OK to use the generic 50/50 with water and put in a sprayer. It repels the ants and can be used to spray the bird. Can be used full strength in non-bird contact areas. The phenol in the Listerine confuses the ants sense of smell and they can’t follow their pheromone trail and it will also kill some on contact if they get a good enough dosage. Spray full strength around entrance areas and you won’t have ants. This is safe to use around other pets and children. You can spray the 50/50 mix around pet food bowls and around food contact areas. Repeat application every day or as often as needed. It works great.
Good safe hints. Thanks! I will be trying these out right away. I live on a sandy beach so ants are a problem. Borax and syrup coming up!
The diatamatious earth DOES NOT work. I literally powdered like my whole kitchen and it just didn’t work for my ants. Resorted to bait strips.
I’m not sure how this natural method would work with my dogs. I have two cocker spaniels and I’m afraid they may get into it if I spay it around their food which is where I seem to get the small ants. They also are bad to pick up a mouth of kibble, drop and eat it along the way. I have one diagnosed last year with Auto Immune Hemolytic Anemia so I have to be very careful with stuff around the house. No cleaners on my floors, just steam mop , dry and buff.
Best thing is baking soda! I use that or cinnamon, depending on floor color. They will not cross it.
we moved into a bank owned home last summer that had been abandoned {by people} for a VERY long time. ants and spiders (which i don’t seem to mind as much) and a myriad of other pests were the current ‘tenants’.
i called a pest control company who sprayed outside but i refuse to let them chemically treat inside my house, especially with my very young children who still put everything in their mouth. the exterior chemical spray had very little impact on the ants.
i tried most of the things on the list above, with very little success, until i remembered my college thesis project – it was on a silica based insulation material used by NASA called aerogels – and we used to use the broken pieces for pest control in the lab.
after a few short google searches, i came across an article on using food-grade DE (diatomacious earth), the same thing used in my pool filter, but it’s food-grade, which means its relatively safe to use indoors. (DE is basically just crushed sea shells). i sprinkle it around the baseboards and on my counter backsplash (especially under the kitchen sink window). it looks like i spilled flour everywhere. i also put it around the baseboards in my pantry.
it will take a few days to begin working, but my ant problem is almost completely resolved! i do have a few occasional ants, but i’m not infested like last summer.
the DE sticks to the hairs on the ants legs and they track it back to the nest. there, they share it with their buddies who lick it off, and it essentially dehydrates (internally desicates) them until they die. most importantly, they will leave your house in search of water! it’s the best chemical-free kid & pet friendly guaranteed to work ant preventer i’ve found!
i bought it on amazon for about $10 along with the red sprayer bottle (pest pistol) for $10. i’ve been using it for over a year and still havent made a significant dent in the 1 lb bag so no need to buy anything larger than that if just using indoors.
it does also work outdoors and in the garage but once wet, it is no longer effective.
I use grits for ants. Do not use instant or quick cooking ones. We were RV’ing out in Texas and tried this and it really did work. We had a line of ants going back and forth to our RV and their home and the next day they were gone. Apparently they carry the grits back to eat and it swells up inside them.
Katie – You may like my post on “Getting Rid of Gnats & Fruit Flies” I did back in 2012. 🙂
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I tried chili pepper and Cheyenne pepper and the ants walked right over both!! Grits are good to use, just put some on a small dish or butter lid and place close to where you see them. They eat it and take it back to the colony, but they can’t digest it and die!
Mary,
Isn’t it funny how some just don’t work at all? I watched the ants walk all over salt, too, but cinnamon did much better. Good one about the grits! 🙂 Katie
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I’ve always have use cream of wheat or malt-o-meal sprinkled around my house or campsite during the summer. Seems to work well almost instantly. They carry the extra food to the hive and with a day or too they are gone. Down side “water” will expand the cereal, so re-apply if needed. Very cheap, and no chemicals.
Smoke from a rosemary sprig works good too.
We have been battling ants for two years. I can keep my kitchen clean and do absolutely no cooking and they would show up. I started spraying cooking spray on their path and that would redirect them. It was the single most “natural” thing that worked the best. They still were all over my dishwasher though.
A few weeks ago, my husband decided to pour boiling water on the nests that he found outside. He was very diligent for a couple of days. I have not seen any ants since he did this. It seems to be the most effective natural way of killing the ants. I had been reading about the boiling water, it totally works!
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Sprinkle Corn meal all around your property in the spring. and again mid summer, espeally on know ant hills. It is the ant killer that keeps killing.They haul it back to the nest and share, then when they eat it and take a drink of water they explode. It takes 7 or 10 days but then no more ants. Any new ants hatch or move in also eat the corn meal and die! Do it on dry days only. Safe for children, pets and the environment. I had sugar ants, fire ants and Carpenter ants now I have none!
I lived on a small hobby farm in Albany, OR a few years ago. Our neighbors happened to have had a large crop (40 acres) of mint several years before we moved in, as a result we had mint growing wildly all over. I love mint… so I encouraged its growth around our house. I noticed that our ant problem was diminishing as the mint continued to grow around our house, with the exception of our laundry room. On the backside of the house we had a big deck, which was preventing the growth of the mint alongside the house where the ants where getting in. Solution? I took some mint oil and a rag and used it to create an aromatic and invisible border in my laundry room. No more ants. Now my husband and I run a motel and if I find any indication of ants coming into the rooms I arm myself with a bit of mint oil and get that barricade up!
We live out in the country and last year we were literally over run by large black ants. There were billions! I mixed up equal parts of boric acid and sugar, wet it with enough water to make a paste, a bit runny. I put it inside one cabinet where I saw them coming in on one end of the kitchen and another on the other end by the stove where they were also running around. I used jar lids. Within 2 days, they were GONE and I haven’t seen one since. They were somehow coming in from under the house and up into the cabinet. Where they were coming in and roaming around, there wasn’t any food….so we don’t know what they were finding in there. Evidently they take whatever they find back to the nest and they feed it to the Queen….if she dies, they all die. The boric acid works to dry their insides out, and kills them. I had tried everything other than poisons which I won’t do since I have grandkids and parrots. The boric acid/sugar/water sure worked for us!
I was reading your blog and was shocked to read “Added bonus: this home remedy is so simple to mix up, my husband could do it.” I feel bad that you would publicly say that about him. It is better to edify than tear down.
Kristin,
I do honor your thoughtfulness here, but trust me: My husband would write the same thing about himself. 😉 He’s okay with it.
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I used Sure Killer. Pretty much Borax. I put the powder all over the edges of my counter and underneath and voila, two weeks later all gone. I’ve been trying for over a year to get it under control and finally theyre all gone.
http://images1.hellotrade.com/data2/GF/XV/HELLOTD-1278831/powder140-250×250.jpg
Does the spray work on spiders? Thanks
It should, yes!
Any tips for spiders?! I just saw a humungo one!! I’m “this close” to sending the hubs out for a good old fashioned chemical spray ….I HATE THEM!!!
Big shoes. 😉 Just kidding…we just kill them around here, but they’re not going nuts on us. 🙂 Katie
I have always heard that cinnamon works for ants, but when I tried it no such luck. Windex, however, works like magic. Kills them instantly. I use Vinegar Windex cause it works best, but the anti-bacterial multi-surface kind worked too.
I agree with Christina. The bee population is in real trouble in this country. It might be worth updating this entry to let people know to call a beekeeper instead of killing them.
Kellen,
Ours weren’t honeybees, but you’re right – I will make a note in the post. Thanks! 🙂 Katie
For the next invasion Jenea Phillips
Catia Aspromonti Capiga and Sarah Allen Terro is basically what the corn syrup and borax is, just homemade and less toxic. I have 50 ants feeding on some right now…on the carpet…so we’ll see! I’ll have to update the post after this escapade, won’t I?
Thanks for the info Sarah Allen!
http://www.youpest.com/-p-60008.html?adtype=pla&kwd=&gclid=CMylp639gbcCFbFAMgodRAYARA
Well its not “natural” but they sell it at any hardware store by the bug killers… its a liquid and you just dribble tiny little dots of it around and the ants come out in DROVES to eat it, bringing the poison back to their nest and they are gone in a day. I had a major ant issue last year and my kitchen and this worked SO GREAT!
No Sarah Allen – what is it and where can I find it?
Catia have you ever tried Terro? Its amazing.
Some people want non chemical forms of removal. I know Raid makes a gel you can squeeze into cracks so that you don’t actually touch the chemicals. After reading the story about the family that suffered brain damage after a fumigation and Terminex is being forced to pay $80 million-I am downright petrified, how can you recover from someone’s negligence whether intentional or accidental when it comes to spraying chemicals. If Borax + sweetener get rid of them that is a lot better than self-fumigating and having to breathe in those chemicals. I would rather live with ants than chance a fumigation.
Here’s a question… How about if the ants travel to your carpeted areas!!! Also, they don’t seem to cross a line of Skin So Soft by Avon… I put some on a cotton ball by my sliding glass patio doors and they aren’t able to cross it… But I AM STUCK with what to do with the ants that find their way to my carpeting!
Adam Brown
I had any issues about 2 weeks ago. I looked on your site for ant killer and made some. Works with direct contact. I now have placed a cinnamon stick in 2 different sights where I noted their activity and have seen no ants since then. If you sprinkle cinnamon directly on them too, they die.
I tried running a chalk line in my kitchen. I swear I heard little ant laughs as they crossed it like it wasn’t anything at all.
Be careful killing bees. In some states it is illegal to kill them because of the impact they have on pollination. Most exterminators can move the bees safely using smoke and such without killing them.
Only reason we know this is that we had a large hive form on our front porch and I’m highly allergic to being stung. We called an exterminator and he explained that they can’t kill them because of law and such and recommended a bee farmer who came and moved the hive for free.
Diana,
Very true, but these weren’t honeybees. I think I’ll post a “just bees” thing this summer and help people learn the difference! 🙂 Katie
doesn’t work after it dries? LOL I don’t have time to worry about this all day long 🙂
You can buy the food grade diatomaceous earth and it works just as well. That way you don’t have to worry about kids or pets with it around.
This was very timely, thank you 🙂
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I don’t make a trap, I mix a teaspoon of sugar into a couple tablespoons of water and add a teaspoon of borax. I put it on a saucer where I have spotted ants. They eat their little tummies full and take it back to the hill, where they feed it to the queen. The entire colony dies in 2 days or less.
We have had no luck at all with the barrier methods of DE, cinnamon, etc. and attacking individual ants with spray won’t convince them to stop coming in my house. I’m pretty ruthless with ants. Just hate ’em.
Diana bartch, take heart; i think our house is on a giant ant hill as well!
We just got rid of them with borax and honey, even works on the big ones. We sprinkled borax around where there were coming it also. It sticks to them and when they clean themselves, they ingest it and die.
Diana Bartch Have you tried the Diatomaceous (sp?) earth border around the outside of your house?