14 ways to get rid of ants in an apartment

Small ants that appear in the house, at first glance, may seem very harmless. But in fact, these insects are capable of multiplying incredibly quickly and if you miss time, they will fill all the rooms. Tiny pests will be found in the bathroom, in table drawers, but the most unpleasant thing will be their presence in food. And if you notice that these insects come across your eyes more and more often every day, then this means only one thing - you need to immediately take steps to eliminate them.

Why are ants dangerous in an apartment?

Any insects in the apartment are an irritant. Who would be pleased to watch small creatures scurrying around in a sugar bowl, in a bread bin, or crawling over fresh fruit in a vase?

Now imagine that before crawling over food, tables or kitchen cabinets, the ants visited the basement, stairwell, garbage pit and other places, from where they could
carry worm eggs and various infections on their paws. Besides:

• Insects spoil food;
• Some types of ants, for example, garden ants, which you might accidentally pick up in your things when returning from the dacha, can cause aphids to appear on indoor plants.

The conclusion is clear - you need to get rid of ants. Let's consider all possible methods and analyze their effectiveness.

How to repel insects

Ants are socially active insects with a clear hierarchy. Each family can number from hundreds to several thousand individuals. In this case, each insect plays a certain role and strictly follows its purpose. Before choosing your apartment as their permanent place of residence, scout ants will come to the territory. They will literally “scout the situation” and if they find a sufficient amount of food and water, they will bring their brothers. If you find insects at this stage, getting rid of them will be much easier.

Many people simply try to kill the scout ants, but there is a chance that others will come instead. The fact is that insects leave traces along their route using pheromones. This is how their paths are formed. And from a humane point of view, remembering that ants are an important component of the biological chain, it is better to simply scare them away from your home.

You can do this as follows:

• Using regular oil . People report that they have repelled insects by simply following ant paths and making small puddles of oil along their path. You can use a pipette to make oil paths across or along the ant path. The smell of oil, which we practically do not feel, is unbearable for insects;
• Ground pepper, dry mustard or can be used to repel insects . Due to the fact that the aroma can quickly disappear, the selected substance must be renewed periodically, approximately once every 3-5 days and done regularly. Only in this case will the method work;
• Some housewives share that in the case of fighting single insects, they were helped by coffee grounds, which they used as indicated in the paragraph above;
• A proven method is to apply water to the ant paths with the addition of ammonia. In 1 liter of water you need to dilute 4 tbsp. ammonia. This method is suitable if it is possible to leave the room for a while until the pungent smell disappears. This method also works if ants have accumulated in hard-to-reach places. Simply spray the composition using a spray bottle. Be sure to use eye and smell protection. Even after the odor dissipates, insects will still smell it;
• Instead of ammonia, you can use natural essential oils of mint, rosemary, thyme, cloves, lavender, lemon, orange. Add 2-4 drops of oil to a glass of water, soak a cotton pad and wipe the baseboards around the perimeter of the room with it. It is important not to overdo it, otherwise it will be unrealistic to be in the room;

• The method of fighting ants using an ultrasonic repeller, which is usually used to fight moles and other rodents, has received a lot of positive reviews. It’s just important to choose a model that states that its effect also applies to insects.

Please note that all of these methods actually work if the ants are just visiting you in search of food. If they have established an anthill in your apartment, more radical measures will be required.

Forewarned is forearmed

Ants do not come to your apartment in a whole colony. First, they send scouts who evaluate your kitchen, whether the conditions are suitable for their living, and whether there is enough food. If they decide that your kitchen is an ideal place to live, they will return after a while, now seriously and for a long time. The appearance of several ants is a serious reason to begin preventive action.

Fighting ants in the kitchen - simple ways to prevent their appearance, both for the first time and again:

• the first thing you need to do is put all the products in containers;
• Wash the dishes immediately after eating;
• Wipe tables and cabinets with a vinegar solution, the pungent smell will repel insects;
• Take out the trash in a timely manner, close the bin tightly with a lid;
• Before putting the dishes in the cupboard, wash them as thoroughly as possible;
• sweep the kitchen every day, or better yet, wash the floor;
• seal household chemicals and perfumes; any aromatic substances also attract ants.

After discovering scouts, these rules must under no circumstances be violated, at least for a week. The ants will be convinced that there is no food to be found in your kitchen and will go to where they are offered the most favorable conditions. If done correctly, the technique will work. These intelligent insects follow the trail of ants who have already found a “good” apartment with a lot of food. By the way, this is why they return, the path has already been trodden. They will come once or twice, there are no conditions, in the end, they will get tired of wasting reconnaissance and will fall behind.

For the same purposes - to prevent them from entering the apartment, you need to determine where they come from. This may require surveillance. Treat the hole where the ants came from in the kitchen thoroughly with sealant, glue, putty, and cover with plaster. Yes, at least cover it with tape, but only temporarily. The event concerns those cracks that can be sealed. Where sealing is not possible, use other barriers.

Effective folk methods

Only by destroying the ant nest along with their queen will it be possible to get rid of the insects forever.

In this case, the following methods will help:

• Making homemade bait based on boric acid. One hard-boiled egg yolk is mashed with a fork. Add a teaspoon of powdered sugar and 20 g of boric acid. Mix everything thoroughly and form small balls from the “dough”. They are placed in places where ants are most concentrated. Some people simply add acid to honey and place the lids with treats. However, many users note that ants simply ignore such bait. If you don't have pets, you can use raw minced meat instead of the yolk. But this method is also quite dubious. After all, small portions of raw meat at room temperature will quickly deteriorate and begin to emit an unpleasant odor, which will then be difficult to get rid of;

• Another poison bait is prepared using nutritional yeast, sugar and boric acid. A small package of yeast is mixed with 1 tbsp. fine granulated sugar and 20 g of acid. The composition is distributed onto flat lids for preservation and placed in the right places. You can do without acid. In this case, the bet is that the yeast mixture brought into the nest will spoil the food reserves intended for the larvae. Without food, they will die, and the ants will prefer to go in search of a new habitat;

• Starch + powdered sugar. The ingredients are mixed in equal quantities and distributed along the ant paths. After entering the stomach, the starch will begin to swell, which will lead to the death of insects. Semolina gives an illogical effect;
• Uses of diatomaceous earth. This product is safe for both people and pets. It is made from the fossilized remains of diatoms, which are ground. The result is dust consisting of sharp particles. When an insect comes into contact with such a particle, damage to the chitinous cover occurs. This damages his internal organs and leads to death. Contact with the substance is safe for humans, since the skin has high elasticity and elasticity; it is impossible to damage it with such small particles. Diatomaceous earth should be poured in places where ants are most concentrated, where they are expected to live or enter the apartment.

Despite the fact that many positive reviews indicate the effectiveness of the above methods, sometimes the fight with the help of folk remedies is tedious and ineffective. If you are categorically against purchased products, try using several formulations at the same time.

Fighting red ants

If you decide to find the answer to the question of how to get rid of small ants in an apartment on your own, then remember that the fight may require significant effort from you. Ideally, steps to eliminate parasites should be taken as early as possible:

• when one or two individuals are detected;
• if you find out that insects have already settled in with your neighbors;
• red ants have been spotted on the outside wall of your home.

And if everything is done on time, then with a high degree of probability you will be able to prevent the creation of an anthill and the further proliferation of parasites.

Recommendation! If we are talking about a multi-storey building, then in advanced cases it is advisable to destroy small red ants through joint efforts - together with the neighbors, since the insects have probably managed to infect more than one apartment!

In general, to exterminate small ants, you can use products against cockroaches, bedbugs and other crawling insects. However, it should be remembered here that it is useless to fight only working individuals. It is necessary to destroy all the queens, since they are the ones who will soon give birth to new ants and you will fight these small parasites endlessly.

So what can be applied?

Aerosols

If there are few small ants found in the apartment, then in such situations insecticidal aerosols often show good and, most importantly, quick results. Such preparations are sold in any department of household chemicals and their choice is quite large. Among the most popular:

• "Raid";
• "Raptor";
• "Combat"
• "Super Cobra";
• "Dr.Klaus" etc.

These tools are very simple to use:

• First, you should clear the room in which the treatment will be carried out from people and animals;
• if this is a kitchen, then food and dishes are taken out of it, bed linen and bedspreads are removed from the remaining rooms;
• It is advisable for the handler to wear personal protective equipment: a mask and gloves;
• the drug must be sprayed at arm's length, and it is important to treat not only established ant paths with the product, but also various hard-to-reach places where the nest may be located. These include cracks in the floor and walls, corners, openings under baseboards, and wallpaper that has come off the wall.

In general, using ant sprays is very simple, but when fighting with such means you should work purposefully.

Important! Even the most effective aerosol will not bring the expected result if you still cannot find the ant nest. In addition, quite often it ends up outside the room or even apartment being treated!

Gels

Typically, gels are used when aerosols have not helped in killing insects. In other words, the poisonous substance was unable to reach the “heart” of the colony. Insecticidal gels can help with this. Such drugs work on the principle of a chain reaction: working individuals, moving along the treated surface, catch particles of poison on their paws, and they eat a certain amount of the substance. But death does not occur immediately - the workers manage to take the poison to the nest and feed the rest of the inhabitants of the anthill.

On a note! With proper use of the gel, you can destroy the entire ant colony along with the queens in 3-4 weeks!

If small ants appear in the apartment, then you can use gels such as:

• "Raptor";
• "Raid";
• "Globall"
• "Face";
• “Clean House”, etc.

Use the gel as follows;

• the drug is applied pointwise around the perimeter of the infected room, as well as near places where there may be an anthill, and left for two weeks;
• if the product was accidentally erased in any area, then the layer of the drug must be renewed;
• two weeks after the first treatment, the room is wet cleaned and, if necessary, a layer of gel is applied again.

On a note! Many insecticidal gels are toxic to people and pets, but some contain bitterness. These substances do not prevent ants from absorbing the poison, but at the same time protect your children and pets - they do not allow you to swallow even a drop of the drug!

Dusts

Insecticidal dusts can be made in powder form or in solid form - the so-called chalk. Such products are the cheapest and most accessible, but they work even longer than gels.

Dusts that can help in the fight against small ants are the following:

• "Mashenka";
• "Globall"
• "Face-Double";
• “Clean house”, etc.

Dusts are also quite simple to use:

• use chalk to draw lines around the perimeter of the room, along ant paths and near places where nests may be located;
• if it is a powder, then it should be scattered around the perimeter of the room, in the corners and near all hard-to-reach places;
• The edges of kitchen furniture, window sills and ventilation grilles can also be processed.

Aquafumigator

Another way to kill small ants in an apartment. The advantage of this device is that poisonous vapors are able to penetrate into the most inaccessible places, destroying absolutely all insects that are in the house at that moment. It can clean an apartment of parasites in just a few hours.

It is used according to the following scheme:

• first of all, the room should be isolated from people and pets;
• if there is a fire alarm, it must be turned off;
• we close the windows and doors tightly, pull out the drawers of the tables, open the doors of the cabinets and cabinets;
• We take out a plastic container from the packaging and place it in the center of the room, pour water into it, and place a metal container inside;
• we leave the room, close it and wash our hands thoroughly;
• After 3 hours, ventilate the room.

Advice! However, you should remember that re-treatment is mandatory in order to destroy new individuals hatched from eggs! It is recommended to use the aquafumigator a second time after 3 weeks!

Folk remedies

Folk remedies can be safely used in absolutely any room in your apartment, including in situations where small ants were noticed in the kitchen. So, let's look at the most popular and effective ones.

• Boric acid - add a teaspoon of boric powder to a glass of water and mix. Pour a little liquid honey into the resulting solution or add a spoonful of sugar. Use the prepared product to lubricate ant paths, baseboards and areas near cracks.
• Yeast paste - add enough yeast to half a glass of water to make a viscous mass. We use the finished product in the same way as the first preparation - we lubricate the places where ants walked and may live.
• Borax powder - it should be combined with granulated sugar in equal proportions and scatter the mixture around the perimeter of the room.
• Corn flour - it is used in its pure form. Flour should be scattered along ant paths and near cracks. Insects eat this product, but cannot digest it - the flour swells in the stomach and soon the ant dies.

Folk remedies are good because you don’t need to use any expensive products to prepare them. All ingredients are quite accessible and in most cases are always in the kitchen. But at the same time, they often show good results only as auxiliary means, especially with a large concentration of ants.

Methods that DO NOT work

Based on the negative reviews that were found on many forums and in the comments, we have compiled a list of folk remedies that in practice did not have any effect.

• Scotch + jam. Some resources suggest making a homemade trap, which would be a rectangle of thick cardboard with double-sided tape glued around the perimeter. Accordingly, you need to place sweet jam in the center of the trap, which should lure the ants. On the way to the treat, the insect should stick to the tape. In fact, either the ants are absolutely not interested in jam and even honey, or they manage to catch a negligible number of individuals;
• Millet. In general, the use of millet as a remedy for ants is based on its similarity to ant eggs. Allegedly, at the sight of grains, the insect should perceive them as eggs of a larger species and leave the territory, and not eat the grain, as many people think. A very small number of users noted a positive effect from its use. Most argue that the ants simply ignored the white grains, or even carried them away from their habitat;

• Tobacco dust. In addition to the fact that this is a harmful substance, which is a waste product from tobacco production and is undesirable to use in an apartment, in practice the composition turned out to be useless;
• Vinegar solution. Apparently, the vinegar solution does not have a sufficiently pungent odor for ants, since many say that the insects continued to follow their paths after treatment, as if nothing had happened.

Repelling ants with ultrasound

Not long ago, devices appeared on the market that use ultrasonic waves to repel pests. However, consumers are not very familiar with them, so this method of control is not yet widespread enough.

• The repeller is a small device that runs on mains or batteries. It produces ultrasonic waves that are indistinguishable to the human ear, but which insects can hear very well. The waves literally destroy their nervous system.
• Repellers should not be turned on in rooms where there are sleeping people. They can also affect pets, so you need to carefully monitor their behavior.

Crayons and powders

The most affordable and easiest to use are special crayons or dry powders.

It is also believed that many of
these products are not so effective , but in most cases this is due to: the quality of the area being treated, the wrong choice of a specific product, or the low quality of the selected product . You need to scatter it or draw lines in places where insects most often appear. Don't forget to treat their most popular habitats - under baseboards, in the corners of kitchen cabinets, under the kitchen table, etc. It is noteworthy that the famous chalk “Mashenka” did not have the desired effect. We were able to find much more positive reviews about the drug:

• "A great warrior";
• "BROS";
• "Thunder - 2";
• "Delicia"
• "Karbofos";
• "Clean house";
• "Pyrethrum"
• "Anti-ant."

Hector Ant Powder"

Hector ant powder stands out among other products. Due to its special composition, it attracts insects and acts as bait . Kills all types of ants , including domestic ones. The fact that the product really works and effectively copes with insects is evidenced by numerous comments about it on review sites.

Ant repellent gels

Gels are sold in special dispensing syringes or tubes. The composition is completely safe for people and animals.

The gels are used as follows: the drug is applied in a dotted line along the ant paths and in all places where insects were most often seen.
The effect of gels is delayed. The ants not only eat the bait with a sweet smell and taste, but also manage to bring it to the nest and feed the queen, and the death of the queen is the key to success in this case. The most popular are:

• "Raptor";
• "Storm";
• "Clean house";
• "Clobol."

Causes of ants and their habitat in the kitchen

Ants appear most often in the kitchen. Here they have all the conditions: food, water and shelter.

Insects almost always settle in the kitchen. They enter other rooms in search of food, and then return to the main place of residence. Yes, ants, having discovered a constant source of food, do not leave the house, but, on the contrary, invite their relatives to join them. And they start making nests.

Where do they come from? During the day, ants in search of food are able to travel from 100 meters in one direction or the other. Given their tiny size, they can even climb into closed containers. A couple of millimeters of free space and a small amount of food are enough for “guests” to enter the room. First comes the "scout". If he finds conditions suitable for life, the next time he returns with a flock, which becomes larger and larger. It is interesting that while moving on the floor they leave a mark invisible to humans, but very noticeable to other individuals. Thanks to this path, not only relatives of the discoverer, but also representatives of other anthills can appear in the house.

Any food can be used by insects. Most of all they love sweets. But leftover food in the trash can and even microscopic crumbs will completely satisfy their needs. They place their nests under the sink, under food cabinets and in other remote places where it is dark, damp and there is food.

Ants are generally considered to be harmless insects, but they are carriers of many infections and are even capable of damaging communications by gnawing electrical wires and even plastic pipes.

Traps and bait

When choosing a trap or bait for ants, you need to pay attention to the time after which the poison begins to act.

• If you buy a bait with a closed body, but inside which there is instant poison, you will only be able to eliminate working ants. A living queen will quickly reproduce new offspring and replenish the empty ranks;
• Electric bait has a similar effect;
• A bait with a sticky layer will also not get rid of the entire anthill, but will only be effective when the ants come to you for food or are noticed for the first time. After using them, it is imperative to treat the room with one of the means described in the second paragraph of the article in order to avoid the reappearance of ants;
• The best traps are those with a closed body, inside of which there is a bait with a delayed action.

Pay attention to the traps “Raptor”, “Combat”, “Raid”, “Deadex”, “Delicia”.

Preventive actions

To prevent insects such as ants from appearing in your apartment, it is enough to follow simple rules. For example:

• After eating, do not leave any leftover food behind, no matter how small it may be.
• After eating, you must wash the dishes immediately.
• Remove trash regularly.
• Wipe up sweet liquid if it accidentally spills.
• Make sure that the trash can is always closed.
• Seal any cracks that appear in the floor or around the baseboards.

The appearance of ants in an apartment always puzzles homeowners. Neighborhood with these insects, apart from discomfort and the risk of contracting some kind of infectious disease, does not bring anything good. Therefore, the first task is to get rid of this unpleasant neighborhood. To solve this problem, people have come up with many effective and safe ways. Along with them, there are also more effective, but dangerous for human health, means that it is advisable to use in extreme cases, when simple and affordable compounds do not cope with this task.

How to get rid of ants at home