Gardening For Not-Quite Beginners

2 Tips For Keeping Ants From Invading Your Kitchen

If your kitchen has been overrun by ants in the past, you may wonder if there is anything you can do to keep them out of your home this season. If so, use the following tips for preventing ants from invading your kitchen.

1. Wipe Your Kitchen Surfaces with Lemon Juice

If you have ever observed ants as they travel from one place to another, you may have noticed that they always follow the same path. They exhibit this behavior because scent trails are left behind their predecessors as a way to alert other ants of the best route to food. And, all it takes is one ant to discover the location of the food in your kitchen to produce these trails.

One way to remove the ants' scent trails is to wipe them away using diluted lemon juice. Not only does the citric acid in the juice neutralize and remove the trails, but the scent is also unpleasant to the insects and keeps them away.

An easy way to apply lemon juice to your kitchen surfaces is to fill a spray bottle halfway with bottled lemon juice, then fill up the rest with warm water. Then, spray the surfaces, and wipe off the excess liquid. 

If you do not have any lemon juice, white distilled vinegar can work just as well. However, since the odor of the vinegar is stronger, fill the bottle only a quarter of the way with the solution to subdue the unpleasant scent.

2. Sprinkle Coffee Grounds Around Possible Entry Points

Even if you are able to eradicate the ants' scent trails in your kitchen, they could still make new ones. So, you should take steps to keep them out of the room completely. One way to do this is to sprinkle coffee grounds around any possible entry points.

Since ants cannot tolerate the smell or flavor of coffee grounds, they act as a deterrent when placed in and around any small openings in your kitchen. You can also save up a week's worth of grounds, then sprinkle a line around the exterior of your house to discourage the ants from trying to get in.

Using the above tips can help keep ants from entering your kitchen and taking over. However, if you discover that they have already invaded and infested your home, contact a pest control service like Fox Valley Environmental Pest Control and have them assess the situation and discuss your options for getting rid of ants. 


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