how do I kill ants without using nasty pesticides?

Answer 1

MINT

Answer 2

I've heard that ants won't cross a chalk line. I've not tried it, but a friend of mine that owns a summer house has and it did work...for awhile, until they found out the chalk line ended and went around it.

What she did next was have her kids break up the chalk in a big baggie (I think the easier solution would have been to buy the chalk they use on baseball fields, but hey, the kids had fun!) and then dumped it all around the base of the house, not skipping an inch. Ants were then gone after she killed all that were already in the house (she's against pesticides also, so it took a little while to catch all the "buggers" and either step on them or get them with paper towels!

I just went to her summer home last week, no ants inside! She said they now dump the chalk 3 or 4 times a year, just to make sure they don't come back.

Don't know if it was the chalk or they just moved on, but looks like it worked.

Answer 3

I've killed ants with whatever household cleaner I have on hand at the time. The chemicals in 409 or Clorox Clean-Up are strong enough to kill these little pests, and since I use the products anyway to clean my countertops I don't have to worry about an unpleasant odor. We get ants in the house quite often, and we REPEL them by sprayting lemon juice around the perimeters of the countertops or placing bay leaves under small appliances. This seems to push them back some.

Answer 4

Ok,this is how you kill them without pesticides,since that's what you specify and I'm paying attention.You get some boric acid,add a little sugar to it to attract them,add enough water to make a paste and put it in little pieced of foil.Crinkle the foil into loose wads and place them where you see the ants.I got this from Hints From Heloise,in the newspaper,many years ago.It worked for me.Goodness,you ask a specific question and people still mention Raid.I wouldn't use bleach,or anything chemical.I don't know about the grits and cream of wheat.

Answer 5

OK, all the other answers are wrong. This is what you do. Get a small bottle cap, and mix a heaping tablespoon of sugar with a half tsp of boric acid. Wet the solution to make a thick syrup. Put it in lthe cap, and place near ants. Put a little warm water in the solution each day. Many ants will come, but they will take it back and posion their families. This works 100%

Answer 6

well you can always use ant traps they are little pentagon looking things with poison in them. Lay them out around the house and then just wait for a couple of days. You also want to look out for dropping food anywhere. Make sure that you take your trash out frequently and make sure that you don't leave any dishes with a sign of food on them in the living room or the bedroom. Always clean your plate off. If you keep food in your trash for a while that will be a main contribute to ants so keep clean. When you take out the trash make sure to get all the trash in the whole house. Don't let your dishes pile up that is also a way to attract ants.

Answer 7

Nat I had this same problem last week-end, and my next door neighbor being the environmentalist that he is told me to combine 2 parts baking soda with one part sugar. The ants are attracted to the sugar, and when they take it back to the mound with the soda mixed in, they all more or less explode because ants cannot expel gas. I'm not sure who waited around for ants to fart, but it sure worked. Three days later all the ants were gone.

Answer 8

This has worked for me for years-boric acid dissolved in a sugar syrup. The boric acid contains glass-like crystals that ants eat in the sweet syrup, then bring back to the nest where they feed it to the colony which then dies.
I have put it outside, also, around the boundaries of the house and it works on larger ants, too. It has gotten rid of any ants that started to get into the house.
You can buy this at Agways and other hardware stores- it's called,'Terro'. It is much cheaper to make it, though. All you do is mix 1/2 cup boric acid powder with as much hot
H2O as is needed to make it into a thick liquid. Mix this with 1 cup karo syrup, then leave drops of it on small tabs of cardboard in areas where ants congregate in your home.

Good luck!

Answer 9

The cereal grits can do the trick and it can kill them. Sprinkle when there is dry weather and then spray with water or allow the rain to moisten the grit so that the grits taken in expand inside the ants when it is consumed. Even the queen ant will die from this natural cereal.

Answer 10

Am-Dro is not a nasty pesticide and it works. Simply sprinkle it on or around the mound. The ants think its food and take it to the queen, who dies after eating it, thereby killing the mound. Its neat, simple to use and very efficient. It is hazardous to animals and people, but its not what I would consider a nasty pesticide.

Answer 11

first put some sugar or something sweet that you are sure the ants will follow and leave it until the next day and when there are a lot of ants already, you pour some alcohol and then light them up. I like doing that in my kitchen and it works pretty well, but it doesn't get rid of them permanently so you have to do it pretty often.

good luck.