20 Effective Methods to Get Rid of Ants Naturally

Dealing with ant infestations can be extremely frustrating. When ants invade your home, they can contaminate food, cause structural damage, and just be a major nuisance. Many commercial ant killers contain harsh chemicals and toxins that you may not want to use, especially if you have children or pets. Fortunately, there are many highly effective, all-natural methods to get rid of ants without exposing your family to dangerous chemicals.

Why Get Rid of Ants Naturally?

There are several compelling reasons to use natural methods for ant control:

Safety – Natural ant remedies are non-toxic and safe around children and pets. Chemical ant baits and sprays can contain dangerous neurotoxins and carcinogens.
Environment – Natural methods like diatomaceous earth and boiling water are more eco-friendly than using pesticides which can contaminate soil and waterways.
Resistance – Ants can develop resistance to chemical treatments over time, rendering them ineffective. Natural remedies work in multiple ways that do not promote resistance.
Cost – Home remedies for ants utilize common household items that you likely already have, so they are very economical.
Effectiveness – When used diligently, natural ant killers can eradicate ant colonies just as well as chemical methods.

So if you want to get rid of ants in a safe and environmentally responsible manner, try these 20 highly effective all-natural solutions:

Follow the Ants to Find the Colony

The key to effective natural ant control is destroying the colony. Ants you see trailing in your home are scout worker ants looking for food. If you can trace them back to where they’re entering your home, you can often locate and destroy the colony.

Steps:

Watch where the ants are coming from and trail them if necessary. Look for trails along walls, under appliances, or behind baseboards.
Track the ants to find where they’re entering the house. Common entry points are cracks in walls or windows, under doors, or gaps around plumbing.
Inspect for ant nests outside near entry points. Ant colonies will often be located in soil, under rocks or landscaping, in trees, or inside exterior walls.
Mark entry points with chalk so you know where to target treatments. Focusing on ant trails and nests is key to effective natural control.

Use Diatomaceous Earth

Diatomaceous earth (DE) is one of the most effective natural ant killers. DE is a powder made from crushed fossils of diatoms, an ancient form of algae. The microscopically sharp edges of DE cut and scratch the waxy outer coating of ants, causing lethal dehydration. DE is non-toxic to humans and pets but works great for ant extermination.

How to Use:

Apply a thin layer of food-grade DE where ants are trailing and around entry points.
Use a hand duster for cracks and crevices. Wear a mask to avoid inhaling dust.
Sprinkle DE under appliances, along baseboards, under sinks, and other infested areas.
Re-apply DE after rain or cleaning as it does not remain effective when wet.

Try Borax Baits

Borax is a natural mineral salt that can eliminate entire colonies when used in ant bait traps. Borax baits work by killing ants that ingest it, but is not toxic through skin contact alone. The ants also carry some of the borax back to the colony and queen, progressively poisoning the entire nest.

Bait Recipe and Use:

Mix 1 tsp borax with 1 tbsp peanut butter or jelly and place near ant trails.
Slowly add sugar water to the mixture to reach a pourable consistency.
Scoop the bait into bottle caps and place them near ant trails and entry points.
For best results, apply borax baits where you notice the most ant traffic.
Replenish the baits as they are depleted. Borax baits effectively eliminate ant colonies within a few days.

Flood Ant Nest Locations

One easy natural way to kill off ant nests is by flushing them out with water. Boiling water is even more effective as it kills ants on contact. Caution should be used around plant life you wish to preserve.

Instructions:

Once you locate an outdoor ant colony, slowly pour a large pot of boiling water directly into the nest entrance.
For larger nests, you may need to repeat this process a few times to fully penetrate and drown the colony.
Alternatively, you can use a garden hose on a forceful setting to flood the nest and wash away ants.
Follow up by sprinkling DE in and around the nest to prevent recolonization.

Make Ant Repelling Sprays

Natural ant sprays can be used to repel ants and block their trails into your home. These liquid barriers disrupt ant pheromone trails and deter them from re-entering treated areas. Reapply after rain or cleaning.

All-Natural Recipes:

Peppermint oil: Mix 15-20 drops of peppermint essential oil with water in a spray bottle. Spray around ant trails and entry points.
Vinegar: Use equal parts white vinegar and water for an effective ant repellent spray. The acidity drives ants away.
Citrus oil: Mix a few drops of lemon, orange, or lime essential oil with water and spray generously where ants are active.
Cinnamon: Make a spray with 1 tbsp ground cinnamon boiled in 1 quart of water. Strain and cool before transferring to a spray bottle.

Seal Up Entry Points

One of the most important steps in ant prevention is sealing cracks and crevices where they can enter your home. Use caulk, sealants, screening, weather stripping, or other materials to close up holes and gaps around windows, doors, pipes, vents, and foundations. This denies ants the access they need to establish colonies inside.

Tips for Sealing Entry Points:

Inspect kitchen and bathroom plumbing for gaps around pipes and fixtures. Apply silicone caulk to seal.
Check where wiring, cables, vents, and utilities enter the home and seal openings with caulk, steel wool, or foam sealant.
Install weather stripping around doors and windows to close gaps. Check for torn door seals as well.
Use expanding foam or concrete repair sealants on cracks in foundations and exterior walls.

Remove Exterior Ant Nests

If you locate ant colonies nesting in, under, or around your home’s exterior, you can physically remove the nests. This is often the quickest way to eliminate outdoor ant problems. Exercise caution to avoid harming beneficial landscapes.

How to Remove Ant Nests:

Use a long stick or rod to scrape visible ant hills away from the foundation.
For nests under stones or landscaping, remove the objects and dig out the nest. Dispose of it away from the property.
Prune tree branches that contain ant nests. Place Tanglefoot adhesive around the trunks to prevent ants from climbing back up.
Inject insecticide foam (e.g. Terro Ant Killer) into void spaces and wall voids where ants are entering the house.
Knock down nests inside cinder blocks, retaining walls, or other structures to eliminate ant colonies at the source.

Lure Ants with Tuna or Peanut Butter

Ants are attracted to proteins like tuna and peanut butter. You can take advantage of this to lure ants into a trap. The peanut butter or tuna also serve as bait to get the ants to carry and eat borax for colony elimination.

Bait Trap Method:

Mix borax with peanut butter, tuna, or sugar water to create a bait mixture.
Place dollops of the bait near ant trails or nests. The ants will swarm the protein source and ingest the borax bait.
Refill the bait as it gets depleted. Retrieve and dispose of dead ants.
The bait both kills worker ants and causes the borax to be returned to the colony for maximum eradication.

Apply Chalk Barrier

Drawing a line of chalk, talcum powder, or other white powder across ant trails can repel them from crossing. The powder disrupts the ants’ pheromone scent trails that they rely on to navigate. Apply new powder as rain or cleaning washes it away.

How to Use Chalk Barriers:

Observe the main trails ants are using to enter your home.
Use pieces of white chalk to draw lines across the trails, blocking the paths. Focus on doorways, window sills, and other access points.
The chalk line will discourage the ants from crossing and force them to establish new trails which you can block off as well.
Baby powder, cornstarch, or other fine white powders also work. Just avoid inhaling clouds of powder. Reapply after cleaning or rain.

Deploy Ant Traps

There are many styles of ready-made ant traps available that lure ants in with food or pheromones and then trap or kill them. These traps provide containment of ants and deliver baits directly inside colonies for thorough eradication.

Useful Trap Types:

Cardboard baits – Ants take the bait back to the nest to deliver the killing agent inside colonies.
Liquid ant baits – The bait interacts slowly with ants’ digestive systems for delayed toxicity inside the nest.
Glue boards – These traps immobilize ants on an adhesive surface to quantify and isolate the problem.
Indoor borate bait stations – These discreet traps kill ants but are safer to use inside than other pesticides.

Use Ant Repelling Plants

There are several plant varieties that can be used for natural ant repelling thanks to their strong scents, oil secretions, or other properties. Growing these around your home creates a barrier that makes the area less inviting to ants.

Helpful Repelling Plants:

Peppermint
Spearmint
Citronella
Lavender
Chrysanthemum
Catnip
Marigolds
Garlic
Pennyroyal
Tansy
Cucumber
Basil

Set Out Repelling Herbs and Spices

You likely already have some all-natural ant repellents in your kitchen pantry. Whole and ground herbs and spices can deter ants from trails and entryways when sprinkled in targeted areas. Their strong scents overwhelm the ants’ sensitive chemical receptors.

Helpful Herbs and Spices:

Cinnamon
Cloves
Oregano
Paprika
Black pepper
Chili powder
Cayenne pepper
Bay leaves
Garlic powder
Onion powder

Dry the used spices to reuse them. Avoid getting them wet as this washes away their potency. Reapply every 2-3 days or after cleaning an area.

Use Lemon Peels

Citrus oil secretions found in lemon peels make them a useful natural ant repellent. The acidic juice also deters ants. Place lemon peels along ant trails or at entry points and refresh them weekly. Just be sure to safely dispose of peels where pets won’t eat them.

Lemon Peel Tips:

Save peels from lemons you use for cooking and beverages. No need to buy whole lemons.
Focus on applying peels near pathways like doors, baseboards, cabinets, countertops.
Try combining peels with other remedies like essential oils for added repelling power.
You can dry peels and grind them up to use lemon verbena powder.

Place Tobacco Leaves Around Nest

While you don’t want to handle or inhale tobacco yourself, used tobacco leaves provide a natural solution for deterring and killing ants. The nicotine in tobacco is highly toxic to ants when they come into direct contact.

Instructions:

Find discarded cigarette butts, used chewing tobacco, or dried tobacco leaves.
Place the used tobacco material around ant nests in your yard, gardens, or home exterior.
The toxic tobacco will kill foraging worker ants and may eliminate the entire colony if they move nesting location away from the nicotine.

Block Ant Pheromone Trails

Ants use pheromone trails with scent markers to navigate back to food and the nest. Disrupting these scent trails can effectively confuse and redirect worker ants away from your home.

How to Break Pheromone Trails:

Use caulk or sealants to close up cracks and crevices where ants enter and follow trails.
Wipe down surfaces along ant trails with citrus-scented cleaners which can mask ant pheromones.
Sprinkle cinnamon, dried herbs, or spices along baseboards and doorways to obscure ant scents.
Use a fan to blow air over ant trails to quickly disrupt pheromone markers before sealing paths shut.

Spread Diatomaceous Earth Outside

Applying diatomaceous earth along the exterior foundation of your home creates a deadly barrier against ants trying to enter. DE’s sharp particles cut through ants’ exoskeletons and cause dehydration. Focus application along walls, windows, and doorways. Wear a mask when handling DE powder.

Use Vinegar to Repel Ants

White vinegar emits a strong scent that ants dislike, making it a great natural repellent. Use it to spray ant trails or soak cotton balls in vinegar and place them along pathways ants frequent. Vinegar also erodes ants’ chemical trails. Re-treat after rain or cleaning.

Follow Ants to Food Sources

Watch to see where ants are trailing to find food sources attracting them into your home. Once located, you can remove the food source, clean up any crumbs or spills, and place ant baits or traps nearby to ambush foraging ants. Taking away their food supply will discourage ant colonies from moving indoors.

Vacuum Up Indoor Ants

A simple way to instantly remove ants roaming inside is to vacuum them up with a broom and dustpan or vacuum cleaner. This eliminates ants already in your living spaces and removes indoor pheromone trails. Just be sure to immediately dispose of the vacuum bags outdoors to prevent escapes.

Use Duct Tape to Remove Ants

Lengths of duct tape make great disposable sticky traps for lifting ants off surfaces. Simply press the tape onto counter tops, floors, walls or other areas crawling with ants and peel it up, bringing ants with it. Check the tape daily and replace as needed until ant problems are resolved.

Remove Fake Sweeteners and Foods

Artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose as well as sugary foods attract sweet-loving ants. Store candy, syrups, baking ingredients, pet food, and other ant bait in sealed containers. Clean up spills right away and remove fake sweeteners to eliminate sweets that draw ants into your home from outdoor colonies.

Apply Petroleum Jelly on Surfaces

Coating surfaces along ants’ trails and entry points with a slippery layer of petroleum jelly prevents them gaining a foothold. They will become trapped in the sticky oil and avoid treated areas. Re-coat the jelly after cleaning so its effectiveness persists. Any clear oil-based lubricant can work.

Introduce Ant Predators

Encourage natural predators like birds, spiders, ladybugs, praying mantis, and lizards around your home to feed on foraging ants. Provide water, nesting sites, and habitat for these creatures and they’ll help reduce ants entering your home. Predatory ants like fire ants also kill other outdoor ant species, but may become problematic themselves.

Keep a Clean Kitchen

Practice good sanitation by keeping your kitchen immaculate. Clean up food spills right away, store edibles in sealed containers, take out the trash frequently, wipe down appliances and surfaces, and fix any water leaks. Dirty kitchens attract foraging ants, so good hygiene denies them food and water that makes your home inviting.

Use Strong Smells and Vapors

Ants breathe through tiny holes in their exoskeletons. Overwhelming these breathing pores with strong odors repels them. Place dry coffee grounds, garlic, onions, Irish Spring soap, ammonia-soaked cotton balls, or vinegar in areas where ants are active. You can also boil lemon, cinnamon, clove, or peppermint to diffuse the vapors. Reapply aromas regularly.

Set Out Scent Deterrents

There are several pantry items you likely have at home that can be placed to deter ants based on their strong scents alone. A few examples are whole cloves, jars of peppermint oil, bags of cinnamon sticks, open boxes of baking soda, and slices of citrus fruits. Place these along baseboards, windowsills, cabinets, and countertops wherever ants are active.

Apply Cream of Tartar

The fine powder of cream of tartar (potassium bitartrate) disrupts ant pheromone trails and gets abrasively stuck in ants’ joints when walked over. Sprinkle it along walkways, window sills, shelves, or anywhere else you notice ants in your kitchen or pantry. The cream of tartar will also help deodorize areas.

Maintain Ant Deterrents

For the natural ant remedies to remain effective, they require repeated application and maintenance, especially if using repellents outdoors. Wind, rain, lawn mowing, and other disturbance will dissipate many treatments. Establish a regular schedule to maintain natural barriers, traps, and deterrents until ant colonies are fully eliminated from your property.

When to Call an Exterminator

While home remedies work well for minor ant infestations, large-scale invasive species like carpenter ants or phantom ants may require professional pest control. Licensed exterminators have commercial-grade insecticides, years of experience, and often offer warranties or guarantees with their services. Consider calling in a pro if ant problems persist after rigorously trying multiple natural treatments.

Conclusion

Ants are extremely resilient pests, but with diligent effort focused on destroying their colonies, natural treatments can safely and effectively remove ants from