Have you ever gone into the kitchen to get a snack or drink and noticed ants crawling on the countertops, the kitchen sink, the stove top, and pretty much everywhere else? Open up a kitchen cabinet to grab your snack and, yes, you guessed it, you see an ant or two scurrying around the edge of the shelves. Get away from my chocolate chip cookies, you dang ant! Hopefully, there are none in the package, you think. So, how to get rid of ants in the kitchen, we will dive into this now.
What Are Ants
I know, I know, ants do not need much of an introduction. But here is one anyway, just to dot the i’s and cross the t’s.
Ants are fairly small and pesky insects. In my neck of the woods, they are usually around 1/4 to a 1/2 inch in size. They are very well known for their attraction to food. Their bodies consist of three separate segments. These sections are the head, thorax, and abdomen. Ants have antennas. They have six legs. They are usually either red, brown, or black in color, depending on the species in question. Ants live in large colonies (there could be thousands of ants in a single colony). Each ant colony consists of a queen (responsible for laying eggs), and the rest of the colony consists of the worker females and males, who are responsible with mating with the queen or gathering food.
If you do have an unpleasant ant infestation in your kitchen, you will want to eradicate both the queen and others in the colony. While the obvious solution for a non-lethal type of ant control is to simply remove all food sources, and pass the buck, having the ants move to another food source elsewhere, this may not be entirely possible. You may have a pet for example and choose to leave your pet’s food in a bowl out in the open. You may have kids, sneaking snacks and leaving crumbs. You may have an amateur cook like me throwing crumbs all over the kitchen stove every meal I cook. Pinch of this, handful of that. It does take some effort to make that dish, you know, cut me some slack please.
Anyway, short of putting your pet on a diet and keeping me in a stray jacket as I watch a neater cook than myself try their best at making a family dinner, there are a few other ways to get rid of ants in the kitchen. So, get me out of this thing already, or maybe at least show me how Houdini used to do it, and please follow along.
How to Get Rid of Ant in Your Kitchen – White Vinegar
Use white vinegar or a solution of white vinegar and water (50-50 ratio) to eliminate ants from your kitchen. Use the white vinegar or vinegar solution to thoroughly clean the hard surfaces of your kitchen, including the counter tops, stove tops and floors. White vinegar has been known to both eliminate and repel ants. While the scent of vinegar is not noticeable for too long in people, ants will be able to smell it long after the surface dries up.
How to Get Rid of Ant in Your Kitchen – Cinnamon
One of the most practical forms of ant removal is most likely already in your kitchen pantry. It is called cinnamon. Like many pests, ants very much despise the scent of cinnamon. Try sprinkling some cinnamon where you have noticed ants congregating – places like baseboards, windowsills, your kitchen counters, your kitchen garbage can, your pet’s food dish. Try to locate where the ants are making it into your home or kitchen and coat the entry point with some cinnamon powder.
There is also a substance called cinnamon leaf essential oil which has been known to repel ants. You can find some below on amazon.com. Simply soak some cotton balls in the oil and place them where ants congregate. Alternatively, wipe down any ant hot spots with a combination of the oil and water. A decent recipe for any repellent is 1/2 ounce cinnamon leaf essential oil to 2 cups water.
| Cinnamon Leaf Essential Oil – By: Sun Essential Oils | Cinnamon Essential Oil – By: Artizen |
How to Get Rid of Ant in Your Kitchen – Lemon Juice
Another terrific strategy for the removal of ants is to spray lemon juice around the entrances to your home and kitchen. Much like with cinnamon, ants will be easily put off by the smell of lemon juice. If you know where the nest is, spray some lemon juice around there, as well. A common and effective way of doing this is to squeeze a few fresh lemons into a spray bottle, add some water to the solution, and spritz away.
Alternatively, lemon eucalyptus oil can be purchased at many stores. Below is a link to a great lemon eucalyptus oil product on amazon.com. Simply soak a few cotton balls in the undiluted oil and position them areas where you have noticed ants before. Change the cotton balls out weekly. Keep the saturated cotton balls and lemon eucalyptus oil away from small children and pets, however, and do not ingest the oil yourself.
| Lemon Eucalyptus Essential Oil – By: Sun Essential Oils |
How to Get Rid of Ant in Your Kitchen – Diatomaceous Earth
We have mentioned diatomaceous earth many times before on this site, as it an effective pest control means to handle termites, bed bugs, beetles, silverfish and other bugs. Diatomaceous Earth is a light powder that is composed of the fossilized remains of diatoms (a type of algae). When ants come in contact with the substance, it damages their external coating and causes them to squander moisture and expire. To use diatomaceous earth you should first block off any location from both children and pets, so that they will be unable to consume the substance. Since diatomaceous earth is an irritant, avoid breathing it in or getting it on your skin. Next, simply sprinkle diatomaceous earth around any infested area of your home, around baseboards and any other places you have previously spotted a congregation of ants. Let it remain for a day then vacuum up all powder and dead insects the next day. Some products available on Amazon.com are below.
| HARRIS Diatomaceous Earth Crawling Insect Killer – By Harris | Perma-Guard Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth – By: Perma-Guard Inc. |
| Diatomaceous Earth – 100% Natural Food Grade -By: EasyGoProducts | Diatomaceous Earth, Ready to Use Crawling Bug/Roach Killer – By: Bonide |
How to Get Rid of Ants in Your Kitchen – Peppermint Essential Oil
Peppermint essential oil is an insect repellent known to be an effective means of repelling such insects such as mosquitoes, ants and many other types of bugs. Simply combine approximately 10 drops of peppermint essential oil per 1 cup of water, squirt the solution all around your kitchen’s baseboards, windows, counters and corners, and let dry. Peppermint essential oil can be purchased on amazon.com (links below). Like with many essential oils, peppermint oil can make family pets sick if exposed. For this reason please keep the oil out of their reach.
| Home Pest Control Spray Repellent – By: Colton’s Natural | |
How to Get Rid of Ant in Your Kitchen – Borax or Boric Acid
The terms borax and boric acid are frequently used interchangeably. They are essentially two different formulations of the exact same substance. That substance is boron. While borax has a relatively low toxicity to humans and animals, the same cannot be said for ants. It is, however, recommended to keep boric acid away from pets and children. Also, wear gloves while working with the substance. Borax is known to affect the digestive system of the ants and, once consumed, they will eventually die. Borax is a fairly slow-acting and for this reason, it is fairly effective for ant control. The worker ants will find and haul the poison back to their nest where it will then be consumed by the queen and other members of the colony. Please keep in mind that ants are not attracted to the borax substance on its own. Borax needs to be mixed with bait or food which will attract the ants.
A common solution for ant control consists of 1/2 teaspoon boric acid, 8 teaspoons sugar, and 1 cup of warm water. After the solution is well mixed and the sugar and boric acid has dissolved, use cotton balls to absorb the mixture and then place the cotton balls around the kitchen. Alternatively, you can leave the solution out in small containers and either discard or thoroughly wash the containers after they have been used. You may also choose to mix boric acid with other foods such as maple or corn syrup in order to bait ants and have them ingest the product.
How to Get Rid of Ant in Your Kitchen – Ant Baits and Sprays
There are many ant trap solutions and sprays on the market today that also can be used to keep ants away. Many of these products contain either borax or boric acid.
Bait Traps
Bait traps are designed to attract ants who will then ingest bring back the toxins to their colony where other ants will dine on the bait and ultimately expire. Some effective bait traps are listed below. Links to Amazon.com.
| Liquid Ant Bait Station – By: Terro | MaxForce Ant Control Liquid Bait – By: Bayer |
| Ant Bait Stations – By: Advion | Optigard Ant Bait Gel – Link to Do-It-Yourself Pest Control |
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Insecticide Sprays
| Demon Max Insecticide – By: Syngynta | Carpenter Ant and Termite Killer – By: BioAdvanced |
| Viper Insecticide – By: Control Solutions |
How to Get Rid of Ant in Your Kitchen – The Vacuum
If you have already done some research, or perhaps were lucky, and discovered where the ants are able to gain access to your house and kitchen, if you have already treated the cracks with repellent and/or sealed up the entry point or points, you can now focus on disposing the ants that have already made their way inside. One way to remove the ants already in your kitchen is to simply vacuum them up with a vacuum or Shop-Vac. Once you have vacuumed up the ants, simply empty the vacuum outside and, because their entry points to your home and kitchen are sealed, the ants will not be able to get back inside to their nest.
How to Get Rid of Ant in Your Kitchen – Hire a Professional Service
If the ants are just driving you nuts or there are just so many them and it seems like you are fighting a battle that is hard to win, there is absolutely no shame in calling in a professional. These professional pest control operators are there to help after all. Most services will use gel bait insecticides in order to control and effectively eliminate the ants from kitchens and homes. They will often place small beads of the gel bait where ants have been noticed feeding. They will also most likely spray the outside of your home with a professional grade insecticide. Many will offer suggestions on how to better fortify your house. Is there a tree with branches hanging on your rooftop? Should trees and shrubs be cut back a bit? Some quality professional services are Terminix and Orkin.
In Conclusion
Whether using chemicals, hiring a professional service or selecting a more natural means of freeing your home and kitchen from ants, they sure can be difficult to get rid of. They can be annoying, no doubt. Sealing up any of the ants entry points to your home and kitchen is a very important step – as is removing their sources of food. Once removed and sealed up, next step is to eliminate the ants inside your home and kitchen. If you currently are dealing with ant problems, no need to panic. The approaches listed above are some of the most effective ways to remove ants. I hope you found this article helpful.
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