Are ant hills suddenly overtaking your lawn and invading your garden? You don’t have to resort to chemicals or ant traps. Step away from that bottle of Raid and try these homemade solutions instead.
The Best Ways to Get Rid of Ants in Your House or Lawn
1. Borax & Icing Sugar
The solution that’s always worked for me is a mixture of one part Borax to one part icing sugar. You can also use regular sugar or really anything sweet. Mix it together, set it on an old jar lid, and place it near the ants. The ants will be gone within a few days to a week. I’ve found in my yard that doing this keeps ants away for at least two years.
TIP: Don’t skip the jar lid step when putting this remedy on your lawn, as it will kill your grass. I’ve learned this the hard way.
For those of you with kids or pets that get into everything, using Borax will not work for you. In that case, move on to option B…
Have other pests you need help with? Here’s how to deter the most common pests from your garden.
2. The Pet-and-Kid-Friendly Way
If you need to keep your pets and kids safe, sprinkle a generous dose of cornmeal on and around the affected area. The ants will eat the cornmeal, and it will expand too much in their stomachs and kill them.
Thankfully, the same will not happen if your kids or pets get into your cornmeal ant trap. The worst that can happen is that they might eat an ant or some dirt along with the cornmeal.
You can also use boiling water if the ant infestation is in the cracks between cement, like on a sidewalk.
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3. The Ant Solution That Doubles as a Cleaner
This ant deterrent comes from the popular influencer Brunch with Babs. It’s simple to make and works to both deter ants and as an all-purpose cleaner in your home. To make the concentrate simply fill a jar with orange peels and cover the peels with white vinegar. After two weeks, strain the liquid and mix equal parts orange vinegar with equal parts water in a spray bottle. Spray anywhere where ants seem to like to enter your house and use it as a cleaner anywhere else in your home!
Check out Brunch with Babs Instagram reel here for her full explanation.
4. Kearnsey Consulting’s Hose & Probe Trick
All you need for this trick is a hose, a probe, and a water source to drown the ants out. Check out how in the TikTok video below!
Related: You’re Planting It Wrong (How to Plant a Hardy Fruit Orchard So Your Trees Don’t Die)
Do I need to get rid of the ants on my peony bushes?
You might have noticed ants crawling all over your peony bushes this time of year. Thankfully, you don’t need to set a trap for these particular ants, as the ants won’t harm the peonies. It’s commonly believed that the ants help open the peony buds, but I’ve seen a lot of conflicting information on this, so I can’t say if they actually do or don’t.
However, if the only ants in your yard are the ones on the peonies, and they’re not causing a problem anywhere else, you don’t need to set a trap for those particular ants. Just maybe don’t plant peony bushes directly against your house. In the past, we had a small ant problem in our house that was always during peony season, and once I removed a peony that was too close, we never had an issue again.
How close is too close? Aim for 6 feet/2 meters away (or further) from the house.
Planting Peonies? Here’s everything you need to know
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Renee