Just think you wake up to a nice morning, the sun is shining through the kitchen window, you get up and a view of many small ants rushing on your kitchen top in search of food. Despite them being hardworking insects, their nuisance value can ascendancy within the shortest period and cause discomfort in your cooking area. The good news? So, you do not have to be in a state of confusion on how to keep your kitchen free from ants while maintaining a healthy and green kitchen at the same time.
10 Ways To Prevent Ants From Taking Over Your Kitchen
In this guide, you’ll find 10 ways to prevent ants from taking over your kitchen. Don’t let ants blacken your home read through our list of control measures for effective ways to keep those ants away.
Understand What Attracts Ants to Your Kitchen
The first task to eradicate ants in your kitchen is to know what they are looking for and what makes them able to invade your kitchen in the first place. Ants are very clever insects, they have an extraordinary sense of smell and can find the smallest piece of food. Drooling happens because leftover crumbs on the furniture, sticky spills on the carpet or floor, and open containers of food are bidding Other reasons which may lead to ants invasion are the availability of water inside the house such as sink drips or washed sponges that ants require to complement their food search.
For this reason, you can start trying to alter some factors such that the ants are not likely to be attracted to your kitchen.
Keep Your Kitchen Spotlessly Clean
This means to prevent ants, cleaning is the most effective way you can convince them to stay as far away as possible. While it does not take a lot of food dropped on the floor to alert ants, a simple spill is enough to direct the ants to your countertops. Clean the surfaces with a natural cleaner to cover food residues and odours that may attract the ants such as a mixture of white vinegar and water. This list shouldn’t include only apparent places like behind the refrigerator or under the beds, but also such places as under the stoves or in the cabinets where crumbs may gather. Another good practice that will go a long way is ensuring that trash cans are always well-covered and regularly disposed of.
A clean kitchen not only makes your home aesthetic and appealing but also helps send signals to ants that they won’t have any easy food here.
Store Food in Airtight Containers
As is well known, ants are capable of sneaking into food packaging particularly if this packaging is not well closed. Usually, their targets include dry goods such as sugar, flour and cereal among others. Just moving such items to airtight containers is a revelation. For storage choose glass jars or plastic containers with tight-fitting lids to ensure that you do not admit these creepy crawlies. This alone will prevent the ants from gauging your flour and other pantry items while at the same time preserving the foods’ freshness for a longer period.
Find and Seal Entry Points
Ants crawl into the kitchen through narrow spaces that are almost invisible to the naked eye, which means sealing these spaces is a way of preventing ants from gaining access to your house. Even if a space seems too narrow to allow an animal to pass through, look at the windowsills, door frames, and areas surrounding pipes. A small sealant or weather stripping can do a lot to effectively keep the ants out of your house. It’s as if someone, consciously, or unconsciously, has placed the equivalent of a sign saying ‘Welcome’, at the doorway leading to the room as ‘Closed to ants!’
If you are not sure where they are getting in from, just follow the tracks the tracks normally guide you to the areas that have many intruders.
Use Natural Ant Deterrents
Ant control is something that nature has endowed humans with many natural ways of dealing with ants without having to use chemicals. It is recommended that when cooking, certain smells like that of peppermint, citrus and cinnamon are particularly repellent to ants. You might consider putting a cotton swab saturated with peppermint oil close to those areas which the ants use as entrances or places where they tend to be many. Or, you can spread cinnamon powder around the windowsills or near any cracks available. The result? A sweet-smelling kitchen and confused ants.
Another strong and natural repellent is vinegar. A remedy used to deter ants from coming into the house is spraying a solution of vinegar and water in the proportion 1: 1 along the trails to prevent the ants from nullifying the scents that lead them to their colonies.
Don’t Leave Water Sources Accessible
Food is not the only thing necessary for ants, so is water. If left unchecked the simplest issues with moisture can attract ants. It is also important to try and dry your kitchen sink after use and to wring out all damp dishcloths or sponges. If there are any leaks in your sink, make repairs to it; if your kitchen is humid, use a dehumidifier. Eventually, without the necessary factor of water to meet their needs ants will go in search of an easier task.
Trim Overhanging Trees and Shrubs
Indoor ants use nearby vegetation to look for ways to get into the compound. If you have plants or branches of a tree touching your home, you will find it the best way for ants to make a direct entry to your home. It said that it is necessary to trim back bushes and trees around your kitchen windows and doors frequently as a preventive measure. Since you are trying to move away from the home environment feel free to design your house in such a way that it becomes difficult for ants to access your home in the first place.
Use Diatomaceous Earth as a Safe Option
If you want an organic method to get rid of ants but one that also works, using diatomaceous earth is perfect. It is a small fine powdery substance which occupies a major portion of the earth and originates from the dead remains of small organisms that lived in the sea. You can easily use the food-grade DE by pouring it lightly around the baseboard, the windowsill, and those pathways used by ants. DE affects ants by coming into contact with it, which leads to the dehydration of its exoskeleton and thus death.
Fix Any Leaks or Drips
Some of the more complex problems stem from what one might imagine to be the most trivial of concerns. Even a tiny trickle of water from under the sink or an errant appliance can help feed a colony of ants. Water is also a problem that should be examined thoroughly; you should periodically inspect your plumbing and appliances to identify other sources of water. Sealing these cracks not only repels ants but also puts your house in the optimal condition possible.
Keep Up with Regular Inspections
However, all these preventive measures can be put in place, and we should always be on the lookout. Ants are very relentless insects, and in case of get the chance they will incessantly look for a means to get in. Try to schedule a ‘kitchen chase’ every few weeks to find out if there’s something new that ants have deduced from your kitchen, which requires sealing the gaps or correcting the mistakes of storing food improperly. You must take proper care of your house and your knowledge just like you will take care of your automobile.
Conclusion
Your kitchen should be a homestead of great achievements in culinary art and not a ground for ants to play around. Using these tips and tricks you can prevent ants from invading your kitchen space thus restoring order in the process. Whether the person seals cracks and gaps, employs the use of natural repellants or stores their foods in air-tight containers, there are a lot of differences that can be managed by such techniques.
If ants have still found their way into your compound, then it is high time to seek the services of a professional pest control officer. But for average homeowners, these steps will give you a kitchen that ants don’t want to cross leaving you to enjoy your kitchen freely.
