Natural Ways to Kill Ants with Your Spice Rack

July 15th, 2009 Posted in Ants & Roaches




For the ant-infested sufferers out there who’d prefer not to resort to crazy or chemical methods, there are other methods available.

These household methods include sugar, orange peels and even mint.

Sugar

  1. Attract ants by putting sugar out.
  2. Put ant traps nearby to kill them.

Orange Peels

  1. Leave orange peels out.
  2. This turns the ants away, because they don’t like the smell of orange peels.

Mint

Any kind of mint also deters ants. They won’t step foot in your door if they smell this coming out of your home.

Place at the ants’ entry points and paths that have been seen within the household; basically, wherever they have been seen in the house is where you would want to spread these items.

Chalk Circle

My vote for most entertaining method is “the chalk circle.”

  1. Draw on a window or other spot in the house, even outside, with chalk.
  2. Ants will follow the path and won’t be able to escape this vicious circle.


Natural Ways to Kill Ants

There are also some safe, organic pesticides, such as EcoSMART Ant and Roach Killer.

EcoSMART products are made with natural ingredients, like wintergreen, peppermint, cinnamon, and rosemary oils. These everyday items keep your household safe and get rid of the ants just as effectively. This also keeps your family safe from pesticides and pesticide residue.

EcoSMART works as well as conventional insecticides but is safe, organic, and green.


Chelsea Roeser



  1. 24 Comments | The First 1,000 to Comment (Starting 12/21/2009) Will Become EcoSMART Product Testers!

  2. By judy blishen on Jul 16, 2009

    another natural way of getting rid of ant hills is mixture of 1 part icing sugar and 2 parts washing soda ant hills are gone overnight

  3. By Cindy Smith on Jul 16, 2009

    I love the idea of using natural ingredients instead of dangerous chemicals. We are already using green household cleaners and dishwashing detergents.

  4. By Brandy Butler on Jul 17, 2009

    These sounds like great ideas, I had my cat’s food sitting close to the window, the black ants invaded her food.

  5. By julia boettger on Jul 20, 2009

    we’re having a total infestation of black ants, using the ecosmart products and they just keep finding new places to come in at, they’re even crawling up into our freezer. help!

  6. By Kim on Jul 20, 2009

    How do i get rid of the little tiny black ants? My home goes in cycles, spring I get the large black ants then in the summer I get the tiny little black ants.They drive me crazy and the little ant traps dont work. Help

  7. By Karen on Jul 22, 2009

    We have peppermint growing very close to where ants normally come into the house this year, and we haven’t seen an ant yet. I had no idea why until I found this article. Thanks for the info.

  8. By Ellen Slater on Jul 22, 2009

    Thanks so much for all the tips..i am DESPERATE to get rid of the ants that have infested my kitchen. I can’t and won’t use anything toxic cause i have 4 dogs and six cats and won’t risk their health. The ant’s are almost worse than the spiders in the bathtub..at least those can be washed down the drain.

  9. By Ali Alami on Jul 26, 2009

    I’ve found an ants nest under the siding of our house near the 2nd floor, there’s a line of them going up the house. The portion of the house is next to our organic garden so we’re looking for a safe way to get rid of them. We heard that cornmeal is a good natural way to get rid of ants. Ants eat the cornmeal and it swells inside thier digestive tract.

  10. By Damon on Jul 30, 2009

    I also have dealt with large ants in the late spring at the back of the house and tiny ants in the front of the house in the summer. I don’t want to use pesticides inside with my to small children. There’s got to be a better way to stop them.

  11. By Rea D. on Jul 30, 2009

    I have super small white ants in the bathroom
    They love the tub. What kind are they and how do i get rid of them without damaging the tiles.

  12. By Vikki on Aug 3, 2009

    I also read, and intend to try, to get rid of ants by placing a wide mouth jar, filled half way w/beer works. Supposedly, the ants are lured into the jar,b/c they love beer (who doesn’t? :-) ) , they go in it, can’t get out and DROWN!!! YAY!!!! :-) Can’t wait to try it myself!!

  13. By Vikki on Aug 3, 2009

    oops!! My BAD!! Sorry, forgot to say that ur supposed to put that wide mouth jar into the dirt of your garden!! Bury it up to the mouth of the jar so they have Noooo problem getting in there! :-)

  14. By jamie on Aug 3, 2009

    We have had major ant problems here have tried alot of things but don’t like to use harsh chemicales because my wife runs a childcare thing at the house and there is lots of kids. But reading this post iam going to try the orange trick tks jamie.One spot along the wall i spreed salt and it seems to slow them down and another trick i tried is put baking soda on the spots on the lawn or where ever and let it set for awhile until they take it back or down the whole and add some vinagar and watch it foam lol.

  15. By joseph stelluti on Aug 11, 2009

    My wife found your website trying to find ways to keep ants out of our kitchen.

  16. By joseph on Aug 12, 2009

    In the summer, we have an unusual number of spiders that grow within 24-hours. Can you help in how we can deter them?

  17. By Monica on Aug 28, 2009

    So, I feed my cats on top of my dryer (keeps the baby and the puppy out) now I’ve discovered a trail from my back door, up my dryer and into the catfood. we’ve cleaned and moved the food even sprayed pesticide outside the door, but the pesky critters keep coming in. I’ve been trying to find some natural ways to kill them without harming my pets and children. I’ll try some of these, but so far nothing seems to work. I’m worried about the sugar and oatmeal ones. I’m afraid that’ll attract others. I heard you could use pam spray. Anyone know if that works? Love the ideas. Any ideas on how to keep earwigs out of strawberries? I also have an organic garden that does great, except the berries.

  18. By Deborah Lott on Sep 10, 2009

    I feed my dog on the patio and there are always ants getting into her dish. I used chalk to draw a line around her dish and the ants won’t cross the chalk line. I don’t know why it works, but it does. I also used cornmeal on ant beds. The ants carry the cornmeal inside their home and when they eat it, they explode. I haven’t seen them explode and I don’t really think I want to, but I do know that before long, the ants are gone.

  19. By Annie N on Sep 12, 2009

    I have had ants in my house since my first night of renting 5 yrs ago. I ahve tried just about everything. every inch of dirt in the small yard has ants and they swarm w/ eggs back to the house when I water. So I have stopped watering.
    I read about grits etc and heard it does not make them explode they just move their nests. I want to get rid of the nests so I can garden. Its been almost every day now for 2 months I find scouts coming from the electric sockets, behind the mirror in the bathroom, brom the air exhaust in the ceiling etc. The owner should caulk that would help but he wontt. So what will kill the queens? I have 2 cats, 2 box turtles, a hamster and 4 pet rats. I need to be really careful. Also is there something for the rug to kill bird mites. No fleas as none of my animals go out and they are on Revolution but I have an attic so I believe there are mites. They all start to itch and then I get very tiny bites not flea bites. no flea dirt so the vet said its mites.
    Help as I am going insane.
    presently spraying with mint oil inside but I can not do anything in the garden. I have had an acre before w/o ants like this its awful.
    thanks ( can we not kill the nest?)

  20. By C on Oct 3, 2009

    I have small black ants invading my kitchen and house. Will try the peppermint and orange peel. Thanks.

  21. By Sikoants on Oct 13, 2009

    My room is being invaded by lil black ants that eat EVERYTHING…from sweet food to stuff that’s spicy…it’s even been found in the soapdish! we changed the settings in the room once and i guess that threw them off for a while..but they’re back…it invaded the pizza today, and i’ve enough. any idea what species this is that eats even soap?

  22. By Jon EcoSMART on Oct 13, 2009

    Ants are attracted to food by smell. If your soap has a strong scent, that could be what’s attracting them to it.

    Your problem is probably black ants, which are common just about anywhere.

  23. By Janis Brownlee on Oct 24, 2009

    I have a huge big black ant hill on my sidewalk and they trail into my back yard where they have a second colony set up there. So basically I am surrounded by ants and to tell you the truth I am alittle creeped out by the thought of it!! I had never heard of the cornmeal idea so I am going to try that. Thanks!

  24. By Susan Haines on Oct 26, 2009

    I have more of a comment than a question – does anyone know if any of these remedies works on roaches as well? If i could repel them that would be ideal, but killing is fine too!

  25. By Get Rid Of Ants on Nov 27, 2009

    Ants create tremendous stress for everyone. Getting rid of ants is not difficult. There are many simple methods that are available to you. Most of these use items you have around the house. Check out http://gettingridofantsblog.blogspot.com for more free information.

24 Comments | The First 1,000 to Comment (Starting 12/21/2009) Will Become EcoSMART Product Testers! (details)