How To Get Rid Of Ants Step-By-Step

November 4th, 2009 Posted in Ants & Roaches

Getting rid of ants can be as easy as using things you have lying around the house. Ants are typically a problem that most households deal with at least once. The ant population today exceeds 1 quadrillion, thus illustrating the high probability of you encountering them in your lifetime.

Using harmful insecticides can temporary help the problem, but in the meantime leaving poisonous residue in your home, on or near your things, and possible within reach of your family and pets. Thus using harmful insecticides may not be the best option for clearing your home or property of any ant infestation.



Here are some non-harmful home remedies on how to get rid of ants:


Homemade Ant Bait

  • Heat 3 cups of water, add 1 cup of sugar, add 4 teaspoons of dish washer detergent

  • Stir all the ingredients together

  • Place a few cotton balls on a jar lid

  • Soak the cotton balls in the concoction that are on the lid

  • Place the lid where you last saw the ants

  • Continue to replace the cotton balls to ensure the most amount of ants will be affected

  • The ants will be attracted because of the sugar and poisoned because of the dish washer detergent

  • Keep away from children and pets, not as harmful as pesticides, but still not good to eat


Molasses Paste

  • Grab 1/3 cup of molasses, add 6 tablespoons of active dry yeast, add 6 tablespoons of sugar

  • Stir all the ingredients together

  • Fill soda bottle caps with the mixture

  • Place the caps near where the ants frequent

  • The ants will be attracted by the sugar, but then get stuck in the mixture

  • Mixture is completely harmless to humans and pets, but helps get rid of ants


Ant Powder

  • Locate where the ants are entering

  • Sprinkle either cream of tartar, powdered chalk, talcum powder, cinnamon, or chili powder

  • Ants won’t enter area with any of the substances covering them

  • Not harmful to humans or pets, just don’t eat it


Cucumber Peel

  • Ants tend to dislike cucumber due to a natural aversion and stay away from it

  • Peel the cucumber

  • Place the peelings around the inside and outside of your home

  • Specifically put the peelings where you’ve seen ants in the past

  • Not harmful in anyway to humans, pets, or ants






Boiling Water

  • Fill a pot with boiling water

  • Locate an ant hill or where you believe the ant colony to be

  • Pour the pot of water on the ant hill/colony

  • Organic means of ending ant problem, harmful only to ants being burned alive, ouch


Duct Tape

  • Get some tape

  • Wrap the tape around the tree with sticky side pointing outward

  • Any ants crossing the tape will get stuck

  • It’s helpful in saving your plants and trees

  • Harmless to plants, animals, or people


Garlic, Onion, and Pepper Mix

  • Add 1 quart water, add 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper, add 1 onion, add 1 garlic clove

  • Now mix everything together in liquid dish soap

  • Pour into a spray bottle

  • Spray ants and their entry points into your home or property

  • Not harmful to people or animals






Salt Barrier

  • Make line of salt to prevent ants from crossing it

  • Poor salt on ant hills or entry ways into your property

  • One of the most harmless ways to help deal with ants


EcoSMART Organic Insecticide

  • Spray our Ant & Roach Killer all around entry points to your property or the source of the ants like the ant hill or colony

  • Chemical-free insecticide, safe to spray around fruits and vegetables in your garden

  • Completely safe for children and pets, thus the least harmful insecticide available today








  1. 7 Comments | The First 1,000 to Comment (Starting 12/21/2009) Will Become EcoSMART Product Testers!

  2. By Crystal Allen on Nov 4, 2009

    i love these ideas. i plan on putting cucumber in my outside trash cans now. i had never thought of boiling water either. clallen at ntin dot net

  3. By Brian on Nov 7, 2009

    I love these tips for ants but what I really need are eco-friendly tips like this for roaches. We cannot determine how or where they are getting in. We see one every now and again in all the rooms even those with NO food present. The problem in the kitchen has become a daily thing. We have everything in storage containers or bags but to no avail. Is there a plant that repels them, maybe? We have cats and kids so solutions need to be safe. Any tips would be appriciated!

  4. By Kristy on Nov 11, 2009

    The ants are in my house in almost every room. I plan to use several of these techniques to remove them from my home.

  5. By Callie on Nov 12, 2009

    I currently have satelite mounds around my home. Today I was pulling my dryer out and found that the carpentar ants had eaten some of the wall and will need to be replaced. we have sprayed intermittenly and in small area’s over the summer but the last month it has rained so heavily that it just doesn’t do any good. Soon after the move of our dryer we began to consider what the spraying of the ants could do to our 3 inside cats.

    So I have started looking for alternatives to killing the ants. I liked the idea about the marigolds I will be doing that one for sure but right now I have to get them out of my house.

    As I write there is a mound of dead ants by the wall and they are continuing to die, but I know they will be back. As I said it looks like we will have to replace the whole back wall behind the dryer. URGH.

    Thanks for the ideas. I will definately be implementing them.

  6. By DebbieKL on Jan 25, 2010

    Great ideas! We have ant problems in our kitchen – who knew these little guys would be so hard to kill! I also found a cup with orange juice works – must be the acids from the juice kill them.

  7. By Candice on Feb 12, 2010

    Thank you for all of the great tips. Which baits and kill methods are most effective and safest for pets?

  8. By EcoSMART Brian on Feb 15, 2010

    Hello Candice,

    The bait method that works best is the cucumber home remedy because it is a compeltely natural way to repel the ant.

    Try using our Ant & Roach Killer for safe and effective control around pets.

    http://www.ecosmart.com/shop/individual-products/ant-and-roach-killer.html

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