Ahhhhhhhhhhh ants

[feeb]

I am sick of ants!!!!!!

What can I clean benches with and cupboard doors with to keep them away??

Is there anything they don't like that is safe to use on those areas.

[~TT40~]

put a lemon (cut up) on your sink, keeps them away =)

they also dont like cinnamon, mint, red chili powder, and black pepper apparently...

this will just keep them away...but not stop them getting in...like more short term..so trying to find out they get in is the big thing

[luna moth]

Yep, they hate anything with a strong smell, because it interrupts their pheromone trails. So if they're forming a line to something, just wipe over it, even with warm soapy water - it removes that scent, and they can't find their way back, at least not instantly. Follow it as fas along as you can. Also, if you find their "target," move that as well, like our sugar bowl, I only have to move it a few centimetres and it really stuffs them up.

They always come inside when it's about to rain - there's not heaps you can do to prevent it, you just have to defend.

[Fleur]

I think powders are supposed to work well, if you can find where they are getting in sprinkle some powder around the cracks etc. I have heard baby powder but I would use baking soda. Also vinegar - I use vinegar as a spray for my benchtops.

[Laranna]

I was going to say vinegar as well. Apparently they don't like the acidity and turn around and go back the other way!

[luna moth]

I think powders are supposed to work well, if you can find where they are getting in sprinkle some powder around the cracks etc. I have heard baby powder but I would use baking soda.

We tried both at an old workplace, as well as cornflour. What we found was that the ants just moved their trail off to the left of the powder.

[~me~]

Subscribing!! Some great ideas in here.

[Kazbah]

BH&G last night suggested vinegar spray - it's what I use to clean benchtops anyhows!!!

[Enchanted]

We had a problem with Ants last year, we couldn't get rid of them so we called in pest control. The guy had a "special" bait that he placed amongst the trail of Ants, they think it is food and take it back to the nest and it takes them all out. Might be worth a try if they keep coming back.

[Olive]

we recently had a huge ant problem, the only thing that worked was two mixtures, one was borax and very finely grated parm cheese the other was borax, icing sugar and cornflour, it took weeks, yes weeks to kill the entire nest but it did work, it was sooooo frustrating, we had them everywhere, throughout my pantry (nothing kept the away) bathroom, shower etc...
we were told not to spray the nest as doing that just kills those in it which therefore means the remaining ants start new nests

ETA these recipe were from shannon lush

[luna moth]

we also did capfuls of polenta once, with the theory behind it that they couldn't digest it. The ants did disappear, but a colleague (it was at work) was secretly spraying when the boss wasn't looking, so we don't know which one it actually was.

[Nettie]

I'm subbing too. We use Antrid which is borax based... they have stick on baits which I use when they're running up and down a wall

[Olive]

we had those baits too and they are useless

[Nettie]

They took a few days, but we never found ants in the same spot again after using them