Any ideas how too....

[pigletfan]

get rid os ants in a safe and natural way? I have ants in my kitchen and I am Not spraying bug spray. Please help, they are driving me nuts.

[jerseygirlie]

My first thought was water but then reread you asking no harmful way. I have no clue. Sorry!

[cmtd2jc]

If you know where they are coming from, mix a little Borax(get it in the laundry section at the grocery store) with a bit of sugar and water to make kind of a paste. Apply it to the area they are coming from and they are typically gone within a day or 2. I've used it several times and it keeps them away for quite a while. I HATE ants! Good luck!

[Larkynsmommy]

Are they the big ants or little ones?

[pigletfan]

Medium sized fast ones.

[helene1108]

Eeew, I hate ants too. I'm not sure of a way to remove the ants that wouldn't cause harm to them. I would say just try to find the source from where they're coming from and spray a little bug spray there (if anything) to prevent them from continuing to come in/

[pigletfan]

I don't care about harming the ants, I just don't want anything harmful around the babies bottles and regular kitchen stuff.

[Momma5]

Wash your counters, windowsills and doorway with white vinegar or orange oil. The ants won't cross over the vinegar. If they are the tiny sweet ants it won't work. You have to use the orange oil. Also try and follow the trail to where they are coming from and break the trail with some borax. I get them every year, the tiny sweet or sugar ants. I have an exterminator on contract because I live in the south and it's a must. But you could just put borax around the outside perimeter of your house to keep the pests from comming in.

[woods]

Diatomaceous Earth. spelling might be incorrect, but this powder substance is ground up silica. It is ORGANIC, Non-Toxic to humans, animals, plants, the earth. You can find it in garden shops or swim pool shops (used in pool filtration).

Put the DE on your door/window thresholds or anywhere else you suspect they may be coming into your home. The tiny silica particles actually cut their ectoskeletons as they pass through the DE. This causes them to dry out and die. You won't see immediate results like a chemical spray, but it does work. You can also mix DE into your house plant soil to kill any bugs living in there too.

Another solution simliar to DE but won't kill them, just confuse them, use talcum powder like the DE above. Supposedly the powder, when it affixes to their legs and bodies, confuses them. I've heard of people drawing lines with chalk at ant entry points to confuse them and it's worked.

[dionan81]

Ants don't like pepper!

[pigletfan]

Thank you everyone. I will definately have to try some of those. The vinegar one sounds great, cuz it's something I already have in the house. I forgot about chalk (my sister-in-law told me about that years ago) & I didn't know ants don't like pepper. My mom told me to try cinnamon, too. Thanks again.

[d&msmom]

We used baby powder to keep the ants out of the house. dh read about using baby powder b/c the ants won't cross the baby powder(why?) We put it in our doorway and it reallly kept the ants from coming inside. We also put it on the front of the side porch and it helped there too. a little messy but then you can sweep most of it up and it will keep the ants away with just the residue.

[popkitten]

Ants won't cross a line of salt. We had ants in our old house and I had no idea how to get rid of them. Someone suggested salt to me. I put a line of salt down and they magically went away! It worked great!

[maryjane]

Cornmeal. Put it in the corners. They eat it and it kills them. It takes a little while to work though. Also, bay leaves will keep ants at bay. Pardon the pun.