Effective DIY Methods to Eliminate Ants in Your Kitchen
31 / Jul / 2023
Dealing with ants in your kitchen can be a frustrating and unhygienic experience. These tiny pests can contaminate your food and create unwanted trails across your countertops. While professional pest control services like Malang Pest Control can provide expert assistance, there are several effective DIY methods you can try to get rid of ants in your kitchen. In this blog post, we’ll share some practical tips to help you tackle this common household issue.
Keep a Clean Kitchen:
Maintaining a clean and tidy kitchen is crucial in preventing ant infestations. Wipe down countertops, sweep the floor, and remove any food crumbs or spills promptly. Ants are attracted to even the tiniest food particles, so ensure that all food is stored in airtight containers.
Seal Entry Points:
Ants can find their way into your kitchen through small cracks and gaps. Inspect your kitchen for potential entry points, such as windows, doors, and pipes. Seal these openings using caulk or weatherstripping to deny ants easy access to your kitchen.
Create Natural Barriers:
Certain substances act as natural ant repellents. Sprinkle substances like cinnamon, vinegar, or citrus peels near entry points or areas where ants are frequently seen. Ants dislike the strong scents produced by these items and will be deterred from entering your kitchen.
Use Ant Baits:
To eliminate ants effectively, you can use homemade or store-bought ant baits. Place bait stations near ant trails and areas where ants are most active. The ants will carry the bait back to their colony, effectively eradicating the entire population. Be patient, as it may take some time for the bait to work.
Diatomaceous Earth:
Diatomaceous earth is a natural powder that can be sprinkled along ant trails and entry points. It consists of fossilized remains of aquatic organisms and acts as a desiccant, dehydrating and killing ants upon contact. Use food-grade diatomaceous earth to ensure safety if you have pets or children.
Maintain Outdoor Cleanliness:
Ants often enter homes in search of food and water. Keep your outdoor spaces tidy by trimming vegetation away from your home’s foundation and eliminating standing water sources. This reduces the likelihood of ants making their way into your kitchen.
While these DIY methods can be effective in controlling ant infestations in your kitchen, it’s essential to monitor the situation closely. If the problem persists or worsens, it’s wise to seek professional assistance from an experienced ant exterminator like Malang Pest Control in Orange County and Irvine. Their expertise and advanced pest control techniques can provide you with long-term relief from ant and sugar ant problems. Remember, a clean and well-maintained kitchen, combined with these DIY methods, can go a long way in preventing and eliminating ants from your living space.
How good is your sense of smell? Can you pick up the fragrance of a rose from a block away, are you able to tolerate being in the same room with a pet that was sprayed by a skunk, or are you somewhere in between? If your nose is more sensitive than most, you should have no problem smelling the pests we are talking about today.
Although not as intense as skunks, odorous house ants are smelly pests that cause more than a stink around the home. The question is, how dangerous are they, and what is the best way to prevent them from invading? We have your answers here.
What You Need To Know About Odorous House Ants
From a distance, odorous house ants look like any other common home-invading ant. They are black or brown, one-eighth to three-sixteenths of an inch long, and have the typical three body segments you are used to seeing. The only significant difference is that their abdomen is uneven and crooked. With close inspection, this one detail will give these smelly pests away.
When crushed, odorous house ants produce a scent often likened to rotten coconuts. As infestations grow within a home’s walls, this scent will become much more noticeable, even to those who don’t have a good sense of smell.
Odorous house ants live primarily on a diet of protein and sugar; this includes pretty much all of the food inside your cabinet, pantry, and fridge. When searching for food to feed their colony, these pests will look for anything easy to gather like crumbs under your couch, a pie left out on a countertop, or food from your pet’s bowl. Odorous house ants will even search for food inside trash cans.
Problems Odorous House Ants Cause
Thankfully, odorous house ants are not dangerous pests and aren’t known to carry diseases like some of their close relatives. What they are known for is contaminating food. When these pests infest homes, they don’t discriminate on where they go or what food they crawl through. Needless to say, if you enjoy your food without ants on it, these pests are the last creatures you want inside your house.
Why Odorous House Ants Invade Homes
Odorous house ants don’t just invade homes to find food. They will often come inside to avoid inclement weather or to find a reliable source of moisture. If your home has leaky pipes, broken gutters, sources of standing water, left out food, or crumbs around, these pests will be much more likely to invade.
Prevention Tips For Odorous House Ants
Odorous house ants require two things to cause problems around your Irvine home; a way in and a good reason to stick around once inside. The more you limit their access to your home, water, and food, the less like you will be to have a problem with these pests. We recommend starting with a thorough cleaning of your house. Once your home is clean, practice storing leftover food inside airtight containers. You don’t want ants finding anything to eat if they come indoors.
To stop odorous house ants from coming inside, make sure to seal up your home’s exterior completely. Use a caulking gun to fill in gaps and cracks in its foundation, repair or replace window and door screens that are damaged, and make sure all of your door sweeps and weatherstripping is in good condition.
The most important step in odorous house ant prevention is quality ant control. If you are looking for a reliable pest control provider in your area, look no further than Malang Pest Control. Our expert team has what it takes to guard your home against all sorts of common invasive pests, including odorous house ants.
Call us today or reach out to us through our website to find a plan that best suits you and your home’s individual needs. Learn more about our Irvine, CA pest control services.
What is your worst fear when walking outside? Do you fear crossing paths with a bear, or perhaps stepping on a hive of wasps? If you are here today, you might have a fear of fire ants or at least the pain they cause. To help keep these painful pests off your Irvine property, here are a few things you ought to know.
How To Identify Fire Ants
It is not hard to identify fire ants, especially if they are biting and or stinging you. You heard us right; these pests don’t just bite, they sting as well. If you ever find yourself walking outdoors in bare feet and wander too close to a nest of fire ants, you may find out first hand how painful their attacks are.
Of course, identifying these pests by the pain they cause alone is not preferable. To tell if your yard has fire ants without stomping on their nest in your bare feet, look at their color and size. Fire ants are one-eighth to three-eighths of an inch long and dark reddish-brown. When building their nest, fire ants gravitate towards hot, sunny, and dry areas, sometimes devoid of grass or vegetation.
Problems Fire Ants Cause
The good news is that fire ants do not spontaneously combust or produce fire in any way. The bad news is that their stings will make your skin feel like it is right up next to a fire. Although a single sting is not terribly painful, several in one location are fairly unpleasant. Upon being stung, the first thing you will notice is a pinprick of pain, followed by an intense pinching or burning sensation. Itching typically follows and can last for a few days. As long as you avoid scratching the wound, no more serious problems will occur. If you are allergic to insect venom, your reaction to a fire ant sting could be more severe. Consult your doctor to understand your risk.
Out in nature, when fire ants nest around water sources, they can prevent wildlife from being able to hydrate themselves, sometimes leading to dehydration and even death. In addition, fire ants can fatally damage plants by tunneling through their roots and stems. If you have a garden or value the quality of your grass, these pests are the last creatures you want living on your property.
How To Prevent Fire Ants
Because fire ants primarily live outdoors and rarely invade homes, prevention is often difficult. That said, here are a few tips our experts recommend you try:
- Trim back bushes and tree branches from the exterior of your home.
- Rake mulch, pine straw, and other landscape bedding at least six inches from your home’s exterior.
- Turn the mulch or bedding material around your property every couple of weeks.
- Mow your lawn regularly at a low setting.
- Keep your yard free of grass clippings, leaf piles, and other organic debris.
- Store woodpiles at least 30 feet from your home’s exterior.
- Pick up ripe fruit as it falls from trees into your yard.
- Make sure your trash cans have tight-fitting lids and clean them out regularly.
For the best results, pair the steps above with a professional treatment plan courtesy of Malang Pest Control. Our team provides quality, friendly service, and reliability. If you are looking for a long-term solution to fire ants causing trouble around your yard, we are your best choice.
Reach out to us today to discuss your ant treatment options or to schedule your Irvine property for a thorough inspection. We promise you will not be disappointed. Find out more about our Irvine, CA pest management offerings.