What can you do against ants?

The most important points in brief

• Ants are important animals that are useful outdoors in the garden and in nature and fight pests.
• They also take care of the removal of dead animals of all kinds.
• But there are limits - you don't want the six-legged insects in the house as uninvited permanent guests.
• But how do you prevent animals from entering the house and apartment? And what can you do if ants have gained entry anyway?

Insects have only a few good reasons to invade our four walls: food and warmth and that's about it. If you are aware of this, then you can at least arm yourself well against the intruders. Sure, flyable insects somehow manage to get into flats and apartments, but if you don't leave food standing around, most insects don't really care about us and our habitation anymore.

Do not attract ants with food

Before we go further down in the text to talk about the measures that you can take if an ant infestation has occurred, we would first like to convey that it is usually sufficient to adhere to a few rules that prevent penetration prevent these animals as much as possible. And it's all about keeping food and organic waste safe from the crawly animals.

Means: Do not just leave fruit bowls with fruit standing around and also always empty and clean the food bowls of four-legged friends in the household. Wash used dishes as well as cutlery, pans and pots by hand or put them in the dishwasher. In addition, you must not leave any open food standing around in the pantry, everything should at least be hermetically sealed. It is essential that you only collect organic waste and household waste in lockable bins, which - especially in the warm seasons - are best disposed of every day.

What to do if the ants find their way into houses?

Basically, your mind tells you how to keep insects away from your apartment and house, but ants almost always find a way in if they just want to. If this is the case, then the top rule is: react quickly! This works best with commercially available ant traps and repellants, but what if you don't have these items to hand?

An immediate and clean solution is the vacuum cleaner. A small handheld vacuum cleaner is also sufficient. However, since ants are very resilient, it is advisable to then throw the bag in the garbage and dispose of the garbage immediately. It is not uncommon for the insects to crawl out of the bag again.

Home remedies against the ant infestation

There is baking powder in almost every household, and it has always been an effective remedy for ants. You can mix it with sugar to better attract the ants. The insects eat the mixture and die. However, many types of baking agents are composed differently today than they used to be, which reduces the lethal effect on ants.

Other home remedies are more defensive than enticing. Foods like garlic, lemon, vinegar or essential oils have such a strong odor that they drive ants away. Many spices have the same effect, such as cloves, cinnamon powder, chervil, marjoram, lavender, thyme and juniper. For example, you can use standard chalk to draw a line on the floor on the terrace; Ants can sometimes be stopped by this barrier and thus do not even get into the house.