Wondering How To Remove Ants From Kitchen Cabinets, Counters And Floors? Read This!

Ants! These pesky little creatures are often seen in and around kitchens! Early in the morning as you step inside the kitchen to fix up a quick breakfast before scurrying off to your workplace, if a trail of ants greets you; the very sight itself can drive you nuts! Similarly, ants all over your food particles, inside the sugar jar, over the candy bars; all these can be irritating! These ants can also bite little kids and pets. These ants can get inside the kitchen through the small openings on the wall, through the open windows, doors and other entrance points. Once they get inside, then keep multiplying and start infesting your home right from your wardrobes to the bed you sleep on. Carpenter ants can damage the woodworks in your kitchen. Some ants can carry harmful microorganisms on their bodies and spread diseases too.

Why Kitchen?
You must have noticed that ants are often seen in kitchens more than any other rooms in the house. This is because ants keep looking for food sources and often find it in the kitchens. Hence, they are often seen in kitchens near food scraps, spillages, open garbage bins and uncovered foodstuffs. After getting the food they need, they will disperse off and take food to their nests.

Removal Methods
Here are some easy and quick ways to remove ants from your kitchens:

• Use Baking Soda
  Get some baking soda and sprinkle it near the areas where ants are often found in the kitchen. Sprinkle it near the holes, near sinks and other corner spots where ants are often seen.
• Try Using Basil Leaves
  Basil leaves are very useful in repelling away ants from the kitchen. You can use them as it is or break them up into pieces. Place these leaves near the openings or cracks in your kitchen.
• Baby Wipes Can Help!
  The unscented wipes of your baby can help in removing the trails of ants. It won’t kill the ants immediately. But, the ants will keep moving all over the wipes and slowly die off.
• Use Baby Powder Or Chalk
  Get a piece of chalk and draw lines with it near ant infested spots of your kitchen. Alternatively, you can also sprinkle baby powder near these areas. Both chalk and baby powder contain talcum powder, and this helps in repelling ants away naturally. If you are wondering how to remove small black ants from the kitchen, then try this method!
• Use Chlorine
  The ants get repelled by chlorine. Though it is available in soap forms, it is better to spray it over the kitchen countertops, floors, sinks and other ant infested areas. It not only repels ants but also helps in killing germs.

How To Remove Ants From Kitchen Slabs? All Your Woes Could End!

Trails of ants over kitchen slabs can be irritating. But, there are many natural and easy ways to get rid of ants in your cooking space. Read on!

Use Lemon Juice
The juice of lemons also helps in destroying the ant trails and the scents the ants follow to find their trail and food. Keep spraying lemon juice near all ant infested spots, entrances and holes.

Puree Of Oranges
Take some oranges and blend the peels with warm water in a mixer. This orange puree can be poured on top of ant mounds. This will repel away the ants from your area.

Look Around For Ant Feeds
If you are wondering how to remove sugar ants from the kitchen, then try looking around for possible food particles that are lying around on your kitchen floors, cabinets or slabs. Ants get easily lured by such food sources. Hence, try to remove such crumbs and titbits that can lure ants into your kitchen.

Use Salt
Find the small openings and gaps through which ants enter inside your kitchen. Sprinkle salt in all these gaps. The ants will get repelled away.

Use Soap Water
Mix water with soap or detergent and use it to wipe away ant trails from kitchen tops, sinks, and floors. The film of soapy water remaining on the surface even after it gets dried up will help in getting rid of the ants.

Vacuum Regularly
Make it a practice to vacuum your kitchen regularly to remove any ants that have just hatched from their eggs and hiding in the kitchen corners.

Use Vinegar
Mix white vinegar and water in the ratio 50:50 and clean your kitchen countertops, sinks and other ant infested areas with this liquid mix. Ants detest the aroma of vinegar and get repelled away. They also get confused and lose their trail scents due to the odor of vinegar.

Use Red Chilli
An easy way to prevent ants from entering inside sweets, edible items and grains are to place red chilies inside the containers in which they are stored.

Go Herbal!
How to remove red ants from the kitchen? You can remove red ants and all other types of ants by opting for herbal methods!

• Get herbs like basil, cayenne pepper, black pepper, garlic, cinnamon, bay leaves, cloves, and mint. Sprinkle or place these near to the cracks and openings through which ants enter inside your home.
• Ants can be naturally repelled by citrus peels, used grounds of coffee and cucumber.

Use Essential Oils
Essential oils like tea tree oil, peppermint oil, and eucalyptus oil do wonders in repelling away ants. You can dilute any of these oils with water and wipe surfaces, kitchen slabs, floors and cabinets with the diluted oil mix using a damp piece of cloth. Ensure that you wipe the surfaces after cleaning it. Ants detest the smell of essential oils and hence, will be repelled away.

Preventive Measures To Be Taken!
Here are some preventive measures that can be taken to repel away the ants:

• Seal up all the tiny openings and cracks on your walls, near window openings and doors. You can get caulk from the nearest hardware shop and use it to seal the openings.
• Ensure that you clean and wash the containers used to keep sugary substances like honey, syrups, cereal and sugar. Make sure that all the lids of the containers are tightly shut, and no residues stick to the outer parts of the container.
• Clean the countertops, floors and kitchen cabinets without fail so that not even tiny bits of food particles or spillages remain on them. A clean surface will repel away ants. You can also use white vinegar to wipe kitchen countertops. It erases the trail scents of ants so that other ants won’t follow the previous peers into your kitchen.
• Keep food substances like vegetables and fruits inside the fridge so that it won’t lure the ants to your kitchen.

Opt For Food Friendly Methods!
Whatever method you choose for repelling away from the ants, make sure that the methods are food-friendly and won’t cause any accidental poisoning of small kids or pets. It is better to avoid toxic pesticides or insecticides and opt for natural methods instead!