These Safe Kitchen Ingredients Will Permanently Rid Your Home Of Ants

Nothing ruins the comfort and secure feeling of a home, quite like the surprise appearance of an ant trail. You keep your home clean, tidy and maintained, but these pests still manage to find a way inside. Although ants are more of an eyesore than an immediate threat, their arrival does represent a few dangers if left to run amok.

For starters, their presence indicates that your home is attractive and accessible. They may wander in for food, water, or shelter. Their occupancy means that your home has poor insulation from the outside world.

Left unchecked, ants will cause havoc to your home's underlying support systems. Ants can short-circuit electrical equipment and destroy the integrity of wooden structures.

Lastly, but not the end of potential problems, ants can transport a host of unhealthy bodies into your home. Bacteria, allergens, and poisons may ride into your living spaces on the backs of these pesky fiends, putting your friends, family, and pets in harm's way.

Therefore, we've included a list of seven kitchen ingredients that can rid your home of ant infestations permanently.

Lemons

As simple as it sounds, squeeze a few drops of lemon or leave some peels near the ant entrance(s). Lemon juice seems to be a natural repellant of ants - they despise the smell. As for the peels, there's oil in the skin known as d-limonene. This oil is toxic to ants, killing them in direct contact. Further, this d-limonene will disrupt the signals sent via their invisible trails, causing chaos for wandering ants.

Oranges

As lemons and oranges are citrus fruits, their repellant and eliminating properties are similar. In addition to the suggestions mentioned above, we have one more. Take one cup of warm water and crush some orange peel in the cup. The trick is to disperse the d-limonene oil in the water. Then, like before, spread this "paste" around ant entrances. After 10 minutes, feel free to wipe the paste away.

Salt

Ordinary table salt can work wonders with ant control as it's cheap and widely available. Boil water, add a healthy salt and let the granules dissolve. Once cooled, feel free to respray ant entrances. Spraying ants directly will stop them dead in their tracks. This hack works as the salt mixture effectively dries out the ant's exoskeleton.

Black Pepper

Not as strong as table salt, ants still hate the presence of black pepper. As expected, they also hate variations of the spice like cayenne pepper. Similarly to salt, mix some crushed peppercorns with some water, pour into a spray bottle, and hit those entry points.

White Vinegar

White vinegar, in particular, seems to be an awful aroma for ant-kind. However, using the stuff is more of a daily operation. Mix equal parts water and white vinegar and spray at openings, doorways, windowsills, and the like. As a pleasant bonus, pour in a few drops of your favorite essential oil fragrance to add some pleasant smells to your home.

Cinnamon

We're hopeful that you have caught on that ants hate strong scents by now. Therefore, it should be no surprise that cinnamon is another ideal alternative. In combination with ground cloves, ground cinnamon will leave your home smelling like a basket of potpourri when left near and on ant trails.

Peppermint

Last but not least, peppermint. Feel free to mix a cup of water and around ten drops of peppermint essential oil to create yet another ant repellant. Like white vinegar, spray peppermint liquid twice daily until the problem resolves. If you prefer, dried peppermint leaves may be used instead of the liquid mixture.