With warmer weather on the horizon, more and more people are facing problems with ant invasions in their homes and gardens.
But according to Alice Beer, speaking on This Morning today, there are several ways to deter the creatures. She listed eight, including tips for deterring them in the first place and products you can buy to get rid of them.
As a first tip, Alice noted that it’s important to make sure you keep the house clean, saying, “It’s the warmer weather, they’re going out.” They are having the time of their lives… but what they want is food… And if you leave food for them very generously, then they will come and take it.
‘Any food. They want sugar, they want fat, they want protein. So, to be disgusting, if you leave dirty clothes lying around, they come after it.
“If you leave stains on your cupboards, if you leave a little spill or cereal on the floor, they’re going to look for it.”
Alice Beer (pictured on This Morning today) shared a series of solutions to deter ants from your home.
Leaving food out for your pets can also encourage ants, he said, adding that one ant could soon become an infestation of 700.
However, he added, there are “tons” of products that will eliminate or deter ants.
He pointed out that ants are “brilliant” for the environment, they turn up the soil and are really good for ecosystems, so we don’t really want to get rid of them, we just want them to go somewhere else.
For more advice, she started looking at some of the products available and Alice said: “The thing to keep in mind if you’re going to use something chemical-based is to be careful around pets, obviously.”
The first product he listed was Raid Ant Bait.
According to Alice: ‘This has been my option, it has the chemical inside a small container and two holes are made in it. The little workers come in from one side, pick it up, and then come out the other.
‘They put him on their trail… and what they’re doing is leaving pheromones all along the way that say “Hey guys, follow me back to the nest.” [which] it will become smaller and eliminated.’
As a third tip, another product she recommended is Home Defense Ant Stop Granules, which she described as “pretty safe for pets.”
One solution that Alice says gives her ‘heebee jeebees’ is Nemasys (pictured), a type of parasitic worm that is placed in the garden.
‘Likewise, this is a powder,’ said Alice, ‘which is for outdoor use… it’s a bright color on purpose so you can see it clearly. This powder eliminates all the black ants in the garden.
It noted that the product should not be used around pets.
Recommending another product as a fourth tip, he said, “If you have borax on your clothes, you know it’s a type of natural salt, which is interesting.” You can leave that too.
Moving on to more natural remedies, Alice said that ants don’t like smells including mint, lemongrass and cinnamon, and they also hate cayenne pepper.
His fifth tip was another commercial product he recommended called RepellShield Peppermint Oil Ant Repellent Spray.
Alice explained: ‘What you do is you just spray it along their trail. Spray it where you see them coming. It would be almost as quick to clean, but if you want to deter them, get it or put them by the back door.’
According to Alice (pictured, right), using natural solutions like essential oils are good for deterring ants, while commercial products are better for getting rid of them.
For advice number six, Alice said, “If you want to dissuade them, I would choose the gentler option.” [solutions] including essential oils. That’s lemon, mint, cinnamon. Put your essential oils in a tissue and leave them in their wake.’
Her seventh tip also included a natural solution: ‘If you have ants, or are prone to ants, vinegar (household cleaning vinegar, white vinegar…) is a very good cleaner. Put it on a cloth, wipe it, and ants won’t get in. They’ll hate that.
Moving on to the eighth tip, Alice said, ‘Now, this gives me chills.
‘What is this? These are nematodes… they are basically parasitic worms… When you mix them with water and put them in your garden, hose them down all over the garden.
“Be very careful what you do, because it will disrupt your ecosystem, but gardeners know this because parasites basically live off things… and they basically mess with ant colonies and get rid of ant colonies.”