Ant decoy: 8 ways to get rid of ants in your garden

How does semolina work on ants?

While relaxing at the dacha, you may encounter clusters of insects near trees and bushes with sweet berries and fruits. Ants choose cherries or gooseberries - the sweeter the fruit, the more likely an anthill will appear at its roots. Such a neighborhood, contrary to stereotypes, has a bad effect on plants.

In fact, semolina will not become poison for the insect - ants eat sweet semolina with pleasure, and most often they bring the treat to the queen. In the pest's stomach, the croup swells, causing its body to rupture and the insect to die.

On a note! If the queen dies, the entire colony will not be able to exist and will leave the summer cottage.

This cheap (compared to professional chemicals) folk method for pest control works flawlessly and contributes to the complete destruction of the colony.

Advantages and disadvantages of the method

The fight against seemingly harmless creatures should be carried out immediately after you notice the first traces of ants on the site. Otherwise, the pests will multiply and flood the entire garden or vegetable garden, causing irreparable damage to cultural plantings.

preservation of cultivated plants: fruits and flowers;
the impossibility of infecting plantings with fungus and other diseases spread by insects;
absence of aphids in the area bred by ants;
non-oxidized soil.

ants enrich the soil with calcium and phosphorus;
insects eat harmful larvae and caterpillars;
promote soil fertility.

The ants themselves are beneficial and unobtrusive insects - compared to other pests, the damage from their intervention is minimal. They saturate the soil with useful microelements and kill caterpillars. However, in large numbers, ants cause quite significant harm to the garden: insects eat the petals of sweet flowers and are breeding grounds for aphids, because they love the juice they secrete.

It is definitely necessary to fight these creatures. It is better to prefer folk remedies to chemicals - they will not affect the quality of the crop in any way and are significantly effective.

The most effective method, according to summer residents, is a mixture of semolina and sugar. In terms of popularity, it is slightly inferior to dousing ants with boiling water and saline solution. Of course, it will not be possible to get rid of the pest forever using such methods, but with prolonged treatment and control of the summer cottage, you don’t have to worry about an unexpected invasion of ants.

Rules of application

Ants need to be destroyed in the spring or early summer, when they just wake up from hibernation and begin to be active. It is necessary to find a breeding ground for ants and generously sprinkle semolina around it - this way the insects will not be able to bypass the “bait”.

Note! The area can only be processed in dry and windless weather. Otherwise, the grains may be blown away from the garden or get wet due to rain.

The so-called “ant passages” should be treated with cereal - they are easy to notice by looking around the space near the insects’ home. These are deep paths along which pests move during the day.

We will have to “neutralize” other favorite places of pests - sweet plantings in the garden and greenhouses.

To effectively get rid of ants using semolina, after processing it will have to be covered with earth and branches to hide it from birds. At the same time, the treat will remain accessible to insects.

Within a few days, the decrease in the population will become noticeable; the final elimination of the pest will occur in 1–1.5 weeks.

Are ants dangerous to humans?

In an apartment building, these insects easily move from apartment to apartment. Therefore, it is necessary to poison them throughout the house. They may eat food from the table that was not cleared in time, crumbs from the floor, scraps from the trash can, etc.

During these movements, insects carry many microorganisms on their bodies, including pathogens. Ants can get into electrical appliances or bite people.

Their bites can cause itching, irritation, and an allergic reaction.
They sneak into bags of cereals and spoil them. Some of them can penetrate the ears, nose, and mouth. This is especially dangerous for young children.

Additional Ingredients

If there are too many insects in the area, one decoy against ants in the garden may not cope with the removal. In this case, specific additives will come to the rescue, which will increase the ants’ attention and interest in the poison.

Sugar

Ants love sweet foods, so semolina can be mixed with sugar in a ratio of 1:3 or 1:5, depending on the number of pests. Treat the same areas with this composition (anthill, sweet garden crops and ant paths).

In this case, the likelihood that the delicacy will be eaten by the queen will increase several times.

On a note! Powdered sugar has a more effective property than sugar - due to its crushed structure, it is quickly swallowed by insects along with semolina.

Honey and jam

Sticky sweet additives such as jam and honey also have similar properties to sugar. They remove ants well, but are not so convenient and practical. In addition, the cost of such products is much higher than the price tag of 100 g of powdered sugar.

Honey or jam should be mixed into semolina carefully and in small quantities, in an approximate ratio of 1:10, to prevent the grains from sticking together into large lumps, which will be difficult for ants to chew.

A mixture of soda and semolina

An excellent alternative would be a mixture of soda and semolina, which, in addition to its direct effect, will help attract insects to a more effective remedy - sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda.

It produces an oxidizing effect on the internal organs of ants, as a result of which they disintegrate and the insect dies.

Mix soda and semolina in equal quantities; you can also add a spoonful of powdered sugar to the product - it will help to quickly attract the attention of the pest to the poison. This method can also be used in an apartment - treat areas where dead pests accumulate with the resulting preparation, and after a few days carry out wet cleaning.

Getting rid of pests at home

In any household goods or useful store you can purchase a product that will allow you to get rid of house red ants forever.

When purchasing a product, pay attention to who it is intended for; it should remove ants and not other pests. An effective remedy for house ants is sold in the form of crayons, gels and aerosols

Fighting ants in the house is not as easy as it seems. You cannot stay in the apartment during disinfection; you need to protect children and pets, since getting rid of ants requires harsh measures and the use of toxic substances.

Traditional methods of getting rid of ants

Now let's talk about how to fight ants using folk remedies. Keep in mind that the folk remedy is not capable of removing an entire ant nest, but it will help well if the pests have just appeared and their number is insignificant. Let's look at how to remove house ants from an apartment:

Pour water into a glass, add a spoonful of honey, a spoonful of sugar and a pinch of vanillin. Insects will definitely crawl to the sweet aroma and begin to drown in the water.
You can fight ants in your apartment using medicinal chamomile. Oddly enough, the ants cannot stand it and leave in a short time. It is necessary to sprinkle dry chamomile around the perimeter of the room, as well as in those places where ants were found.
If you have ants in your apartment, you can get rid of them with garlic. It is necessary to carefully coat the main routes of pests with grated garlic, as well as in the corners of the room.
Dry semolina porridge is the best remedy for pests. The cereal must be mixed with vanillin to enhance the aroma and scattered in the place where the ants were found. After such a meal, the semolina in the ant’s stomach swells and the insect dies.
Vegetable oil and lemon will be excellent helpers against ants. Ant trails should be thoroughly coated with oil or lemon juice.
If you do find a nest, immediately fill it with diesel fuel, this will help get rid of ants in a private house or apartment.
If there are too many insects, the above measures will not be enough; in addition, use various aerosols and crayons.

Professional help

Fighting red ants in an apartment requires patience. Those who cannot remove ants on their own are wondering how to remove red ants from an apartment and how to get rid of small insects forever?

If all of the above remedies for domestic ants did not help you, and the problem remains relevant, you need to seek help from professionals who will help remove the ants forever. Experienced workers will tell you how to get rid of red ants in an apartment, or they will independently perform the following steps:

Find a nest of pests
Treat all areas where ants may be present.
For preventive purposes, they will inspect other rooms and conduct a control inspection.

The disadvantage of this method is the high price. During disinfection, all residents of the house must leave the premises, since ant repellents contain toxic substances.

Alternative methods

Mixtures with semolina are not the only way to poison harmful insects. There are several other folk remedies that cope with this task no worse than semolina.

Mixture of sugar and yeast

Yeast cannot directly affect the body of ants, so you should not expect a magical result from this method. Nevertheless, it is quite effective.

A solution of sugar and yeast is mixed in a one to one ratio with the addition of a small amount of water. From the resulting mass, small balls are formed, which are laid out on “ant paths”.

Harmful insects really love the smell of yeast, so they will gladly drag the treat into the anthill. In pantries, the product will ferment, which will ruin the quality of all stored products. As a result, the insects will starve to death.

This method can also be used in apartments.

Hot peppers

You can control the pest using ground red pepper. The powder scatters near the anthill and along the notorious “ant paths.” When ingested by an insect, it burns the internal organs, causing the insect to die.

Cinnamon

Another budget product that insects are afraid of is ground packaged cinnamon. In order to get rid of annoying pests on the site, you need to dilute a sachet of the product with one or two liters of water with sugar and pour the resulting solution onto the anthill.

As in the case of yeast, fermentation processes are activated, as a result of which the ants will be forced to leave the summer cottage.

If insects attack in your apartment, simply sprinkle the areas where they are most concentrated with dry cinnamon powder. It smells aromatic, which will attract pests, and has a similar effect on the body as red pepper.

Mustard powder

The smell of mustard powder repels ants. It can be used either dry or as a solution (100 g per 10 liters of water, spray all plants in the garden once every two weeks).

3 effective ways to use mustard against ants

A mixture of powder and coffee works well. This product is also not loved by harmful ants. Mix the ingredients in a 1:1 ratio and treat the anthill itself and the “ant paths”.

Millet

Millet groats are an analogue of semolina. There is no main version why these insects do not like semolina. Most gardeners agree that when it enters the ant’s body, the cereal swells and tears the insect’s body. In addition, if millet gets into storage, at the first rain it will cause clogging of the tunnels and passages of the nasty pest due to its increase in size.

For maximum effectiveness, before use, 500 g of cereal should be soaked in lukewarm water for 10–15 minutes, then add 100 g of powdered sugar, honey or jam for sweetness. You can only remove ants in this way in the garden; pests accustomed to “kitchen” food are unlikely to pay attention to millet.

Boiling water

Filling an ant's home with boiling water is one of the easiest ways to combat ants. One bucket will be enough for a one-time treatment; it is better to get rid of harmful insects in this way for several days in a row, treating the anthill with buckets of boiling water.

A more effective option would be to prepare a saline solution - adding three kg of table salt to a bucket of boiling water (10 kg). Treating harmful ants at home with this preparation is many times more reliable than the method described above.

What ants live in houses?

They began living in houses from the middle of the 20th century.
Most often, you can find red ants in apartments, another name for them is pharaohs. They received such an unusual name by mistake of a scientist who considered their homeland to be Egypt. Later it became known that red ants come from India. They can be up to 3 mm in length and have a yellow-orange color. There may be several queens in a colony; they usually live in apartments located above the 3rd floor.

There are about 10 thousand species of ants in nature.

These are exclusively domestic insects and live only near humans. Another type of pest that lives near humans is house ants - thieves. Their body is amber in color, 1–3 mm long.

Unlike pharaohs, they can also be found in nature. Most often they settle in the lower floors of apartment buildings, dachas, and private houses, as they lead an above-ground lifestyle. There is only one queen in one nest.

Compared to red ants, their colonies are small in number. Turf ants do not form nests in a person's home, so they are considered less dangerous. Their body is black or dark red, up to 4 mm long; there is always only one female in the colony.

In some cases, red ants may enter houses; they cannot exist at home. Therefore, they do not form nests. Ants lead a social lifestyle; if at least one individual appears in an apartment, it means that soon there will be hundreds and thousands of them.

Ant's nest in the house

These insects have a clear division of functions. There is a queen - a female, servants, worker ants, males, nannies, there may be several females. Worker ants usually want around the house; they make up only 1/10 of the entire colony.

The owners are trying to exterminate them, since they simply do not see the queen and other inhabitants of the nest. She settles in secluded corners of the apartment and produces a dozen eggs every day. It is possible to completely remove ants, but to do this you need to find a female.

Ants can settle in a house not only under baseboards and furniture, but also in pots with indoor plants. They cause them great harm. And they can even destroy the flower. To get rid of pests, you can use a completely safe method.

Ants can also harm our favorite flowers.

Place a pot with a flower in a large vessel (bucket, basin, any other container that can completely accommodate the pot)
The container is completely filled with water
The soil in the pot should remain under water
The plants are kept in this state for 30 minutes. After which, the plants are removed from the pot
Gently wash the roots
Transfer to another container
To be more sure, a special insecticide is sometimes added to the water.

If the flower grows in a pot that is too large and cannot be completely immersed in water, the drainage holes should be covered with plasticine. Then pour it with plenty of water. Leave for about half an hour. Remove the flower and replant. Soil with insects must be thrown away.

Ants eat aphids

The routes of their penetration are the same as in ordinary cases. But along with migration from neighbors, they can be brought into a house with contaminated soil. Perhaps the plants are parasitized by aphids, or there are other insects that the ants feed on. They are especially attracted to these pests.

Both chemicals and traditional methods can be used against ants in containers with plants.

The drug permethrin can be used to treat plants. This insecticide affects the nervous system of insects. It is sold in several forms: liquid, dry, etc. Before using the drug, you must read the instructions and strictly adhere to the dosage.
Dilute 10 drops of camphor oil in 1 liter of water. Water the plant. Repeat the procedure several times.
You can sprinkle diatomaceous earth on the soil in the container. This is a natural substance in the form of powder. It dehydrates the ant's body by digging into its body. The insects die after about 30 minutes. You can also sprinkle diatomaceous earth into insect nests and the paths along which they move.
The surface of the soil in the pot is covered with millet.
It is possible to temporarily get rid of ants in a pot using a fragrant soap solution (1 tbsp per 500 ml of water). To do this, pour the solution into a spray bottle and spray it on the insects. After the procedure, the flower leaves are washed with clean water.
It is recommended to sprinkle the soil in the pot with coffee grounds.
Near the plant you should place crushed oatmeal mixed with honey.

A small part of the ant colony can be destroyed mechanically.

It is necessary to remove food from the table in a timely manner
Take out the trash regularly and use a container with a lid.
Store food only in tightly closed containers
Keep kitchen cabinets and furniture clean. It is recommended to wipe them with water and vinegar from time to time.
If there are children in the house and food crumbs collect on the floor every day, they need to be cleaned up immediately
Wipe dry all surfaces in the kitchen and bathroom
Carry out wet cleaning with the addition of ammonia (1 tbsp per 1 bucket)
Seal all cracks on the ceiling, walls, floor, balcony

We suggest you read: How to drive cockroaches out of an apartment

To prevent insects from coming into the house through the ventilation holes, you can seal them with double-sided tape. Sprinkle ground cinnamon and red pepper on the threshold.

To prevent ants from appearing in the house, it is necessary to maintain cleanliness

Ants are uninvited guests in the apartment. It is difficult to get rid of them; it is easier to prevent them from entering your home. They are very tenacious, in order to achieve the effect of completely removing insects from the house, it is necessary to use several methods of control.

After extermination, follow preventive measures. If ants appear in your apartment, most likely your neighbors have them too. In this case, it is necessary to fight them with the whole house, since they can endlessly move from apartment to apartment.