Natural Ways to Get Rid of Carpenter Ants

You can have the cleanest house on the planet and still get carpenter ants. And the worst part of this is that once your house gets invaded, it is normally tough to completely eradicate the ants completely. In this article, I am going to show you how to get rid of carpenter ants naturally. These tips can be used for any ant as they are biologically made the same way.

Understanding how to get rid of ants is all based on understanding how ants work. Typically, the first thing that happens is a scout ant will go on the hunt for food. If and when they find food, they leave a little scent trail to tell the worker ants where to find the food. The worker ants will follow the trail (which is why you will see ants walking down a single path) to the food source and then retrieve the food and take it back to their nest.

Many people will simply wipe the area where the ants are going and coming with some bleach to wash away the scent and it works for a day or so...until the scout ants create a new trail...then it is business as usual for the worker carpenter ants.

A better solution is to locate both the reason why the ants are going where they are going (it is typically bits of food you may have missed) and then watch where they are headed when they head back home. A lot of times, you will be able to locate a breach in a window or door and follow it outside to an ant hole. If this is the case, all you have to do is eradicate the ant hive.

Sometimes, invading carpenter ants have decided to make your home their home and has found a spot underneath your kitchen cabinets. If this is the case, then you may have to take more drastic measures.

How to get rid of carpenter ants naturally that are nesting outside your home
Simply pouring water into an ant hole won't be enough to destroy an ant colony although it will definitely detour them. One of the simplest way to get rid of a carpenter ant colony is to go out and purchase some soda water. You will pour the soda water directly into the ant hole. The carbonation in the soda will kill them by suffocation. One treatment will usually not be enough. You may have to do it for several days.

Another effective treatment both inside and outside is to sprinkle some corn meal or grits around the ant hole or in the area where you believe the ants to be living. Ants can't digest corn products and will eat it and die. Better still, they will take the corn meal to the queen who will eat it and die. This method will completely get rid of carpenter ants. Once again, it is all about being patient. This method could take a few days to a few weeks.

How to get rid of carpenter ant colonies in your home
If you have located the breach, then one of the easiest methods is to simply caulk or seal the hole in which they are getting in. If that can't be done or doesn't work, then another method is to create a solution of boric acid and sugar. The sugar is really there only to bait the carpenter ants into taking the boric acid to the colony. The colony will feed on the acid and die. This will totally eradicate the ant colony BUT you have to take great care with the solution. If you use too much boric acid, you will kill the carpenter ants on contact and they won't be able to take it back to the colony.

These are just a few suggestions that can be used to get rid of carpenter ants naturally. Of course, if the problem is too severe or if your ant infestation involves more than one colony, you will probably want to call in a professional to handle the job. They won't kill the ants naturally but you can rest assured that the ants will be wiped clean from your home.

Carpenter ants will invade even the cleanest home so just because you have ants doesn't mean that you are doing anything wrong. The best thing that you can do when you are dealing with carpenter ants is to locate the source of the problem and if possible seal the area where they can't invade your home. If that doesn't work, you can try the above measures. They are safe and natural methods to killing carpenter ants without the harsh chemicals and pesticides that most pest control companies use.

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