Driving away ants in the house: chalk quickly puts the little crawlers to flight

In the summer, ants repeatedly get into the house or apartment. Home remedies and small tricks will help to drive away the animals without chemicals.

Ants are extremely useful insects that perform important tasks in nature. However, you don't want them in the house or apartment. To drive them away, however, a few simple home remedies are enough.

Why do ants come into the house?

Ants, as a rule, make their nests outside the house. In search of food, however, they often end up inwards. It is not only houses with gardens that are affected. Even in higher city apartments, the little crawlers make it again and again. The ants then easily get inside via leaky windows and doors.

"Once an ant has discovered a lucrative food source, it marks the way to food with scents. The more attractive the food supply, the more the route is used and the more intense the signal scent," informs the Hamburg Consumer Advice Centre on its website. This creates an ant trail – often right through the middle of the living room. But how do you get rid of the uninvited guests?

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A chalk line is designed to keep ants away in the house or on the terrace. © Weingartner-Foto/Imago

Eliminate possible food sources for ants

Before you start ant control, you should first clear out possible food sources for the little crawlers. In the house and in the apartment, sugary foods are the most important foods, which should be stored tightly closed. Even the refrigerator is often not a barrier worth mentioning, which is why tightly closed containers for open food are also recommended here. Pet food should also be left open in the apartment only if necessary. On the terrace, aphids serve as food for the ants, which is why you should fight them first.

Home remedies that will help you get rid of ants in the house

Have all food sources for the ants been eliminated? Then you can start fighting:

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Fancy a voyage of discovery?

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• Chalk: Draw a chalk line through the ant trail in the house. Chalk interrupts their scent trail and the little crawlers will soon look for another source of food. Simple, but ingenious!
• Adhesive tape: Like chalk, duct tape keeps ants from entering the house. Simply interrupt the path of ants with a piece of tape. The small insects will soon be looking for new food.
• Natural fragrances: Strongly fragrantsubstances also confuse the ants. Simple home remedies such as lemon, vinegar, garlic, cinnamon or lavender are sufficient for this. Simply spread them out along the ants' path – and the little animals will voluntarily flee.
• Water: The ants have nested in your flower boxes or planters on balconies or terraces? Then flood the planters vigorously with water from thewatering can. The insects will look for a new place for their nest.

Please never use baking soda for ant control

So it doesn't take any chemistry at all to get rid of ants. Baking soda is also considered a proven home remedy. For ant control, however, you should rather do without it: according to Ökotest, ants die in agony when they eat baking soda. Therefore, it is better to use other home remedies to drive the little pests out of the house or apartment.

The little crawlers have populated your lawn or raised bed in excess? Here, too, natural home remedies and other tricks are sufficient to drive the ants out of the garden without having to kill them right away.