So, I was hoping some of the forest dwellers here could help me out with some practical tips.
Our house on the ground floor is being invaded by ants - and it’s something worse than anything I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s not really due to hygiene, the house is pretty much clean as it can be. But the ants have invaded the bedrooms, cats’ foods, the kitchen, and it’s not really tolerable.
Dusting them off as much as I can, to clean everywhere with bleach, doesn’t seem to help. They start to come in legions in a matter of hours.
I don’t want to poison the house, but this is not a livable situation either. So, are there any practical tips that I can follow to ward off the ants somehow without resorting to insecticide?
There’s a couple of entrances by the windows, I’m not sure if they’re coming from the garden or inside. I could try to plaster those spots, though they’re already quite tiny… Let’s see.
I can relate to this, Ive developed something like an ant paranoia.
Only last week I escorted one back to the balcony (I let it crawl on a piece of paper and then put it back outside).
There are scout ants who swarm out and see if they find places they like and then lay a pheromone trail inviting all their buddies in.
What they don’t like is if you mess with their sense of direction via the olfactory sense: a few drops of essential oils like lavender or mint in a little bowl. Or you can put lemon peels and cloves where you think the ants come in.
Also ants supposedly don’t like stepping over chalk. So drawing a thick line of chalk next to the entrance might do the trick.
Last but not least: Can you put the cat food outside? Because for the ants that’s pretty much an invitation for an all-you-can-eat party.
they don’t like Turmeric powder and won’t go through it. The trick is that the thick line of powder has to be consistent. I watched them squeezing themselves through the tiniest gap or just walk around it
The other thing is that they usually leave as soon they got what they desired. Cat food, sugar etc needs to be in clip boxes. I have everything in clipboxes because of moths and ants. It could also be that they are thirsty. Is it already very hot?
Third: Talking and explaining what impact it has on you and that they need to stay outside. Works wonder in Kuties and at home. I swear!
I understand the difficulties you’re faced with, not wanting to harm the ants but also not wanting your house to be overrun. I’ve successfully dealt with this kind of problem more than once in the past (including in just the past few weeks). Here’s what I’ve found to be effective:
I use a small handheld broom and dustpan to gently sweep them up when I find them and take them outside, preferably on the opposite side of the house from where I found them. This sometimes takes from a few minutes to half an hour or more.
If I can detect where they’re entering, I put a thin barrier of petroleum jelly around the entry point. I once determined they were entering through an electrical outlet box in the kitchen. On that occasion, just applying a thin border of petroleum jelly around the outlet did the trick. I’ve even done this on the exterior of a house near a window where they were entering.
Sprinkling cinnamon near entry points also seemed to work, probably similar to Alexandra’s turmeric suggestion. They may not like the smell, but I’ve also heard that they don’t like to get it on the hairs and sensory organs on their legs, as well as on the sticky pads on their feet. I think this is also why they won’t step on the petroleum jelly.
If you can’t pinpoint an entry point, you can purchase or make a spray of orange peel extract and spray it around the area where they’re active. I’ve used a brand called Orange Guard. Just make sure you escort them outside first, as spraying it directly on them can kill them (and is also just plain rude ).
Of course, from a practice perspective, cultivating intentions of harmlessness, kindness, metta, and compassion toward them while doing these things is most important of all. But I can tell from your posts that you already know this and are well-practiced in it.
My mother-in-law used to speak to the ants gently asking them to leave, and this seems to work, at least for her . I had some success putting some vinegar in surfaces like counters. It seems they don’t like and avoid the place.
Thanks everyone for thoughtful responses and wealth of information.
After cleaning the house with red vinegar, I can say that the ants haven’t returned yet - which, they should’ve invaded terribly already. I’ll try to take the other ideas (cinnamon, tumeric) and make sure the entrances have these things, as well as keeping the house cleaned with vinegar to keep them off during the summer.
Thanks a lot for the encouragement, Bhante. I wish I could say I was completely blameless - there have been casualties despite my best intentions.
But this has been an interesting excuse to consider the ant-life, to live a life where everything can suddenly blink out of existence, with practically no prior announcement.
Their dedication, perseverance, could perhaps keep them also contained in the same rebirth cycle, of being in the ant kingdom, over and over, with tiny, incremental differences.
I truly wish them all the best, and take this as an opportunity to make sure this kind of invasion doesn’t happen in the first place, as to not causing any damage to these wonderful, funny and weird creatures.
I think the pet food issue can be solved by having some kind of mote of water (or oil) around the food dish. Either a second larger dish or a baking pan filled with water.
Motes Moats are a daily maintenance task. If not then they become a breeding ground for mosquitos. That’s why whole house moats are usually filled with oil. In a kitchen setting you can put some liquid soap in moat trays, but for a pet bowl you can’t really do that.
I’m thinking of a wooden tray that’s gently oiled with fragrant oils - not wet, just enough to have a scent. A couple of cinnamon sticks sprinkled around - sounds like it should work!
The only down side of water is, that ants can drown in it. I have seen this with honey jars in water bowls. Maybe you can try cofee ground instead? They don’t like that, same like turmeric and cinnamon powder.
Motes are a daily task too. Misspelling corrected.
I’m guessing that the problem with that is excess honey melting into the water making it more of a trap than a barrier. But you are right that other options might work out better.
In the past, I’ve had luck just regularly applying the aforementioned Orange Guard to the floor around the food dish. Reapply as often as ants reappear; before the ant season was over I’d get into the proper rhythm of it. This seems like a much lower-maintenance “moat” than some of the other possibilities that have been mentioned.
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I’ll back off!! I wouldn’t dare suggest anything that would put this rather fierce-looking feline in a bad mood! 
