Summertime invites a wide variety of pesky guests into your house, especially the kitchen. This can turn your countertops into the perfect playground for insects such as ants.
Ants might not be dangerous, but they’re perfectly capable of wreaking havoc. They often contaminate your food supply, which can be a nuisance to deal with. However, you should face this issue early on, before it turns into an infestation.
Eliminate the food sources
The first problem which you need to tackle is to identify any possible food sources. Any breadcrumbs or spilled juice left on the countertops, even for a few hours, will attract a lot of ants. The easiest and most obvious way to combat this is to clean up after yourself once you have eaten. It can result in the living space becoming undesirable for them since no food would be available.
Secondly, store any leftover foods in sealed reusable boxes. The same goes for any packaged goods, such as flour. This will also help you in preventing any unnecessary food wastage.
Block the entry points
Cracks and crevices located on the walls are the perfect spots for ants to nest inside. So, fill in any open crevices or cracks on the walls that you can spot. The trick for performing this task effectively is to follow a trail of the ants. This will help you identify where they reside, so the spot can be closed up. This can also help you in identifying any hidden crevices which you might have missed before.
Eliminate any unnecessary moisture
For their survival, ants don’t require a lot of water. A damp kitchen towel might be enough for them to keep going. This is why it is advisable to either hang the damp towels on an elevated surface or to keep them near a fan, so they can dry quicker.
Use ant deterrent
If despite all your efforts, you still spot trails of ants inside your kitchen, you should start using deterrents. Pepper, cinnamon, curry powder, salt, or chalk act as the perfect ant deterrent. Sprinkle one of these deterrents onto the trails to prevent them from coming back.
However, it is worth noting that if you have kids or pets in your house, their mouth, nose, or skin could get irritated due to the deterrent. So, be careful where you sprinkle them.
The other option would be to introduce deterring smells into the kitchen. Try spraying diluted essential oils in your kitchen. This works because ants just like animals use their sense of smell to locate their food source as well. This is why they tend to avoid the harsher smells and are attracted to the more pleasant ones.
