No one likes sharing their home with ants. They’re unsightly, and they track bacteria across countertops and even onto food. Pest-management specialist Susannah Krysko explains how to get rid of ants for good…

Forget the sprays and repellents

Hardware stores and pest-management companies will happily sell you indoor ant spray or repellents to put around the outside foundation of your home. But these rarely work well. And using ant sprays in your kitchen exposes you to harmful chemicals and kills only the few ants you can see, leaving the colony intact. Repellents may keep ants away briefly, but usually the insects find ways to circumvent it, and repellents seldom last long.

Best ant killer

Effective ant control means destroying the colony, which is hidden out of plain view. The trick is to get the worker ants to carry poisoned food back to the nest and feed it to the rest of the colony. Best way to accomplish this: Ant baits. Sold in most grocery and hardware stores, these plastic containers keep the insecticide safely away from children, pets and food. Lured by sugar or another attractant, ants enter the plastic container, grab miniscule amounts of the insecticide and take them back to the nest, where they share it with the colony. Tips for using ant baits correctly…

  • Don’t use sprays or repellents along with baits. You want the ants to be able to access the baits.
  • Use baits made of clear plastic so you can see inside to monitor activity and determine how much bait is left.
  • Check or replace baits often to provide a steady supply of insecticide. Labels on the bait typically say replace every three months, but you may have to do it more often.
  • If a bait isn’t working, try another with a different active ingredient.
  • Once you’re clear of ants, switch to sticky traps to monitor what’s in your kitchen. If you start seeing a lot of ants again, it’s time to put out baits.

What you may not know: Periodically ants develop wings to swarm and mate. These flying ants can be easily confused with termites. To tell the difference between an ant and a termite, look for a constricted waist—ants have three obvious sections to their bodies, while termites do not. If you are not sure, have a pest professional or someone from your local cooperative extension office identify a sample.

Homemade ant killer

You can try your own ant baits using a mixture of sugar and boric acid. This combination is quite effective. In fact, it’s the foundation for many commercial baits. Use one of the many recipes available on the Internet. But this will work only for ants that are attracted to sugar…if the ants in your home are not, you will need commercial baits that include additional attractants.

Environmental qualms

If you balk at the idea of destroying an entire ant colony, you’ll need to stay extra-vigilant to keep insects out of your home. If you see a trail of ants, follow it to where the critters are entering and exiting, and seal up the hole with caulk. If you live in a cold climate and have ants in the house during the winter, the colony is almost certainly inside your home, and you’ll need to make a tough decision about whether to destroy it using ant baits.

To keep ants away: Always keep counters clean, and make sure all food items are stored securely. Keep bushes and trees around the house trimmed back away from the structure. Carpenter ants, which are larger than most house ants, are a sign that you have leaking water and rotting wood somewhere in or around your home. You may need to hire a professional exterminator to find the source.

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