If you have a kitchen at your home, then you also most likely have an issue with ants. Ants can really make a mess out of your kitchen as they might get attracted towards the food items that are just lying around on your kitchen table.
Some foods tend to be more prone to attract ants and hence you need to store them properly in order to avoid any ant issues in the first place. It’s not too late if you already have ants at your place and are getting worried about how to get rid of sugar ants in kitchen. Let’s Dive into the best solutions
Table of Contents
Find your sugar ants
- The first step in ridding your home of sugar ants is to locate their nests. You can do this by following the trails of ants back to their entry point and placing a few drops of food coloring on the floor along the trail. This makes it easier to see where the ants are traveling and where they’re entering your home.
- Clean up crumbs, dirty dishes, and spills immediately.Sugar ants are attracted to sweets, so it’s important to clean up spills, dirty dishes and food crumbs right away.
Target their entry points
In addition to keeping your kitchen clean and free of food scraps, you can make your home less attractive to ants by targeting their entry points.
- Seal potential entry points with caulk or spray foam. Pay special attention to cracks around windows, doors, pipes and wires.
- Install door sweeps on exterior doors to prevent small ants from entering your home.
- Replace weather stripping around the door if it is cracked or damaged.Keep tree branches and shrubs away from your home’s exterior walls, as this can provide an easy route for sugar ants to enter your home.
Lay down barriers of cinnamon
- Lay down barriers of cinnamon or cayenne pepper. These spices will keep ants away because they don’t like the smell. You can also use peppermint oil, which also gives off a strong odor that wards off ants.
- Just mix 10 drops of peppermint oil with 2 cups of water, then spray it around the house. This solution can also kill ants that have already entered the house.
- Soak cotton balls in peppermint oil, tea tree oil or vinegar and place them around your home at points where you suspect an entry point for ants (window sills, door thresholds etc.)
- Store all food that has a high sugar content in the fridge or in containers with tight-fitting lids.
- Clean up all spills and crumbs immediately after they occur and wash dishes right away instead.
Remove food sources
The best way to get rid of sugar ants is to remove food sources around your home. Sugar ants are attracted to sweets like honey, syrup, and fruit juice, as well as starchy foods like bread and cereal. In the kitchen, wash all dishes after use, keep food in tightly sealed containers, and avoid leaving leftovers out for long periods of time.Sugar ant infestations in the kitchen can be especially problematic because this is where they can access a lot of food.
You can avoid attracting them by washing dishes immediately after use, making sure that all food is completely cleaned off. Also be sure that any open containers of food are tightly sealed so the ants don’t have access to them.If you find that you have leftover food from a meal, put it in a tightly-sealed container within two hours of cooking it so the sugars and starches don’t attract the ants.
Store food in sealed containers
- Store food in sealed containers. Sugar ants are attracted to food that is left out on counters and tables, so store any open food containers away from the ant trail. This will make sure the ants aren’t getting into your food.
- Use a sealable container for everything–even if it’s just a little bit of food. Ants are very small and can easily crawl into a small crack or crevice, so you need to make sure you’re using sealed containers that don’t leave any room for them to get inside.
- Make sure all trash is put in the garbage can with a lid on it. Sugar ants are attracted to the smell of garbage, so make sure you don’t leave trash out anywhere where it might attract them.
Make your own ant traps
- You can make your own ant traps to get rid of sugar ants in kitchen. Vinegar and water mixed together is an excellent way to get rid of sugar ants in kitchen.
- The best way to use vinegar and water is to fill a spray bottle with half vinegar and half water, then spray it on the area where the ants are entering your home and also anywhere that you see ants. Vinegar is not toxic, so there’s no need to worry about pets or children.
Keep ants away for good
- Clean up spills and crumbs immediately after they happen. Ants are attracted to sweet and sugary foods, so make sure to wipe up spills, especially fruit juice or sugary drinks.Keep food (including pet food) in airtight containers.
- Wipe off countertops, tables and floors where you see ants. This will remove any scent trails that ants follow to find food.
- Fix leaky pipes and faucets, or anything else that provides moisture for ants.
Conclusion
You can use these steps to get rid of sugar ants in kitchen. Because ants are living creatures, it is very important to use the proper methods in getting rid of sugar ant bugs from your kitchen area. The most important part to remember when eliminating these dead ants from a household is the prevention of sugar ants.
These sugar ants will be attracted to anything sweet, so putting away any sugar, honey or syrup products that you don’t need at this time is an excellent first step in preventing an infestation.