Desperate to eliminate ants? But don’t want to spray chemicals?
Have you tried cleaning, caulking, or store-bought ant “traps” to no avail?
Some get success with ant baits over-the-counter. Others find ants coming back every year no matter what. In this article, we’ll explain how to finally get rid of odorous house ants (often called sugar ants) without causing harm to your pets, family or pollinators.
The Best Ways to Get Rid of Ants in Your House
Do you wake up one morning to find a whole trail of ants swarming the catfood, or a single crumb?
Then you might have odorous house ant colonies inside your walls.
If you notice ants disappear after you spray with essential oils or clean the trails–only for them to return a few weeks later–this advice is for you.
Ants can smell and avoid stinky sprays. Peppermint, essential oils, bleach, lysol and even Raid have strong odors that effectively repel ants and kill them on contact.
But you need to get rid of the whole ant colony to get rid of the ants.
So using ant repellent sprays is usually counterproductive. It can just push them around and make the problem worse long-term. If you’re only spraying some of the ants, and not targeting the whole colony, you might notice they bounce back time-after-time. And in different, new, spread-out locations…
Click to Get Rid of Ants. 
To get rid of ants in your house, you’ll need to target the ant colony inside your walls. Using this knowledge of ant biology to help get rid of ants safely is a great example of Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
Let’s dive in on how to control sugar ants fast without spraying a drop:
How to Get Rid of Odorous House Ants in Walls
Odorous house ants (Tapinoma sessile) can have many colonies inside your walls. The constant temperature and moisture of an insulated wall void create perfect habitat for odorous house ants.
Our goal is to get rid of the ants nesting INSIDE our walls, and somehow keep the main colony OUTSIDE from sending more workers back inside.
Will Lysol Kill Ants?
Yes. Lysol will kill ants —on contact— but it will never get rid of your odorous house ant ant colonies. For the reasons described above, the ant colonies can smell the poison and will stay away, popping up again a few days or weeks later, usually in a different spot inside.
How Do I Get Rid of Ants Without Harming Bees?
Pesticides can be dangerous. Careless or illegal pesticide sprays can be harmful for pollinators, beneficial insects & wildlife.
- Never spray ant killer sprays, especially outside around flowers when bees are foraging.
- Choose granules or liquid baits instead, which controls ants but doesn’t harm bees.
- If you use a professional exterminator, request they avoid spraying outside.
Spraying Ants
Chemicals designed to work on ants & termites can be very hazardous for honeybees, bumblebees and other colonial insects.
If you have your home exterior sprayed for ants, it is paramount your ant exterminator avoids spraying near any flowers in order to protect honeybees and other pollinators.
Eco Friendly Ant Control
Sugar Ant Killer Products
Fortunately, 21st century advances in sugar ant killer products allows us to get rid of sugar ants with tiny amounts of bait instead of high-volume sprays.
Using baits reduces overall chemicals sprayed and protects you, kids, pets and pollinators from pesticide exposure.
How to Get Rid of Sugar Ants Nests
If ants are in your outlets, smoke detectors, or under a potted plant, and you see “eggs” or larvae, this is a sugar ant colony.
To get rid of sugar ants in your outlets, place a small amount of gel bait on the back of the outlet cover or in the corner of the outlet housing.
Professional grade baits can control sugar ants with one well-timed application of less than a gram of gel. Although you may need a natural or organic chemical — it is a minuscule amount.
Applying bait to voids, cracks and crevices is safe because kids, pets, honeybees and pollinators will never be exposed.
But the ants will find it. They’ll happily bring it back to their larvae nested in your wall voids who then “baby-bird” it back to the adults, and effectively control the colony.
Sugar Ants in Winter
If you’re seeing ants inside and its below 55F out, they’re definitely nesting inside somewhere. Ants are not active outside when it’s cold.
How to Eliminate Sugar Ants
- Wait until warmer temperatures or when ants are most actively foraging to try using a bait product like Intice Gelanimo, Advion, MaxForce Quantum or a ~3% borax & sugar solution.
- When ants are trailing, place a small amount of honey out to increase workers activity, then replace the honey with ant bait.
- If your ant issue persists, a careful & targeted treatment by a licensed professional, according to instructions on the label should pose minimal risk for pollinators & beneficial insects.
Paul Stamets Ant Killer
Impressively, ant colonies are able to avoid and survive just about any natural, chemical-free treatment I can think of. But this could change in the future. Paul Stamets’ amazing discovery of mycopesticides (natural pesticides from fungi) for some ant and termite species have been shown successful in studies at removing certain pest insect colonies. However this technology is in its infancy and has a long way to go before it is available as an ant killer product. And unfortunately, it currently doesn’t work on sugar ants.
How to Get Rid of Ants in the Vegetable Garden without Chemicals
If you’re like me, you have pesky ants stealing seeds and generally causing mischief in your garden beds. To get rid of ants in the vegetable garden without nasty chemicals, just make a strong peppermint, clove or cinnamon tea. Spray that anywhere you’d like the ants to disappear from. Reapply weekly. It’s safe for you, your garden critters and may even keep other pests and mildew away.
Portland Ant Control.
Conclusion
Basically, removing sugar ants inside your home without a lot of chemicals is all about tracking down their colonies and baiting them effectively. It’s the best way to get rid of sugar ants without spraying any pesticides.
If you’d like your own Integrated Pest Management strategy for family, pet & pollinator safe Portland ant control, contact us today or click the button below…
Pest & Pollinator LLC is committed to our mission of helping the Portland OR community solve pest problems while reducing pesticides and protecting biodiversity.
