Simple Ways To Rid Of Garden And Household Ants

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes

Say goodbye to household ants with these proven methods. Learn how to tackle small ant colonies and prevent them from coming back

Garden And Household Ants Can Be A Costly Expense

Almost every homeowner has dealt with household ants, whether in the bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, or the home’s perimeter.

If it’s not, fruit flies, mice, rats, skunks, rabbits, chipmunks, raccoons, or ants are making their way inside, which can get costly for the homeowner.

Owning a home means taking care of household maintenance chores, but the same goes for renters.

On the odd occasion in the summer, we might find giant ants in the house that make their way in through small entryways.

It has never been a concern for us as it’s pretty standard, and we get rid of it using a tissue.

However, when facing a small colony of black ants, you have your hands whole trying to find the source and proper method to eliminate them.

Household Ants vs. Other Ants

How do I get rid of black ants in my house?

Ants need food and water, and they look for both when they are in your home.

My initial thought was to power blast them to the moon.

I hate ants, and it seems we are dead, lingual ants inside and outside our house every year.

Taking the DIY household ants approach may not be for everyone, nor does it kill the ants.

If you’re faced with a sudden ant infestation, it’s time to call pest control or face the ants on your own.

Typically, I would put ant traps down that I bought at the dollar store, and have done so in the past, mainly in the kitchen, which seemed to solve the problem.

That only happened to us one year out of the 12 we’ve been living here, so we’ve been relatively lucky.

Ants In The House

Last week, our son came running to the kitchen to say ants were in my room.

Oh great, the last thing I need is for Mrs. CBB to find little ants in the bed, and she will lose her mind.

She does not like ANY pests in the house, especially fruit flies, which we get every summer in our kitchen.

Of course, I got up to investigate, and sure enough, pesky little black ants crawled on the carpet.

They looked like a common ant you’d see in a household to the naked eye. 

Upon investigation, I noticed the ants marching from a crack in the bathroom next to the jacuzzi.

This was not the first time we’ve had ants in this area, although the last time, we thought our son had dropped cookie crumbs.

I guess that was how we fought back because there didn’t seem to be many at the time.

Now we know we are facing something far different than food crumbs since the little black ant army is coming from the wall.

Since I’m planning on renovating the entire main bathroom, including the jacuzzi, I plan to remove all the drywall.

Homeowners’ most significant problem is figuring out what ants they are battling.

Sugar Ants vs. Moisture Ants

In the meantime, I needed to sort these little black ants out; however, I wasn’t sure if they were sweet or moisture ants.

If it gets to the point of no return, your best bet is to call a local pest control company to sort out your ant problem.

I know some people who call pest control yearly before the ant season begins to spray around the outside of their home.

We have never done this but most certainly would add this to a projected expense in our budget.

Moisture ants need lots of water to survive, so they are in the right place for a water source.

Since these were tiny black ants, I decided to tackle the problem with honey.

If sugar ants were in the bathroom, they would gravitate towards the honey.

I took a lid from an old pickle jar, filled it with honey, and sat it next to the ants as bait.

This was my first attempt at finding natural ways to kill ants without chemicals.

I left the honey for two days with our son, ensuring he reported back to me daily.

He was pretty intrigued about the tiny house ants and wanted to know about the ant colony we’ve acquired.

The hard part is trying to get rid of the tiny ants in the bathroom when they are inside the wall.

I’m almost betting I’ll find something special when I open it all up later this summer.

Tips For Getting Rid of Moisture Ants

• Check the foundation of your house for cracks
• Ensure the plumbing is working correctly and there are no leaks
• Does your house leak into the roof or ceiling? I found a leak in our kitchen ceiling from the bathroom on the upper level last year and repaired it. Luckily, there were no ants. The problem was an incorrect seal on the toilet, likely from when the builders installed it.
• Check for drainage issues around the house, including the basement
• Source any rotting materials or wood where ants would thrive

Household Ants In the Kitchen

Why are household ants invading our kitchen?

Ants need to eat and like food, so if food particles are on your counters or floor, the ants will come marching down.

Some of the worst foods to have on your floors or counters are bread crumbs, cookie crumbs, and cake crumbs.

You’ll even find ants love fruits and fruit juice spills, such as apple juice, which we initially thought was our problem.

Our son loves apple juice, and of course, kids spill just about everything, and we thought we missed a clean-up area.

If there is food to sniff out, ants have odor receptors like antennas and can sniff food out quite quickly.

This is why I put honey in our bathroom, knowing they would instantly smell the sweetness.

Tips For Controlling Kitchen Ants

You can do a few things to eliminate ants in your kitchen.

1. Source the ants, so you know where they are coming from
2. Find out if there are any food or sweet sources the ants are after in your kitchen, and clean them up
3. Clean under your dishwasher, water tower, stove, and refrigerator, if possible, to get any lingering crumbs from underneath.
4. Make sure all food sources in your kitchen are tightly sealed.
5. Clean and sanitize your kitchen sink daily, and avoid leaving dishes and food for long periods.
6. Sweep and wash your floors regularly.
7. Wash down your kitchen cabinets and appliances to eliminate any spills or stickiness from kids.

Household Ants In the Bedroom

Eating and drinking in your bedroom is probably not the best idea, especially if you leave spills and crumbs on the ground.

Cleanliness must be a top priority if you want to avoid household ants.

This means vacuuming your bedroom if you have carpet daily, and getting in and around all the cracks in your furniture.

Pull out any chairs or benches in your bedroom and move the clothing hampers to clean behind them.

Dust your room and clean your windows with glass cleaner or a vinegar and water mix.

Ants love water, so keeping moisture at bay is essential if you have a main bathroom next to your bedroom.

Household Ants In the Bathroom

As mentioned above, we had tiny ants in the bathroom from a crack in the flooring next to the jacuzzi.

I also noticed the odd ant by the shower, but I’m sure it was just wandering around from the same crack, possibly searching for water.

The honey initially worked, capturing about 60 tiny black ants, but that didn’t get them all.

They were individually popping out of the crack, so I guessed they were moisture ants.

Eventually, I used an Ant Out pest control spray in the bathroom and gave the hole a good spray.

I haven’t seen any household ants for a week, so either they rushed back out where they came from, or I killed them.

Tips for controlling bathroom household ants

1. Clean up any water spills on counters or floors from a shower or bath.
2. Always use a bathroom exhaust fan when taking a bath or shower
3. Inspect your exhaust fan to ensure it works and clean any dust from it (ours did not and was not connected outdoors, so I removed it and installed high-quality fans).
4. Seal any cracks in the baseboards or walls in your bathroom

Garden Ants and Pavement Ants

Pavement Ants are ants that like to build up colonies near rocks, heat sources, or cracks in your pavement.

I always have pavement ants in the crack in front of our garage and on the sidewalk near the end of our driveway.

Many homeowners know what I’m talking about, and I’ve tried all of the DIY ways first to combat them, which I will discuss below.

You will want to look out for pavement ants because they love moisture.

If you have mulch or rocks near your home, try to keep the mulch away from the foundation and keep it no more than 2 inches high.

While Mrs. CBB and I were cleaning our rock garden of leaves this weekend, I uncovered a pleasant surprise.

We have a large decorative rock surrounded by a garden with hostas and other plants.

After moving a few smaller rocks, I found a massive colony of black ants.

(see photo above)

This was new to me; however, as a homeowner, I needed to take care of it right away.

I started with a hot pot of boiling water and vinegar to flush them down and out.

Once that dried, I noticed they were coming back, so I went with the ant spray I had used in our bathroom.

That did the trick, but I would have tried a popular borax ant control mixture that didn’t have any borax.

The little ant colonies you see in front of your garage or on the sidewalk can be tricky since washing them away doesn’t solve the problem.

You’ll find the main ant colony deep under the surface, so they will continue to reappear, so you’ll have to bait them out.

Pavement ants are nuisance pests as they don’t want to go away.

Tips To Control Outdoor Ants

Other tips to control outdoor ants from coming into your home:

• Seal any cracks around your house and check often, as they can happen at any time
• Check the vents around your home and replace any if they are broken
• Trim your bushes and flowers if they are close to the house
• Keep mulch and rocks to a minimum around the perimeter of your home
• Ensure water is not getting into the foundation of your home

Natural Ways To Kill Household And Outdoor Ants

There are other ways you can tackle killing ants, which I will discuss below. 

• Ants can’t stand mint, so if you have mint leaves, crush them and disperse in the area where you believe they are.
• Vinegar and water solution mix and spray
• Water and dish soap solution mix and spray
• Combine baking soda and honey or icing sugar as bait (you can do this for your pavement ants, too)
• Boiling water and pour over the source of household ants or garden ants

An Excellent Borax ant bait recipe for killing ants, according to our neighbor:

• 1 tsp Borax
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups water
• Mix and pour on cotton swabs

The sugar will attract the ants as I did with the honey; however, with the Borax, the ants will bring that back to the colony.

What happens is that the Borax messes with the ants’ digestive tract, eventually killing themBorax it’s a slow death.

I would have used the recipe had I had Borax in the Borax before trying my honey ant bait.

You can use this mixture in your garden, but beware that Borax is an herbicide that can kill plants.

Put your mixture in a lid, as I did with my honey, or a container; ants can quickly enter.

Products To Control Household and Garden Ants

• Diatomaceous Earth Food Grade can control bed bugs, roaches, ants, and other garden pests.
• Terro Ant Killing Powder
• Raid Home Insect Killer
• Blaze Pro Ant Nest Destroyer
• Ortho Home Defence

Discussion: How do you control household ants? What methods have you used to control outdoor ants around your home, including pavement ants? What costs would be billed if you called pest control to help eliminate your ants?

I’d love to read your experiences in the comments below.

Thanks for reading,

Mr. CBB