Natural Ant Repellent
This summer while we were painting the outside of our house I had, for the first time, issues with ants in our kitchen. It seemed to be a combination of the wet conditions early in the summer and the lack of paint on the outside of our home. I tried several things before I found a solution that actually worked.I tried cleaning with vinegar, Dr Bronners soap and I finally resorted to Lysol spray. However nothing seemed to work. Whatever I used would clear the ants out for about five minutes then they would be back. I really did not want to try any sort of ant trap since those contain highly poisonous chemicals. I finally was able to track the ants down to a single hole at the base of the kitchen backsplash and that’s when I decided to try something drastic. I decided to try cayenne pepper. I had seen this fix in a couple of places on the internet but it seemed too good to be true.I placed a small amount of cayenne at the opening of the hole and used a paper towel to spread it up and down the backsplash. I wanted to make sure the ants could not just skirt around it and come in another way. Once I had placed the cayenne I used my homemade cleaner to clean as much of the counter as possible.This remedy has worked incredibly for me! I have not seen any more signs of ants, at all, in my kitchen. I noticed an immediate difference and have not seen any additional ants in my kitchen since placing the pepper. One thing to note, cayenne pepper while not toxic to furry babies, can burn them if they get too much on their paws or noses. You will want to be very careful if you have pets or children around that they do not come into contact with this ant remedy. Since the hole I was covering is at the base of my backsplash and pretty much continually covered I felt very comfortable using this method. Keep the cayenne to the smallest portion of your counter possible to avoid it coming into contact with people or pets.
