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As cool as it is to watch ants carry food back to their ant hill in nature, it’s not cool to wake up and find a line of ants hauling bread crumbs across your kitchen counter. When faced with an ant invasion, the go to method for most people is to purchase store bought bug sprays and ant traps to take care of the problem.
While buy sprays may be effective to some degree, they can also bring harmful chemicals into the home. Thank goodness there is another option that naturally removes and repels ants without using any harmful chemicals in the process.
This all natural recipe will not only repel ants back into nature where they belong, but it will leave your home smelling fresh when you’re done.
All Natural Ant Repellent: What you’ll need
Lemon Essential Oil – ½ ounce (15 ml)
Peppermint Oil – ½ ounce (15 ml)
Water – 2.5 ounces (74 ml)
Amber Glass Spray Bottle – 4 ounce (118 ml)
How to mix & make it
Simply pour the water into the spray bottle first and then add the amounts of lemon and peppermint oil shown above. Cover the bottle, close it tightly, and gently agitate the solution till it is mixed well (15 seconds maximum agitation).
How to use it
For small areas around the home, simply spray the solution across window sills and doorways. For larger areas, spray the solution to window sills, doorways, counter tops and other points of entry or pre-existing problematic areas.
WHAT IF I HAVE A REALLY BIG ANT PROBLEM?
No problem, simply double part of the recipe and add an extra ingredient* with some extra kick* (See Below).
ANT ARMY REPELLENT RECIPE
Lemon Essential Oil – 1 ounce (30 ml)
Peppermint Oil – ½ ounce (15 ml)
Water – 5 ounces (148 ml)
*Black Pepper Essential Oil* – 1/2 ounce (15 ml)
Amber Glass Spray Bottle – 8 ounce (237 ml)
How to Mix & Make It
Simply pour the water into the spray bottle first and then add the stated amounts of lemon oil, peppermint oil, and black pepper oil shown above. Cover the bottle, close it tightly, and gently agitate the solution till it is mixed well (30 seconds maximum agitation).
How to use it
For a big ant problem or to simply cover a large area, spray the solution on window sills, doorways, counter tops and other points of entry or problematic areas.
A Quick FYI
Essentials oils, while natural, have the ability to breakdown plastics. Be mindful of where you spray the ant repellent to prevent damaging items in your home.
HOW IT WORKS
Lemon oil is a natural ingredient that when applied to areas frequented by ants, not only covers but disrupts the ants scent trail that they use to navigate around your home. Imaging someone turning off your GPS midway through a road trip. Without this scent trail, other ants outside of your home won’t be able to find the trail left by ants already in your home.
Peppermint oil compliments lemon oil perfectly because it is the active ingredient that repels the ants. No matter if there is an ant trail present or not, ants detest the smell of mint and will turn away on contact. The combination of these two ingredients will help prevent ants from invading your home.
The Extra kick – If you choose to add black pepper oil, you won’t be disappointed. Black pepper essential oil is very potent and ants detest it. If you have large areas to cover, or if you simply don’t want to take any chances with a big ant problem, this is the perfect addition to an already powerful ant repellent recipe.
Having trouble with bigger pests?
We have just the solution. Take a look at our non-toxic, no kill method to keep pest such as rodents away from your garden, and away from your home.