How to Remove Red Ants from Your Kitchen—For Good

Ants are hardy creatures, and if you find a long trail of red ants in your kitchen, getting rid of them can be easier said than done. Red ants are attracted to food smells and even the tiniest bit will attract them. You could do a brilliant job of keeping your house clean but with one blob of ketchup or peanut butter, you could find that a red ant and all of his friends. Here are some ways that you can attempt to tackle the problem.

When life gives you lemons—make an ant repellent

Ants are notoriously repelled by the scent of lemons. As a relatively inexpensive food, lemons provide a way of getting rid of those red ants for good. After you clean your kitchen, squeeze pure lemon juice on to a cloth and spread it all over your countertops, cabinets, drawers, and floors. Those ants will not want to come close and you'll have a pleasant fresh lemon smell in your kitchen.

Mark your territory with chalk

When you draw a line of chalk, ants will not cross the line. They get covered in the stuff and they simply do not like it. And any enemy of an ant is a friend of yours. This works best if there is a clear path from outside of your house and into your kitchen because you can then draw a chalk line and those ants won't cross the border. If, however, you are not quite sure where those ants are coming from, actually knowing where to draw a chalk line will be a little more problematic.

Create your own honey trap

Ants love honey. A saucer of honey can be a great idea to create a trap with some bait in the form of sweet and sugary honey. The key ingredient, as well as honey, is boric acid. This is essentially stomach poison to ants. Lace the edge of the saucer with the acid so that the ants have to walk through it to get to the good stuff. This will kill them off, one by one.

And if all else fails and the red ants are still trying to make your kitchen their favourite chill out spot, it's time to call the pest control people and get the big guns involved. They will use eco-friendly products to ensure that they get rid of the ants without injuring kids or pets.