5 Tips To Keep Ants Out Of Your Kitchen

Everyone loves spring time– until it comes to ants infesting your kitchen. Most homeowners have a some traumatic ant infestation memories. Like the time you were having a birthday party for your kids and found ants all over the cake! Then all the kids screamed and yelled “Ew, Ants!”.  How embarrassing that was.  Other then having a regular visit from a pest control company this spring, there are things you can do in your home to keep the ants away. Although the best way is to guarantee no ants is to hire a pro, today we will give you some tips that may help keep your kitchen ant free, at least for a little while.

• Sealing cracks and holes with products like caulk, plaster and canned foam are great way to keep the ants at bay. Ants are usually coming from outdoors or underneath the house and they are seeking out food and moisture. The more holes you seal the less ants you may see. Areas to focus on sealing up are cracks on floor molding, window sills, and pipe openings around the plumbing areas. Although you cant be perfect about every crack and hole just do your very best. Every little bit counts!
• Keeping pet food off the floor is a big benefit to the problem. Pet food is a screaming buffet to ants. The two things they need, food and water, are sitting right there. Not only is it sitting in the food bowl but the pets will actually drop some on the floor after consuming. Try to do your best and put these food bowls on a small pedestal or at least not in direct contact with the floor.
• Keeping the kitchen clean will help by not attracting them into the kitchen in the first place. Sometimes when your cooking you’ll drop food scraps onto the floor. These little piece of food are a great feast for ants. Once a few ants find some scraps in your kitchen they will alert the other ants via pheromone trails and before you know it will completely infest your kitchen. The best way to keep on top of this is every two weeks be sure to mop up with a great cleaning product. You may also want to pull out your refrigerator and stove and clean underneath and behind those appliances as well. A clean kitchen is an ants worst nightmare!
• Cleaning up with lemon juice or vinegar will not eliminate the ants but it can mask their pheromone trail which can delay an infestation. Mopping the floor with a vinegar solution or cleaning the counter tops with a lemon solution will clean up any food scraps that may be attracting them too.
• Keep flower pots away from your window sills! Soil is a very desirable place for ants as it mimics their perfect habitat. Try to keep big flower pots away from the house and keep little flower pots off the windows. Also try to keep any debris like sticks and bags atleast 6-8 feet from your home.