Probably every person faced the problem of house ants, at least once in his life. But where did these small insects come from? Let's go into history a little.
In 1758, the Swedish scientist Karl Linnaeus was transferred several insects - ants found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs. The scientist suggested that only Egypt and the adjoining sites of North Africa are the place of their residence, and gave them the name "Pharaohs ant". Then, beginning in 1828, notes appeared about the discovery of this species in various parts of the world from Europe to Australia. From that moment, probably the question arose: "And how now to get rid of house ants?".
By the way, an adult ant has a size of 2-2.5 mm, a female up to 4 mm. They dwell in warm, dark and damp places. An anthill occupies a large area, since it is divided into a number of nests (3-4 females) and connected with each other by courses. When conditions worsen in one of them, insects move to another. Usually the area of the anthill covers the entire dwelling, which makes it difficult to fight against domestic ants.
Let's try to find out what the domestic ants are afraid of. Firstly, the insect is thermophilic and, naturally, the cold is not a companion for them. Secondly, they feed on waste and crumbs from our table. So, keeping cleanliness and order, we complicate their lives.
But, all the same, before deciding how to get rid of house ants, you need to find out where they come from in the apartment. The answer is simple: before the breeding season, females of this insect have wings and are able to fly from place to place. Similarly, the ants are so small that they will slip into any cracks and holes.
How to get rid of small domestic ants?
Modern industry offers various means of combating domestic ants, for example, "Taiga" and "Angara", as well as various "crayons". These means process the path of insects. Nevertheless, to completely get rid of the ants in the apartment, you must first find a nest. This business is not easy. Observe the insects and find out where their paths lead. The peculiarity of this species is that the female can not feed herself, this is what the working individuals do. If you stop delivering food to the nest, it will die. To do this, you can use the "Anteater" or similar preparations containing diethyltoluamide (DETA). We treat them the places of movement of insects 2 times, with a break of 3-4 days. You can also use lures with a cumulative effect. This is when the ant that has eaten the poison does not die right away, but manages to reach the nest and infect another couple of relatives. In this way, for several days, the problem of how to get home ants can be completely solved. In addition, the effect of many drugs persists for a long time and helps prevent the emergence of new "invaders".
Folk remedies for house ants
But there are also more simple methods how to get rid of indoor ants. It turns out that insects also have their own tastes. Some foods like them more, and the smell of others simply scares them off. Ants are very sweet and people use it, so the simplest way to destroy these insects is honey or thick sugar syrup. It is easy enough to pour in a saucer or other container and put in the way of their following. They can climb, but they can not get out, they die there.
Muravyov scares away the smell of sunflower oil, garlic, kerosene, wild mint and elderberry leaves. It is enough simply to decompose these plants or to smear them with the surface in places of movement of insects. Do these actions several times a month and the ants will go away.
You can also use baits with borax or boric acid. Here are some examples of such mixtures:
- Boric acid is mixed with sugar in equal proportions and ground into powder, which is scattered in the habitats of insects;
- 5 g of borax and 50 g of sugar are bred in 50 g of water, add 1/2 teaspoon of jam and pour on plastic lids. We put on the ant track.
We hope our material has helped you find the answer to the question of how to get rid of house ants. Nevertheless, if the situation is greatly neglected, it is better not to spare time and money and call specialists on the destruction of domestic insects.