Let's start our story about ants, whichpenetrate into apartments, we would like to share with you a message from one of our readers. “I have never been tormented by the question of where ants come from in my grandmother’s log house in the village. In my opinion, everything is quite clear and understandable: a damp cellar filled with supplies, soil, proximity to a vegetable garden – in a word, nature is nearby. But when ants appeared in the apartment, my surprise grew with every new centimeter of the ant path examined. It turned out that their path began from the balcony, then zigzagged across the entire living room, and, having passed the hallway, “my” eaters rushed into the pantry, where last year a jar of jam shot out, and the sweet delicacy leaked through cracks in the floor into the basement (I forgot to mention that my apartment was on the first floor). How, in what way, with what kind of sense of smell did these small pests find a feeder for themselves?!”

Insatiable hordes of ants: how to get rid of them

The most unpleasant danger that threatensthe appearance of ants in your home - the spread of pathogenic microbes. But the persistence and ability of ants to occupy "everything, everyone and everywhere" is the limit of human patience! And here it is very important to start the fight for a place "under the sun" in time and correctly. Ethiopian ants (this is the name of the insects living in our homes, the first individuals of which were brought by Russian merchants from Ethiopia with goods several centuries ago), like all other species of ants, are purely social insects, and therefore one scout will lead thousands of militiamen. By crushing one with a slipper, you will not destroy the entire colony. The female ant is capable of reproducing a hundred newborns in a short time to replace the dead individual. And therefore, all control measures should be aimed at detecting the main object - the nest. Since domestic ants are much smaller than their natural counterparts, they can settle in the most unexpected places: under the baseboard, in sockets, in construction cracks in the wall, they can even come to you from neighbors or from the street. These small insects feed on almost everything: for breakfast they will eat sweets, for lunch - raw meat, fish, for dinner - they will not disdain the crumbs left over from lunch and water accumulated in the sink, and for dessert - they can snack on household appliances! And you should also understand what an "ant colony" is. If you accidentally took ants home with some food, from work or from neighbors, then you brought worker ants, and they cannot reproduce and grow a colony. For this, you need a female, and if you have a lot of ants, then look for her, look for a nest. And if you find them, destroy them mercilessly. Then you won’t have to store bread in a jar and put the jar in a basin of water, treating the edges with vegetable oil! Preventive measures If ant raids have become as commonplace for you every year as poplar fluff in the summer, and you are already expecting them to appear, then be prepared and take preventive measures in advance. Seal all possible cracks, holes, chips with cement mortar or putty. Plant wormwood or mint on the balcony, the smell of which will scare away the insects. Also, ants do not like the pungent smells of elderberry and garlic. Treat the perimeter of your room, the backs of furniture and other possible places where ants accumulate with Mashenka chalk. Place bait in the expected areas in advance. Wash the floors with water and vinegar and do not miss the “first scout”.Ants are attacking! So it happened.The day before yesterday you accidentally found an ant in the sugar bowl, yesterday there were already two dozen of them on the table, and today you almost stepped on a line of ant families! What should you do? How to get rid of ants in your apartment? Follow the path, inspect the supposed nesting place of the ants and start acting. If the discovered place is local, use regular Dichlorvos or another insecticide. However, the presence of a nest, for example, in the floor under the baseboard, aggravates the situation. Do not worry, you do not need to remove all the parquet on the ants' path for this. In this case, it would be wiser to supply the worker ants with such a poison, which they will bring home and infect the entire colony. The paths of the ant colony can and should be treated with vegetable oil or garlic infusion. If these products are ineffective, you will have to use heavy artillery – chemical products “Angara”, “Taiga”. A proven product that effectively rids a house of ants is DEET. The treatment with products must be repeated after three to four days. Folk wisdom against ant cunning You can win this difficult fight for completely clearing the premises of uninvited guests with the help of all kinds of ant baits. There are various methods that many have successfully used to get rid of red insects. The most effective and fastest way is to “feed” the pests with a delicacy containing boric acid or borax. Here are the most effective compositions with which you can quickly get rid of impudent “freeloaders”:

• With boiled egg yolk

Mix one teaspoon of borax or boric acidacid with one boiled egg yolk, put the mixture in places where insects gather. Renew this ant "delicacy" in a week, and you will forget about the misfortune that befell you forever.

• With sugar, brown and boric acid

It is necessary to take boric acid in equal proportionsacid, borax and granulated sugar. Mix everything and sprinkle in several places on the ants' path. Having eaten the poison and taking it with them, the ants will return to the nest and poison their colony.

• Liquid composition with honey or jam

Prepare liquid bait:Dissolve 1 teaspoon of borax (boric acid) and the same amount of sugar in fifty grams of water and add a teaspoon of honey or jam. Pour the sweet poison into saucers and place them along the ants' path.

• Composition that can be stored for a long time

This infusion can be stored all summer long anduse as needed. Mix in a small container two tablespoons of water, two tablespoons of glycerin, one teaspoon of boric acid (borax), two teaspoons of honey and three tablespoons of sugar. Put on the fire and stir the mixture until all ingredients are completely dissolved.

• Compositions that are completely harmless to humans

Sprinkle the most densely populated areas with regular ant spray.baking powder used to make dough. Or make a mixture of yeast and sugar (honey, jam). Yeast acts on ants like a real poison. In principle, in all recipes containing boric acid or borax, the basic elements are these chemical powders, all other ingredients you add only to bait the ants. Any products that these insects like will do: sugar, honey, bread, eggs, boiled potatoes, jam, cookies, and so on. When preparing compositions using borax or boric acid, you cannot increase the dose of these chemicals. Your task is to destroy the entire colony, and for this you need the worker ants to have time to get to the nest and infect the rest of their relatives with poison. Do not neglect store-bought ant baits, various chemicals. The market of insecticides is updated every season, and you can always choose something that is most suitable for you. Just read the instructions carefully and don't forget about safety. If you have small children or pets in your home, be especially careful with the location of the poisons. Along with the prompt actions against insects, clean up your kitchen. Pour all the cereals into glass jars, treat the edges with sunflower oil. By the way, vegetable oil, generously poured around the circle, perfectly protects any items on the table. True, it is not very aesthetically pleasing. But if you have seriously declared war on ants, then do not leave them the slightest chance to find even a crumb of food and a drop of water.

Beat on all fronts

Mainly using folk methodsgetting rid of ants is effective at the initial stage, but advanced or annually recurring cases of ant "occupation" indicate that either their nest is deep and it is impossible to detect it (for example, under the balcony or in the basement), or you are not the only "lovers" of insects in your entrance, and your neighbors do not even think of taking any action, and ants are their little brothers. Or perhaps you poison the pests in turn: you poison - the ants go to the neighbors, the neighbors in the entrance poison - the insects return to their native penates. And therefore, coordinate your actions with your neighbors, it is necessary to fight ants collectively and simultaneously. Unfortunately, there are cases of mass settlement of a large colony of ants throughout the entire entrance. Then you have no choice but to call a specialized pest control service - pest control specialists. This is an effective, fast and 100% method of fighting ants. Yes, this is not an easy job - ridding your home of ants! But it is worth it so that your kitchen with fresh products, bathroom with scented soap, pantry with all supplies, your peace of mind and your safety are the only neighbors in the apartment. We hope that our advice will help you defeat the small and annoying pests. We wish you all good luck and perseverance!

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