Keep Summer In: Keep Pests Out!

Hello all!  I hope you had a nice and relaxing summer weekend!  I am ready to blog again (I swear!) and am will be working to bring you more Domestic Diversions!

I love summer, and I love the sunshine and warm weather in Cleveland (it's a rare treat), but I still manage to find a few gripes with the season of summer...

Perhaps the most unsavory part of summer are the bugs and pests.  Don't get me wrong, I appreciate nature and I am even one of those people who traps slow moving spiders in cups and lets them outside instead of squishing them.

Spiders are both cool and creepy
Photo courtesy of these terms

But there are some bugs who fail to follow the rules and who try to come inside when they know their place is outside.

My current bug frenemy is the ant.  Now I know they are noble creatures who live in a hill, gather food for one another and form some congenial colony, but when I find them in my kitchen, I seem to quickly forget their noteworthy traits...

The ant is not my friend.
Photo courtesy of Steve Jurvetson: Terms Here.

Our apartment is currently being intruded upon by ants.  I don't know where they are coming from, or why they love my kitchen but they are everywhere, and more importantly, I am finding them too close to my food...

I have tried to figure out how to get rid of these little bugs and started my pest removal with the most obvious solutions.

Step 1: Clean the kitchen!  Wipe down the floors, cupboards, shelves, sinks and any surface across which an ant might travel.  Grab any type of floor cleaner (I love the Method cleaners because they smell delicious and are safe for the kitty) and mop mop mop.  When there is no food reside on your floor or counters, the ants are less interested in your place.

Step 2:  Tackle the terrible job of cleaning out your cabinets.  Put all of your food in plastic bags.  Seal everything up so there is no food for ants to be noshing on.

Step 3:  Ants like pet food,  ALOT.  In fact your pet's food is a delicious feast for ants because it is startchy and has protein.  Make sure you seal up your pet's food and try not to let your pet graze all day.  Feed your animal, and limit the amount of time they have to "nom" then pick up their dish.  The more you can limit the ant's ability to find food, the better.

I don't take kindly to ants in my food.

Step 4: Get ant repelling products.  I went to my local hardware store and purchased some "natural" pest killer which is supposed to be safe for use around children and pets.  The only problem, is that it probably isn't as thorough as the toxic stuff.  However, since I: 1) value my health and 2) love my kitty, I don't want to have to resort to using toxic ant killers.  I'll stick it out with the natural ant killer, and hey at least it smells good.

Step Five:  Make some homemade ant traps.  I browsed the internet and found that the most common remedy for ant problems is sugar and Borax.  Borax (available at your local store in the laundry aisle as 20 Mule Borax) is a natural mineral that is non toxic (but not super safe to use around kids or kitties/puppies).  However, simply mixing Borax with sugar, and leaving the mixture out on a wide mouth dish or plastic lid near where the ants travel will prove to fatal to the ants who eat the Borax.  If all goes well, the ants should be attracted to the Borax by the sugar but will also take the Borax (which is toxic to the ants) back to the colony.... and poof, less ants in your kitchen.

Photo courtesy of fuzzcat, terms here.

I have only started using these traps with the Borax and will provide you an update with the success/failure of this home remedy.


Does summer bring you any domestic pains?  Are you looking for solutions to household problems?  Drop me a line and I'll be happy to look up/find some answers for you.

Looking forward to a lovely Tuesday!