Things you can do to repel these pests inside and outside of your house:
- Keep the area moist and well watered to send the ants away. They like dry conditions.
- To keep them out of tree canopies, apply tanglefoot (a balsam resin) to tree trunk bases. If you do not want to paint directly on the tree, wrap a fiberglass/plastic covering around the bottom and paint this. This will also help curb cankerworm infestations.
- Make a tea of ferns and pour around affected plants.
- Apply corn meal – the ants cannot digest it and they die.
- Keep ants at bay by drawing a line with a chalk around home entry points. The ants will be repelled by the calcium carbonate in the chalk, which is actually made up of ground-up and compressed shells of marine animals. Scatter powdered chalk around garden plants to repel ants.
- Place the flowerpot upside down over the anthill. Pour boiling water through the drain hole.
- Simply mix the juice of 4 lemons (along with the rinds) with 1/2 gallon (2 liters) water and spray it in the places you encounter ants.
- You can also blend water and citrus peelings in a food processor or blender. Lemon peelings are the most effective.
- In a blender, make a smooth puree of a few orange peels in 1 cup warm water. Slowly pour the solution over and into anthills.
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