Pest Control

The Ng household was under invasion. For the second Spring in a row, we have had unwelcome visitors of the multi-legged variety: ants. (Now don't get me wrong: I love all of God's creatures. But some of God's creatures need to understand that they are not welcome in my house...) They came a bit earlier this year than last year, probably because of the copious amount of rain we got in early-March. Last year, we were able to put traps everywhere we saw ants because Abby was not yet mobile enough to get at them. This year, that isn't the case. Baby girl finds everything and gets into everything. :-P So, what's a momma to do?

I did a little research on natural/non-chemical pest control. I found a good article on About.com and decided to give it a try. The results? May I present my arsenal.

First, we determined that most of the ants were coming in from the back deck that's attached to the kitchen. How did we stop the flow of traffic into the house? Baby powder!The talc in baby powder is a natural repellent. The flow of ants stopped immediately. We did have to be careful with this because, as you can tell from this photo, Abby likes hiding behind the curtains in the kitchen. However, we explained to her that the floor was dirty and that she can't play there anymore. It's so cute - now she'll stand in the kitchen, point to the baby powder, and say "dur-dee, ma ma."

We also saw some ants climbing the wall behind the counter top/back splash. My step-mom had suggested cucumbers peels, so Carey made a grocery store run, and I put the peels along the back splash.Something in cucumber and citrus peels is toxic to the fungi that ants feed on, so ants avoid them. This worked okay, until the peels started to dry out and then the ants could just walk around them. I wasn't about to eat an entire cucumber a day to supply myself with fresh peels...

Next up, we tried peppermint extract. The extract has such a strong smell that it is a natural pest repellent. This also worked okay for a time, but the scent seemed to dissipate quickly and I found myself having to wipe everything down with peppermint extract every hour or so.

Finally, we tried vinegar. I didn't really want to do this because I didn't really want my house to smell like vinegar, but nothing else that we'd tried had worked on the ants around our counter tops. I took a spray bottle and mixed up a solution of 50% white vinegar and 50% water. I sprayed the counter tops, walls, and stove, as well as the tops of the drawers and dishwasher. Let me tell you - this worked like a charm! Apparently, as much as I dislike the smell of vinegar, ants hate it even more! We have now been pretty much ant-free for the past two days. I'm still giving the counters and walls a good spray down a few times a day, just to make sure that those little buggers don't come back, but I'll have to remember, when next Spring rolls around, the magic word is VINEGAR!

We have placed a few traps on the counters and in locked cabinets (so Abby can't reach them). We've also put some bay leaves (also very strong-smelling) into the drawers where we keep things that we eat from or cook on, like the silverware drawer and the cabinets where we keep the baking sheets and cutting boards. I would much rather keep chemicals away from Abby, so if baby powder, vinegar, and bay leaves control our pest infestation, I am now their biggest fan!