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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/2r1gT3I:
lovethoseantyboys:
bomberqueen17:
ahhh what do ants hate???
i rain-proofed the yurt by stuffing all my bedding into a trunk. i mouse-proofed the trunk by stuffing it full of dryer sheets. it all seemed fine: the roof leaked while i was gone, and the air mattress, bare rubber, dried just fine.
opened the trunk to remake my bed: bedding is all dry but AUGH HOLY SHIT THE TRUNK IS FULL OF ANTS.
My world is ants.
Spiders hate clove oil and peppermint. Mice hate dryer sheets. Ants seem totally unfazed by both.
It reeks, by the way, of clove oil and Bounce in this piece. Also myrrh incense, because I was trying to make it smell like something else in here, and I had a measure of success, certainly, but uh.
ANTS UGH UGH UGH.
At least after a lot of screwing around I managed to get the power to work. Two one-hundred-foot extension cords is a long way to check for breaks or problems, and i’m still not sure what the problem was, but at least i have power. When I discovered the ants, I had only a candle, and I resolved to myself that if I could not get a light to work, I was not sleeping in a dark ant-infested yurt but instead would go sleep on the couch in the house. (The guestroom is occupied, which is why I’m glad i have the yurt…)
But I need to know what ants hate, and if the smell of it will be as overpowering as– currently, the clove oil is winning. Fortunately i like clove oil.
The question should be “what do ants like” rather than “what do ants hate.” The ants will be attracted by any food products or food smells. Work to get rid of any food in the area, and then clean any surfaces you can with diluted vinegar.
Hopefully, one the ants realize that there is nothing around for them, they will leave. Hope this helps!
-Antlo
Well, this along with so many other extremely helpful suggestions I’m gonna copy and paste below, are all probably very very helpful to people who are living indoors. So, to all y’all for whom this might work, here’s a compilation:
tora42
the only thing i can thing of for ants that isn’t a can of raid is bleach. i had ants in my apt last year and that seemed to work
bebeocho
i’ve never tried it, but i’ve heard that they hate cinnamon and a cinnamon barrier (like an autumn-flavored salt circle) will keep them out of places?
thesacredreznor
we have a constant ant problem here and peppermint oil works well for us. the kind that comes in a can? and it makes the whole house smell like a candy cane so it’s not so bad.
harpergetsfannish
Ants won’t cross a talcum powder barrier. Less useful in the rain.
deputychairman
IDK but good luck!
millicentthecat
Cucumber and kale! No lie it complete my banished my ants! (They were the very tiny ones.)
samurailibrarian
I’ve tried the cinnamon trick & it doesn’t work. :-(
conventionaltealover
lavender
sleepyheliantheae
there’s no scent that will make them go away unfortunately, but once you get them out, wipe it down with vinegar. this will “erase” their pheromone trails and keep more ants from coming in. hope this helps :)
I’m not. I’m living in a yurt. It has canvas walls and a plywood platform floor. There’s no food in the yurt, I don’t eat there, it’s just a bedroom. I don’t have so much as a granola bar in the place. The ants are probably attracted because it’s dry, I really don’t know. So– all these wonderful suggestions to clean surfaces with vinegar– it’s an unfinished wooden trunk, it’s not like I can just wipe it down.
I can only guess that the ants considered the dryer sheets I was using to ward off mice, which infested me last summer, to smell like food, though they weren’t eating them.
I’ll try bleach, I guess, and then I’ll put some lavender sachets in the trunk with the bedding. Someone said camphor, I don’t see it in the replies here, but I’ll pick some of that up. It already reeks of clove oil and dryer sheets, so I might as well go the whole hog. Being outdoors, smells do dissipate quickly.
In the rain, for anyone’s reference, the clove oil for spiders wears off in a day or so and the spiders come back. But at least I can chase them off occasionally with it.
I should get the peppermint oil I have into a spritz bottle. I’m never going to be rid of any particular pests; I’m basically living outdoors. I just want to figure out how to keep them from building nests in my fucking sheets. Which mice did last year, and dryer sheets are the answer (peppermint is lauded against mice but I can tell you firsthand, not effective, while dryer sheets are), but if dryer sheets attract ants, I gotta double up with something.
lovethoseantyboys:
bomberqueen17:
ahhh what do ants hate???
i rain-proofed the yurt by stuffing all my bedding into a trunk. i mouse-proofed the trunk by stuffing it full of dryer sheets. it all seemed fine: the roof leaked while i was gone, and the air mattress, bare rubber, dried just fine.
opened the trunk to remake my bed: bedding is all dry but AUGH HOLY SHIT THE TRUNK IS FULL OF ANTS.
My world is ants.
Spiders hate clove oil and peppermint. Mice hate dryer sheets. Ants seem totally unfazed by both.
It reeks, by the way, of clove oil and Bounce in this piece. Also myrrh incense, because I was trying to make it smell like something else in here, and I had a measure of success, certainly, but uh.
ANTS UGH UGH UGH.
At least after a lot of screwing around I managed to get the power to work. Two one-hundred-foot extension cords is a long way to check for breaks or problems, and i’m still not sure what the problem was, but at least i have power. When I discovered the ants, I had only a candle, and I resolved to myself that if I could not get a light to work, I was not sleeping in a dark ant-infested yurt but instead would go sleep on the couch in the house. (The guestroom is occupied, which is why I’m glad i have the yurt…)
But I need to know what ants hate, and if the smell of it will be as overpowering as– currently, the clove oil is winning. Fortunately i like clove oil.
The question should be “what do ants like” rather than “what do ants hate.” The ants will be attracted by any food products or food smells. Work to get rid of any food in the area, and then clean any surfaces you can with diluted vinegar.
Hopefully, one the ants realize that there is nothing around for them, they will leave. Hope this helps!
-Antlo
Well, this along with so many other extremely helpful suggestions I’m gonna copy and paste below, are all probably very very helpful to people who are living indoors. So, to all y’all for whom this might work, here’s a compilation:
tora42
the only thing i can thing of for ants that isn’t a can of raid is bleach. i had ants in my apt last year and that seemed to work
bebeocho
i’ve never tried it, but i’ve heard that they hate cinnamon and a cinnamon barrier (like an autumn-flavored salt circle) will keep them out of places?
thesacredreznor
we have a constant ant problem here and peppermint oil works well for us. the kind that comes in a can? and it makes the whole house smell like a candy cane so it’s not so bad.
harpergetsfannish
Ants won’t cross a talcum powder barrier. Less useful in the rain.
deputychairman
IDK but good luck!
millicentthecat
Cucumber and kale! No lie it complete my banished my ants! (They were the very tiny ones.)
samurailibrarian
I’ve tried the cinnamon trick & it doesn’t work. :-(
conventionaltealover
lavender
sleepyheliantheae
there’s no scent that will make them go away unfortunately, but once you get them out, wipe it down with vinegar. this will “erase” their pheromone trails and keep more ants from coming in. hope this helps :)
I’m not. I’m living in a yurt. It has canvas walls and a plywood platform floor. There’s no food in the yurt, I don’t eat there, it’s just a bedroom. I don’t have so much as a granola bar in the place. The ants are probably attracted because it’s dry, I really don’t know. So– all these wonderful suggestions to clean surfaces with vinegar– it’s an unfinished wooden trunk, it’s not like I can just wipe it down.
I can only guess that the ants considered the dryer sheets I was using to ward off mice, which infested me last summer, to smell like food, though they weren’t eating them.
I’ll try bleach, I guess, and then I’ll put some lavender sachets in the trunk with the bedding. Someone said camphor, I don’t see it in the replies here, but I’ll pick some of that up. It already reeks of clove oil and dryer sheets, so I might as well go the whole hog. Being outdoors, smells do dissipate quickly.
In the rain, for anyone’s reference, the clove oil for spiders wears off in a day or so and the spiders come back. But at least I can chase them off occasionally with it.
I should get the peppermint oil I have into a spritz bottle. I’m never going to be rid of any particular pests; I’m basically living outdoors. I just want to figure out how to keep them from building nests in my fucking sheets. Which mice did last year, and dryer sheets are the answer (peppermint is lauded against mice but I can tell you firsthand, not effective, while dryer sheets are), but if dryer sheets attract ants, I gotta double up with something.
