The infestation has begun! At least of ants in my kitchen anyways. While I am fairly clean and utilize my eco friendly cleaning products to clean on a regular basis, ants have found their way into my kitchen. I don’t mind bugs, but I just do not want them in my house! In pondering about how to deal with this situation I went through the possible standard options: expensive toxic chemical sprays or living with ants. Neither of these sounded good to me so I started researching ways to deal with these indoor pests naturally.
First, the best way to prevent pests is to keep your space clean. However, if you have pests just cleaning won’t necessarily make them go away. I found a great article from doityourself.com ( doityourself Natural Pest Control ) that describes natural ways of dealing with indoor pests. According to this article, the best ways to deal with ants naturally are…
1) Vinegar, the ultimate multi-tasker! You use it in salad dressings and to clean your house, now use it to get rid of ants! Clean all countertops, floors, and cabinets with equal parts of vinegar & water to deter ants.
2) Bone Meal or Charcoal Powder. According to the doityourself article ants will not cross a line of bone meal, coarsely ground bones used as an organic fertilizer, or lines of charcoal powder. Bone meal can be purchased at a variety of places from your local pharmacy or health store to a garden center. Charcoal powder can also be purchased from a pharmacy or health store.
3) The power of citrus! Lemon can help cure your ant woes. If you know where the ants are coming from and have found their entrance to your home squirt some lemon juice into the crack or hole and then slice pieces of the lemon peel and put in around the entrance.
The article also suggests using Borax which is not “acutely toxic”, but really doesn’t make me feel that great about it because it can still be toxic if ingested in large amounts. So if you choose to use borax make sure to keep it out of reach of children and pets.
This article also offers tips on how to get rid of roaches, moths, mosquitoes, flies and fleas. Check it out and preserve the indoor air quality of your home by trying a natural form of pest control!
Urban ECO Nest 
