About this Recipe

Wanting to protect and preserve mother nature is a beautiful thing, even when it comes to insects that are sometimes deemed to be pests. Even though these little creatures can be pretty annoying at times, it's always nice to try natural home remedies when you're doing bug control instead of harmful chemicals.

The natural home remedies are meant to detract insects instead of killing them all, to serve as a simple warning to keep them out of your space. Sometimes insects like ants just don't know any better, and they're just after one thing, and that's food. You've probably noticed that ants typically go after foods that are high in sugar like candies, honey, syrup and desserts, so if you have these around in your kitchen or home, it's best to keep them contained and away in a cabinet or better yet in the fridge.

If you have soda cans in your recycle bin inside your home, make sure you rinse them out really well with hot water before you put them in the bin. You can also check the seals around your doors and windows to make sure there are no ways for ants to enter into your home. Taking these types of preventive measures is the first step to keeping ants and other bugs like fruit flies and house flies at bay.

Although, if you're venturing outdoors, anything goes and you're in their territory now too. So if you need to keep them away while you're out in the yard or camping outdoors, there are some great natural home remedies you can use for bug control. One of the best natural home remedies for bug control including ant control is Lemon.

Ants don't like the scent of lemons at all, and so they will steer clear of anything that smells like it. The strong scent of lemon can also cover their tracks making it harder for them to find their way back to a food source or to your home. You can either use fresh lemon juice or rind, or you can get an essential oil of lemon or an essential oil blend with lemon oil in it. Place the lemon in whatever form you prefer around the area you've noticed ants travelling into your home and notice that the ants will stay away. Peppermint is another natural home remedy that people use to keep ants away.

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Similar to Lemon, peppermint deters ants because it overpowers their senses since it has such a powerful aroma. You can use peppermint oil or an essential oil blend with peppermint in it around your home just as you would with the lemon to keep these bugs away.

Cinnamon or clove in powder or essential oil form will also have the same deterring effect on these critters, and won't harm them but will make sure that they stay far away from you and your home. In the same way, you can look to other spices in your pantry like cayenne pepper or even ground pepper as a natural home remedy for bug control. The pungent odour of these peppers is way too much for those little guys to handle so they'll take one whiff and walk away. Baby powder also throws ants off of their trail into your home too so you can just sprinkle it around the entrance ways to your house or wherever you don't want them to go.

Chalk works in the same way, but you can use a stick of chalk to draw a line marking a clear boundary they won't cross. Try out a few of the different bug control natural remedies and see how they work out for you. You can even double up on a few of the ideas you like and increase your chances of keeping them away.