How do you get rid of honeypot ants at home? This post here is to help you come up with some of the best home remedies and tips to get rid of ants fast and naturally.
When you think of honey, you naturally tend to think of something positive and sweet. Have you ever seen how or the way honey oozes slowly. However, honey is good and pleasant but something that is not pleasant is the honeypot ants. Like any other ant, they are amazing creatures but can be stubborn especially when they invade our homes.
Thus it is helpful to know what to do when you are struck with such an infestation.
What Do Honey Ants Look Like?
First thing before embarking on getting rid of honeypot ant infestation, you should know how the ants look like. A honeypot ant also known as honey ant, false honey ant or winter ant, is a small ant. Usually, its size is only about one –eighth of an inch long. The queen is slightly larger.
They can be black or brown, with a smooth and shiny bodies. The ones you likely see are mostly the worker ants and have triangular abdomen and a circle of hairs at the tip of that triangle.
How Prevalent are Honeypot Ants
Honeypots ants are common and visible ants usually in North America. Reason, they are more tolerant to the cold weather than other ants. They can also live in a wide variety of regions. Although in America, the ants are native to Canadian border.
Why and how do these ants enter Home?
Honeypot ants are called so because of their desire to eat everything sweet thus the name. Why would these ants enter your home? One of the main reasons these ants would enter your home is because they find supply of favorite foods such as sugar, syrup, honey, fruits, cakes bread and meats.
Honeypots ants usually enter the homes through small cracks, crevices and any other openings especially the kitchen.
This is not the only way honeypot ants infiltrate homes. Plants are also the other attractive organisms for these ants. They like to gnaw on flower buds and chew into the sweet syrup of their stalks.
Are honeypots ants dangerous?
The good news is these ants only infest home but they are not dangerous to humans. They do not sting or bite. Although they can be a major inconvenience to a home or business. The ants enjoy plants. You will notice their presence from the damage to the leaves and buds of the flowers at home or business. They can also cause food wastage if they get into the pantry.
What to do if there are honeypot ants at home?
Should you find yourself infested with honeypot ants, don’t panic. Be proactive. Here is what to do?
1. Keep the area clean as possible
Sweeping up crumbs and cleaning spills is essential when dealing with these ants. Also, if your home or office has outgrown plants or flowers, trim them so that they are not growing especially up the building or walls.
2. Seal any cracks in walls or windows
The second option is to deny the ants entry to your home. Start by sealing all openings or entries such as cracks in walls, windows or door frames and anywhere these ants are likely to get into your homes.
3. Use a baited ant trap
You best option if you are trying to get rid of honeypot ant colony in your home or business is use a baited ant trap. Your bait ant trap should be combined with something that attract these ants and poison. To figure out this, simply lay out some of the ants’ favorite sweet foodstuffs mentioned earlier in the post.
Figure out which bait which attracts the ants most in and outside of your home.
4. Call a pest control expert
Should you feel overwhelmed or probably you have no idea how to start, you can always call for pest control specialist. This can happen if your home or business is heavily infested with the ants. Honeypot ants can survive cold weather for long. Their infestation therefore could last longer and become widespread than most of other ant species.
How to Get Rid of Honeypot Ants
Here is how you can get rid of honeypot ants.
1. Using Hot Water
As mentioned earlier in the post, the honeypot ants can survive in cold weather for long. What does that mean? Just like any other species of ants, honeypot ants can be killed with hot or boiling water. How?
- Boil 3 – 4 liters of water
- Pour periodically in the nest hole and it will kill most of them if not all
It can be bothersome to boil water and pouring in the nest hole, but certainly all the ants will be killed in due time. If not the remaining ants will run away.
2. Chemical Bait
There are a variety of products in the market which can be used to as bait for the ants. You can make a mixture of chemicals to efficiently kill the ants. Add something sweet to a pesticide to attract the ants. When the ants eat food induced with toxic, they will eventually die. All you have to do is to sweep and dispose them off.
3. White Vinegar
One of the best recommended way to kill honeypot ants is using white vinegar. Here’s how to:
- Mix a solution of vinegar and water in equal ratio of 1: 1
- Use the solution to spray the area infested with ants
Otherwise, use the mixture to clean and wipe floors, kitchen surface, floor surfaces and countertops. When the ants smell the vinegar, it kills them by drying them out. Naturally, vinegar is a repellant to ants. Just the smell of vinegar is enough to get rid of honeypot ants.
3. Peppermint
Thinking of how fast and naturally to get rid of honeypot ants? Think no more! Peppermint works magic when trying to get rid of ant infestation at home. How? Here’s how:
- Mix 10 – 20 drops of peppermint essential oil with 1 or 2 cups of water
- Stir the mixture
- Spray the mixture where the ants are seen to be coming from
- Spray the mixture evenly
- Allow it to dry
4. Tea tree oil
To kill and get rid of honeypot ants fast and naturally, you should add tea tree oil as a method. But how?
Here’s how to:
- Mix 5 – 10 drops of tea tree oil with a cup of water
- Stir to mix evenly
- Spray the ants’ colony and areas infested
- Allow it to dry.
- Do this repeatedly at least twice or thrice daily
Otherwise, you can use saturated cotton balls and place them where the honeypots are seen. If you find the scent of the spray too strong, you can combine the mixture with water and peppermint oil.
5. Boric acid
Boric acid has been tested and proven to kill various species of ants and their colony naturally fast. When you make a spray out of boric acid, it kills the ants by eroding their outer shells and stomach. Just make sure the spray is out of children and pets. Also wear gloves when handling it.
Here’s how to use it:
- Make a solution of teaspoons of boric acid, 4 teaspoons of sugar and 2 cups of warm water
- Stir gently to mix
- Saturate cotton balls
- Place around your homes in areas where the ants are seen
- You can repeat the procedure thrice daily for effective results
References:
- https://ants.com/how-to-get-rid-of-honeypot-ants/
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/honeypot-ants
- https://www.nationalgeographic.org/media/honey-ant-adaptations-wbt/
