Can you tell me how to get rid of ants in kitchen cupboards? I leave my cats’s food and water dishes on the floor of the pantry. Accordingly, I suspect that’s causing the problem. Everything else is tightly covered or inside unopened packages. Thank you.
Margaret Willon, Sandusky, OH
Ants definitely belong outside rather than in your kitchen. I think you’re right about the source of the problem. If you want to know how to get rid of ants in kitchen cupboards, it’s best to start with the cat food. Also, check your other shelves for improperly covered foods. Crumbs and spills are an invitation to ants, too.
Now is the perfect time to clean all cabinets in your kitchen to be sure that ants have not spread everywhere. To get rid of cockroaches in kitchen cabinets, take everything out of each cabinet, one at a time, and wipe them with a vinegar-based cleaner.
Clean the entire interior of the cabinet with the solution. Dry the cabinets and replace items. The ants may also be attracted to grease smells in the kitchen, so degrease kitchen cabinets and the other surfaces in the area, too.
As for the cat food, store the unused dry mix in sealed plastic containers, not just bags that are clipped shut. Next, make a boundary around the food dishes with one of the many items that disrupt their pheromone trails. For example, try coffee grounds, chalk, or ground cinnamon. The full list appears in this article:https://www.tipsbulletin.com/how-to-keep-ants-away-from-cat-food/
Along with that, keep the pet dishes clean. If you don’t need to leave out food all day, don’t. Wipe down the containers with an essential oil that repels ants. Some of these include cinnamon, lemon, clove, and peppermint.
Moreover, even making a water-filled moat out of an aluminum cooking sheet can protect the food from invading insects. It doesn’t have to hold a lot of water to be effective.
Now, you may find that you need an insecticide to reduce the ant population in your home. In that case, try this homemade recipe. It’s non-toxic to pets in small quantities. First, combine fifteen drops of lemon, orange, and clove oil with two teaspoons of vodka in two ounces of water. Then spray that in areas where you see the ants. You can also attack them directly to kill them.
Finally, while you can also use boric acid to poison ants, this can harm your cats. Consequently, it’s better to try other methods first.
Joan