Good natural non-artificial ant-repellent. What should i use?

So its summer once again and the ants have found a way in to the house, squading everything that is sweet. My parents use some heavy chemical # on them,at the spots they come in. so i wanted to ask if there are better, more natural means to have them gone (like in repell, not kill them violently and painfull).

Has anyone tried something on them that works?

Thanks for your suggestions in advance

Aside from drowning them out of their mound, I haven't found any natural remedy that legitimately works. I try to be organic, but I broke down and bought some Ortho Max...problem solved!

As long as they are in their mound and stay in the garden area its all fine, i want to keep them outside, but thanks for the reply.

I thought of something like garlic or similar. I heard garlic or oregano works but i wanted to know for sure

I tried Texas pete once With a little success.I'm assuming these are the little black ants.I've always wanted to try one of the plug in things that are supposed to keep all varmints out.

As long as we're on the subject of ants...Dry oatmeal sprinkled on the mound will kill fire ants.

reply to post by wehere

Hm, ok thanks.
What is Texas pete anyway, and is it available in Greece too ? ^^

I would prefer it not to kill them, rather create some kind of "smell" barrier around the entrances from whitch they enter the house.

Funny enough all the ants dissapeared misteriously, the last two days, maybe its due to the heavy rainfalls. Even around the sugar they are nowhere to be found, no ant inside the house whatsoever


But im sure they come back.

has any one tried oregano yet, and has some good results?

Edit to add: Yes, its the little black european ant

[edit on 15-5-2010 by Dynamitrios]

Originally posted by Dynamitrios
so i wanted to ask if there are better, more natural means to have them gone (like in repell, not kill them violently and painfull).

Ants won't cross a chalk line. Try it.

Place a trail of diatomaceous earth (also 100% natural) around the outside perimeter of your house to keep ants from crawling inside.

Take a shovel and go to one Ant hill mound and put ants and mound on another ant hill and they'll fight and die from there war or put ten pounds of suger weekly at your neighbors house on till they move on account of the size of there brain pan.

We just had them in our kids closet...argh!

You can use peppermint essential oil. They really hate that. You could mix 20 drops or so in a small spray bottle with water and spritz where ever they are. It doesn't kill them but they run away. You could also place drops of the essential oil where they are coming in and this may help to deter them.

The DE is a fabulous idea as mentioned above. No insect can survive that stuff.

Sprinkling corn meal around is supposed to kill them. They will eat it and then drink water & blow up (so I've read but have not tried this one).

I'm pretty sure pyretherin spray will work on them too. You can look into the "Safer Brand Co." I love their natural insect repellents and killers.

I have found both Black Pepper & Chili Powder to be effectve ant repellants in the past. Just spirnkle it around the baseboards and along the back edges of your counter tops and cupboards. This worked for me but would be interested in hearing your results as well. Good luck.