How To Get Rid Of Ants Naturally Outside | DIY Tricks to get Rid of Ants from Your House

When using chemical pesticides to kill ants, you risk polluting groundwater and harming beneficial species like bees, butterflies, and beetles.

Instead, try these natural ant-removal methods in your yard and house. They’re better for your family, pets, and the environment.

Although not all compounds we offer are derived from nature, they are far safer than chemical insecticides and do not pollute water. These techniques should work on most ant species that infest lawns and dwellings.

How to Get Rid of Ants in a Natural Way

Diatomaceous earth 

It works as follows: Diatomaceous earth (DE) comprises microscopic organisms called diatoms that have left behind small fossils. Although the fossils are too small to harm people, they are lethal to ants. DE particles slash through ants’ exoskeletons, causing them to dehydrate and eventually die. What you should do is:

• Step 1: Purchase DE that is food-grade rather than industrial-grade. It resembles powder and is usually packaged in a bag. It’s sold at most garden supply stores.
• Step 2: Sprinkle the powder over anthills, trails, and other areas where ants have been sighted.
• Step 3: To eliminate ants that try to infiltrate your property, sprinkle the additional powder in your house.
• Step 4: Sprinkle powder before possible access points into your home, including doors, windows, vents, and other openings. Spread DE powder about your pantry and sink, where ants are most likely to find a food source if you already have ants inside.
• Step 5: If the DE powder gets wet, replace it. That means every time it rains, you water the yard.

Downsides: DE loses its effectiveness when it gets wet, so you’ll have to reapply frequently, especially outside. While DE isn’t poisonous, inhaling it or getting it in your eyes might irritate you. While applying DE, we recommend wearing a dust mask and safety eyewear.

Baby Powder/ Baking Soda

It works as follows: Baking soda and baby powder suffocate ants by obstructing their spiracles, breathing pores in their exoskeleton. Baking soda, when consumed, causes a chemical reaction within the ant that kills it.

What you should do is:

• Step 1: Sprinkle baking soda or baby powder inside the anthill, all around the anthill, along ant paths, and wherever else you’ve seen a lot of ants.
• Step 2: Use baking soda or baby powder to create a barrier surrounding your outdoor living places, potential entry points, and interior food sources. Ants may pass through the barrier, but they should perish quickly.
• Step 3: Make an ant bait with equal parts baking soda and powdered sugar for more extensive control. 
• Downsides: While baby powder can be used anyplace, baking soda can cause your grass and soil to dry out. Both will be washed away by water, so reapply after rain or watering your lawn.

Bring Water to a Boil

It works as follows: When ants come into touch with boiling water, they are burned and killed. It also ruins the nest’s interior, so any ants that survive will likely relocate to a new location. What you should do is:

• Step 1: Bring a big saucepan of water to a boil.
• Step 2: Remove the mound that has formed over the entrance to the underground nest.

Cons: Boiling Water can cause severe burns, so use caution when handling it. It also burns your grass and soil, potentially resulting in a damp spot on your lawn. Furthermore, there’s a chance that the water will cool before reaching the queen down underground, resulting in her death.

Boric Acid / Borax

It works as follows: Borax is a powder containing boron, oxygen, and sodium. A boric acid is essentially a refined form of borax. Both have boron as a primary element and kill ants by disturbing their digestive processes when consumed.

What to do:

• Step 1: Combine borax or boric acid with food that attracts ants to make an ant bait. Make many baits, some with solid food (such as sugar) and others with liquid food (like syrup).
• Step 2: Place many baits in various ant-infested areas indoors and outside. There are all possibilities next to an anthill, in the center of an ant route, or near a food supply.
• Step 3: If you observe ants swarming the bait, don’t kill them. Allow them to take the food (together with the borax or boric acid) back to their nest, where even more ants will devour it.

Cons: If inhaled or consumed, both borax and boric acid are harmful to humans and pets. Wear gloves and protective goggles while constructing and setting up the baits because they may irritate you if they come into contact with you directly. Plants are also harmed by direct contact with borax or boric acid.

Soapy water

The soap dehydrates the ants by breaking down their cell membranes and destroying the protective wax coating that prevents them from losing water and drying. Using oil will plug the ants’ even more ants will devour it use them to suffocate.

What you should do is:

Step 1: For every quart of water, combine one tablespoon of liquid dish soap or 14 cups of Castile soap. 

Step 2: To kill any ants outside the colony, spray soapy water directly on them.

Step 3: To kill the ants that remain underground, pour the solution into anthills in your yard (or inside ant nests, if possible).

Step 4: If necessary, spritz and pour the solution again. Soapy Water kills only the ants it comes into close touch with and has no long-term consequences.

Downsides: Because soap can harm some plants, it must be used with caution in the lawn and garden.

Water from a garden hose

How it works: Fill the entire nest with ordinary water from the hose to drown underground ants. Because some ants can survive for up to 24 hours underwater, you may need to drench the colony multiple times.

What you should do is:

Step 1: Rake the anthill on the surface to reveal the underground nest.

Step 2: Turn on the garden hose and direct it toward the ant nest’s entrance. Allow 30 minutes for the water to flow.

Step 3: If the colony is still active, repeat the process.

Cons: Soaking the soil with a large amount of water will drown grass and other plants. The process will leave a damp spot on the lawn for at least a few days.

How To Get Rid Of Ants Naturally Outside | DIY Tricks to get Rid of Ants from Your House

When using chemical pesticides to kill ants, you risk polluting groundwater and harming beneficial species like bees, butterflies, and beetles.

Instead, try these natural ant-removal methods in your yard and house. They’re better for your family, pets, and the environment.

Although not all compounds we offer are derived from nature, they are far safer than chemical insecticides and do not pollute water. These techniques should work on most ant species that infest lawns and dwellings.

How to Get Rid of Ants in a Natural Way

Diatomaceous earth 

It works as follows: Diatomaceous earth (DE) comprises microscopic organisms called diatoms that have left behind small fossils. Although the fossils are too small to harm people, they are lethal to ants. DE particles slash through ants’ exoskeletons, causing them to dehydrate and eventually die. What you should do is:

• Step 1: Purchase DE that is food-grade rather than industrial-grade. It resembles powder and is usually packaged in a bag. It’s sold at most garden supply stores.
• Step 2: Sprinkle the powder over anthills, trails, and other areas where ants have been sighted.
• Step 3: To eliminate ants that try to infiltrate your property, sprinkle the additional powder in your house.
• Step 4: Sprinkle powder before possible access points into your home, including doors, windows, vents, and other openings. Spread DE powder about your pantry and sink, where ants are most likely to find a food source if you already have ants inside.
• Step 5: If the DE powder gets wet, replace it. That means every time it rains, you water the yard.

Downsides: DE loses its effectiveness when it gets wet, so you’ll have to reapply frequently, especially outside. While DE isn’t poisonous, inhaling it or getting it in your eyes might irritate you. While applying DE, we recommend wearing a dust mask and safety eyewear.

Baby Powder/ Baking Soda

It works as follows: Baking soda and baby powder suffocate ants by obstructing their spiracles, breathing pores in their exoskeleton. Baking soda, when consumed, causes a chemical reaction within the ant that kills it.

What you should do is:

• Step 1: Sprinkle baking soda or baby powder inside the anthill, all around the anthill, along ant paths, and wherever else you’ve seen a lot of ants.
• Step 2: Use baking soda or baby powder to create a barrier surrounding your outdoor living places, potential entry points, and interior food sources. Ants may pass through the barrier, but they should perish quickly.
• Step 3: Make an ant bait with equal parts baking soda and powdered sugar for more extensive control. 
• Downsides: While baby powder can be used anyplace, baking soda can cause your grass and soil to dry out. Both will be washed away by water, so reapply after rain or watering your lawn.

Bring Water to a Boil

It works as follows: When ants come into touch with boiling water, they are burned and killed. It also ruins the nest’s interior, so any ants that survive will likely relocate to a new location. What you should do is:

• Step 1: Bring a big saucepan of water to a boil.
• Step 2: Remove the mound that has formed over the entrance to the underground nest.

Cons: Boiling Water can cause severe burns, so use caution when handling it. It also burns your grass and soil, potentially resulting in a damp spot on your lawn. Furthermore, there’s a chance that the water will cool before reaching the queen down underground, resulting in her death.

Boric Acid / Borax

It works as follows: Borax is a powder containing boron, oxygen, and sodium. A boric acid is essentially a refined form of borax. Both have boron as a primary element and kill ants by disturbing their digestive processes when consumed.

What to do:

• Step 1: Combine borax or boric acid with food that attracts ants to make an ant bait. Make many baits, some with solid food (such as sugar) and others with liquid food (like syrup).
• Step 2: Place many baits in various ant-infested areas indoors and outside. There are all possibilities next to an anthill, in the center of an ant route, or near a food supply.
• Step 3: If you observe ants swarming the bait, don’t kill them. Allow them to take the food (together with the borax or boric acid) back to their nest, where even more ants will devour it.

Cons: If inhaled or consumed, both borax and boric acid are harmful to humans and pets. Wear gloves and protective goggles while constructing and setting up the baits because they may irritate you if they come into contact with you directly. Plants are also harmed by direct contact with borax or boric acid.

Soapy water

The soap dehydrates the ants by breaking down their cell membranes and destroying the protective wax coating that prevents them from losing water and drying. Using oil will plug the ants’ even more ants will devour it use them to suffocate.

What you should do is:

Step 1: For every quart of water, combine one tablespoon of liquid dish soap or 14 cups of Castile soap. 

Step 2: To kill any ants outside the colony, spray soapy water directly on them.

Step 3: To kill the ants that remain underground, pour the solution into anthills in your yard (or inside ant nests, if possible).

Step 4: If necessary, spritz and pour the solution again. Soapy Water kills only the ants it comes into close touch with and has no long-term consequences.

Downsides: Because soap can harm some plants, it must be used with caution in the lawn and garden.

Water from a garden hose

How it works: Fill the entire nest with ordinary water from the hose to drown underground ants. Because some ants can survive for up to 24 hours underwater, you may need to drench the colony multiple times.

What you should do is:

Step 1: Rake the anthill on the surface to reveal the underground nest.

Step 2: Turn on the garden hose and direct it toward the ant nest’s entrance. Allow 30 minutes for the water to flow.

Step 3: If the colony is still active, repeat the process.

Cons: Soaking the soil with a large amount of water will drown grass and other plants. The process will leave a damp spot on the lawn for at least a few days.