Ants Hate Lemon Juice and Bay Leaves

If you have children and pets, and are hesitant to use harmful chemicals, insecticides, and pesticides to kill the ants in and around your home, try natural ingredients to repel ants. While pesticides will kill insects, many can also kill vegetation such as hedges, lawns, trees, and flowers. Insecticide fumes are harmful to breath, and your pet or child may accidently ingest ant bait you've set down to kill the ants. It's a fact that ants hate citrus-based foods and juices, as well as ingredients that smell of mint, cloves, or bay leaves. The next time you spot ants in or around your home, put that can of bug spray down, and try using lemon juice and bay leaves, following these guidelines:

• Cut a lemon in half and rub it all around your doorways, including the door jambs and thresholds.
• Squeeze lemon juice into the cracks around the foundation of your home.
• The next time you clean your kitchen and bathroom countertops, squeeze lemon juice onto your sponge during the rinse process, applying a thin layer of the juice to all surfaces.
• Sprinkle grated lemon peel in your flower garden, on your hedges, and around ant hills in your lawn.
• Grind dried bay leaves into dust and sprinkle it on top of ant hills in your yard.
• Buy whole bay leaves and fashion sachets with them, using a length of pantyhose or mesh. Place the small sachets in your pantry, kitchen cupboards, drawers, bathrooms, closets, or anywhere you've seen ants scurrying about.
• For a double whammy, combine lemon juice with ground bay leaves to form a paste. Smear the paste on the underside of the thresholds on the doors of your home.
• Place an open container of bay leaves next to the dry goods in your pantry, such as flour, sugar, and corn meal.
• Squirt lemon juice directly onto a trail of ants. The ants that escape will run back to the ant hill, carrying the lemon juice on its antenna, polluting the entire colony, shutting it down for good.

There are myriad ways to use lemon juice and bay leaves as an ant repellent. Get creative and think of other ways to use the two natural ingredients to rid your home of ants.