Listen to Your Elders: Natural Child and Pet-Friendly Ant Repellant

Photo courtesy of www.lifewithherbal.com

For the past few weeks, I've had an ant problem. At first it was only one or two here and there, and then it turned into an infestation in my living room (they haven't made it to the kitchen yet thank God). I blame the cracks and drafts in my door and window frames of my apartment since that is mostly where they hang out. Once I could not sit on my couch without an ant crawling on me, I said enough.

Now you're probably thinking "Bring on the Raid sistah!" but the problem with that is that I have two cats and one of them, in particular, enjoys lounging on the tiles in front of my door (where most of the ants are getting in) on warmer days to cool off, and both of them love to hang out on my windowsills to look outside. I was worried about insecticides and poisons because cats constantly groom themselves and if any is on them they could easily ingest it. Also the same cat that lays in front of the door also eats everything in sight from beads to hair ties so poison or traps are completely OUT of the question.

Turns out, my cats were saved by a little old lady who works at my local Walmart. Anna, a 93 year old woman who works the dressing room desk, came by the pharmacy (in which I am working while I am in school) and asked us to order cinnamon oil for her. When she came to pick it up, she told me she uses it to get rid of ants. At first, I passed it off as an old wives tale, but as my ant problem got worse I decided to give it a try.

So, last night, I made up a simple concoction which I sprayed heavily around my door and window frames and into my welcome mat that sits in front of my door. 20 minutes later, almost all of the ants were gone. Today, I haven't seen a single one. A-FRICKIN-MAZING! And my apartment smells great!

What you will need: food-grade cinnamon oil, water, empty spray bottle (I like the smaller finger pump bottles because it creates a finer spray that spreads easily).

Mix around 4 parts water to 1 part cinnamon oil. In my case, I had a 3oz spray bottle that I filled halfway (around 45 ml) and poured a about 1/3 of my 1oz bottle of oil (about 10ml). It doesn't need to be exact, I just guessed it myself when doing it the first time.

Shake well (oil and water naturally separate) and spritz in areas where the ants are entering and where you see high concentrations of them. I made sure to spray my door and window frames as well as the carpet, furniture and mats near my front door because I figured the they would hold the smell longer.

This is a great safe and humane alternative to poison and insecticides. The cinnamon oil gets rid of ants without killing them, is food-grade so is child and pet safe as long as there are no allergies, and leaves your home smelling like yummy cinnamon instead of bug spray!