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How to easily and naturally keep ants out of your home

If you leave a comment, Russel will visit your blog and comment. Back in 2003 when it was pretty obvious that my wise old grandmother would soon leave us, she asked me if there was anything that I wanted to ask her.

I guess she was trying to make amends with anyone who thought she had wronged them.

How such a sweet and lovely woman could wrong anyone was beyond me, and since she adopted me with I was a young juvenile delinquent of 11, and loved and disciplined me, I had only one question:

How can I keep the ants out of my house?

In today's world, my wise old grandmother would be recognized as a "master gardener." After having daily invasions by ants throughout my adult life, I reflected on why we never had ant invasions in our house when I was growing up. Ergo, my question.

She had a simple yet profound answer: "Coffee grounds."

Added with edit: Understand that she meant "used coffee grounds," which I hope any reader would have realized, but one apparently didn't, so I add this clarification.

Coffee grounds Now I don't like coffee. I had one sip in college and that was enough for me. I rank it right up there with smoke (cigarettes, marijuana, cigars) as far as substances that I don't want to put in my body.

Being the gardener I am, I realized that coffee grounds are simply a very fine mulch, so I set out to see if a very fine mulch would solve my ant invasion problem.

Yahooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Can you tell that it did? I have not had an ant invasion since August 2003, six years now. And yet I have ants throughout my property because I see them eating dead snails and other critters. They don't come into the house anymore because every square inch of ground next to my home's foundation is covered with a two- to three-inch layer of "very fine mulch."

The following picture shows the mulch that I use. I buy it at Home Depot for about $5 for a bag of two cubic feet.

Earthgrow

There are other types of Earthgro mulch, many of which say "fine texture" or something similar. Find the smallest stuff you can. Place a layer around your home that is about two feet wide and one to two inches deep. If you find ants in your home, check for areas where the kids have dragged the hose and scaped the mulch out, leaving bare soil; or where the dog has dug down to bare soil; and similiar events.

I don't know why ants don't like coffee grounds or fine textured mulch, and I have not found any academic or company research on the problem, but I can tell you that it worked for my wise old grandmother, and it works for me.

Try it, and let me know how it works for you. Maybe we can get some scientific research going here -- LOL.

*****

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Posted by Russel Ray, San Diego home inspector on 05/31/2009 02:09 PM

Comments (22)

Home Inspections in the ActiveRain Channel

ants, mulch, home inspections

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22 Comments on How to easily and naturally keep ants out of your home

MAY

Hmm, very interesting. I have to try this and put my scientist hat on :) I'm with you I once tried/tasted coffee and never drank it again. ~Rita

I have also heard of cinnamon working as well..don't know though.

also powdered Alum. Someone who had a camper at camp ground had trouble with mice and now they swear...no mice. What they do is saturate a cotton ball with pure peppermint OIL not extract but the oil you buy at the drugstore to make hard tac. They swear no one has any mice.

I just read about coffee grinds. Also cayenne pepper. But thanks for the mulch tip! Smart grandma!

Russel,

I really enjoy coffee, the smell of fresh coffee in the morning is very spiritual. I don't smoke weed, even know it is very popular in Hawaii. It gets in the way of thinking, can't go there. I do use coffee grounds in my garden. I don't use them for ants, but my papayas love them and the veggies just take off with the coffee grounds. Oh yeah I did buy a cigar when I was in Dominican Republic a couple years ago. They said it was Cuban cigar, I think I was taken advantage of, it was a local cigar. I did smoke the cigar, not bad and it was my last cigar.

Steve

Excellent idea. We fight with the little buggers here from time to time... What about the areas where there isn't dirt, like the driveways and sidewalks?

Hey, Rita - I do love the smell of fresh coffee grounds, though, but not freshly brewed coffee. And the taste is just horrible.

Hey, June - I also had heard of alum and cinnamon, but they have not worked for me.

Hey, Andrea - I tend not to use things that I like to eat, and since I like cayenne pepper, I'll keep that in my spice cupboard - LOL.

Hey, Steve - Coffee grounds are a very good source of fertilizer. Along with no ants in our house when I was growing up, my wise old grandmother did have the most beautiful yard around, especially her roses.

Hey, Lane - If you have a sidewalk that is up against your foundation, then create the mulch strip on the other side of the sidewalk. The further you get away from your house, though, the greater likelihood ants can find someplace to take up residence.

Interesting about the coffee grounds -- we had heard corn meal works also.

Thanks for sharing all these tips! I'm going to look for that mulch.

Hey, Bob and Carolin - I think the whole premise behind coffee grounds, alum, corn meal, and others is that it has to be fine. I never had any success with corn meal either, and again I really don't like to waste food. Bark mulch is natural, and it decomposes into nutrients. Of course, the fact that it decomposes means that one has to replenish it occasionally in order to keep the ants out.

HI Russel - I have never used coffee grounds to ward off ants, but I know it does make a good fertilizer for some plants (roses love it), and it also cleans garbage disposals and drains to pour them down the drain. I'm always learning new ways to use stuff that is a surprise.

I definitely will try that stuff. Have you got any tips on keeping ants out of my outdoor cat food? I have a bowl for them that I put in a pan of water, but during the summer the ants sometimes manage to get to their food anyway.

RR, If you don't use coffee grounds then you can't wake up to that wonderfull smell after an early rain.

BTW RR, Boric Acid works if the ants are thick. A fine line all around the house and the ants and other bugs won't walk through it.

Ann - Ants can swim a little. Instead of putting the bowl in water, just rub a litle petroleum jelly (Vaseline) around the base of the bowl and they won't get past that. (sorry for hijacking your post, Russel).

JUN

Hey, Susan - My wise old grandmother used her coffee grounds on her roses, which were the envy of the neighborhood.

Hey, Ann - Yes. Bring your outdoor cat inside. It will have a longer and better life. Then you can bring the cat food in with your cat.

Hey, Jack - What is an "early rain"? LOL The problem with the fine line of boric acid is that just a little leaf or stick that gets blown across the fine line makes a real nice bridge for the ants. They aren't stupid - LOL.

Hey, Susan - Contributions to my blog or posts therein is never considered hijacking.

Very cool stuff... now can we kill fire ants in the yard with common household stuff?

Hey, Lane - Fire ants. There's a subject for another blog. The experts (do we trust experts anymore?) say that we have them here in California, but I've never seen them, certainly nothing like there in Texas. Consequently I haven't had to do anything about fire ants lately, and by lately, I mean the last 16 years -- LOL.

JUN

Hey, Russel. That is good to know. I pour my left over coffee on our roses and that seams to help them a lot. Thanks and take care, Jim

The one thing I know of that is cheap, easy and natural is boiling water. On a cool sunny day (they bring the larvae up or something to warm in the sun) pour the boiling water on the mound... mass carnage.

JUN

Hadn't heard about coffee grounds as a deterrent for ants! do use them in my garden around rthe roses and a few other places -- can get them free - the used kind :-) - for Starbucks. Now - do you - or did your grandmother - have a deterrent for snails and slugs?

Hey, Alexsandra - Snails and slugs tend to stay away from the very fine mulch because it scratches their little tummies, which apparently hurts. I love snails, but around here we have the Helix snail (Helix aspersa), which breeds like rabbits. They like to climb up on the outside walls at night, and then when one goes out in the morning, one has a snail-dotted wall. Several years ago, prior to resolving the ant problem, I counted over 100 snails on just one side of my house -- I quit counting at 100. After mulching all my foundation gardens, I no longer have any snails on my exterior siding. However, when the humidity is high at night, you don't want to walk outside and down the highway because you'll slip and slide on all the snails on the driveway.

JUN

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Russel! Ants have been an on going problem for us. Anytime soon they would have been dropping by for an extended visit. Thanks to your wise old Grandmother as well for raising a "wise & thoughtful guy"! :) BTW, Starbucks gives away their old coffee grinds....you don't have to drink their coffee, they have teas, herbal teas, juice and sweeties. They just leave the grinds out with a sign offering anyone to take them! Off to Home Depot............

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