This article starts with a question. Can ants be killed or repelled using peppermint oil?
Join us for answers as we provide you with all the details you need.
Does Peppermint Repel Ants?
Ant presence in homes can become worrisome when faced with a full-blown infestation. These creatures can get into food supplies and cause significant damage.
Other possible problems you face include painful bites, the spread of bacteria, and several other unpleasant conditions you’d prefer to avoid.
In a bid to find solutions, homeowners adopt a variety of treatment techniques. These consist of the use of either insecticide considered toxic or natural remedies.
We’re more interested in the natural approach to ant treatment.
Here, we’ll be discussing one of those possible treatments.
About Peppermint Oil
Peppermint oil is derived from the peppermint plant. It has been discovered to have a wide range of uses including being a flavoring agent in food.
Its other uses include serving as a treatment for different types of health conditions like irritable bowel syndrome, digestive issues, and also as topical application to soothe irritable skin, etc.
Without a doubt, peppermint oil is used for pest control.
Quite a wide variety of pest issues can be treated using this essential oil. Some of these include moths, mice, fleas, flies, lice, and caterpillars.
Other pests include aphids, beetles, spiders, and ants.
Ants And Peppermint Oil
If you’ve had your doubts about the efficacy of peppermint oil as an ant repellant, such doubts are disproved here.
In other words, peppermint essential oils will serve to repel and kill ants when properly used.
Notice the term; “properly used.”
It’s common to find homeowners use a wide variety of effective natural solutions but get mediocre results. This is largely due to misapplication or misuse.
In a nutshell, essential oils such as peppermint oil must be properly applied to get the best result.
We’ll be discussing all applications shortly.
Peppermint Oil Won’t Kill Ants
If you had hoped to use peppermint oil for ant extermination, the truth is that it won’t do such. In other words, peppermint oil only has repellent properties but lacks the killing effect on ants.
So, you can only have ants driven out of your property but won’t have them exterminated.
Now technically, ants can get killed when drenched with this oil or when dropped in peppermint oil. However, this isn’t practical as you’ll need a whole lot of peppermint oil to flood ant nests with.
Your best bet shot at using peppermint for ant control is to consider it as a repellent and nothing more.
What Does Peppermint Oil Do To Ants?
Whenever you apply peppermint oil to ant-infested areas, it does a great job at eliminating scent trails left behind that connect to food sources. Plus, its minty fresh scent is detested by these creatures.
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Do Ants Hate Peppermint?
Ants generally keep away from peppermint-treated areas of your home.
Using this knowledge, you only need to apply along with areas or paths you’ve noticed the most ant activity. Its strong scent interferes with their homing skills by masking the scent trails they follow.
Before long, these creatures are dispersed and have to get back to base due to the absence of a clear path.
The same treatment can be applied around ant nests if such is located within or close to your home. It’s important to note that a single treatment or application of peppermint oil won’t be sufficient to give you the desired results.
This has to be done repeatedly for the best results.
How To Apply Peppermint Oil For Ants
As earlier stated, the success of your treatment largely depends on the results obtained.
Here, the results you get are determined by how you apply this treatment. There are effective ways to deploy peppermint oil for ant control.
One of the easiest ways to do this includes having cotton balls soaked in this essential oil and placed along with trouble spots or problematic areas. This method tends to work quite well.
You’ll need to have these cotton balls replaced after a few days to a week.
The cotton ball treatment can be placed along paths, on elevated surfaces, and just about anywhere you’ve noticed ant activity and presence.
If this doesn’t serve your needs, consider rubbing this oil on surfaces frequented by these creatures.
However, you’ll need to consider certain surfaces as this oil may stain such surfaces when applied directly. Other equally effective treatment methods include making a peppermint oil spray.
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How To Make Peppermint Oil Spray
Another way to combatant issues is by making peppermint oil spray.
Here, you’ll need to add a definite amount of peppermint oil to a specific volume of water to get a solution that’s strong enough. About 10 to 20 drops of peppermint oil are added to 2 cups of water.
This mixture is emptied into a spray bottle and mixed vigorously before spraying. You’ll need to target ant-infested surfaces or areas such as windows, and baseboards.
Not only does peppermint spray treatment work when applied directly on ants, but it also serves as a barrier to prevent these pests from entering.
So, spray your peppermint solution along with potential entry points and any other areas you’ve noticed ant activity.
The Use of Peppermint Oil May Not be enough
One of the things you’ll need to consider is identifying ant attractions in your home. These crawling insects will walk into your home when there’s an incentive to do so.
Ants are attracted by several factors including other ants, food as well as moisture.
Speaking of food, this is the biggest incentive for ant presence. Examples include crumbs, sugar, spilled beverages, grease, and pet food. Other attractions include rubbish bins, gaps, openings & cracks.
You’ll have to improve your level of hygiene by eliminating all food sources.
Consider cleaning up after each meal and avoid leaving leftovers uncovered. You may also want to check your plumbing system.
Even the smallest leaks in your plumbing system create enough dampness for ants to congregate. Have such checked and fixed as quickly as you can.
All cracks, gaps, and other openings need to be sealed up. Ants usually come from the outdoors. As such, you’ll need to inspect your home’s foundation and have any cracks (no matter how small) sealed up.
These preventive measures will help keep ants out.
So there you have it. Peppermint oil is a great repellent product that can be used as an ant repellent.
Although it won’t kill ants, it will keep them at bay.