Things You'll Need:
- Caulking gun
- Flashlight
- Masking Tape
- Honey
- Drill
- Boric acid powder
- Insecticide spray or liquid
- Putty
- Paint
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Step 1
Remove any wood piles, leaves, mulch or yard debris from the 2-foot perimeter around your home.
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Step 2
Inspect your foundation, window sills, door jams and siding for cracks or holes. Use a caulking gun to fill the holes so the ants do not have a path into your home.
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Step 3
Sweep or vacuum your floors thoroughly at night to remove any bits of food that the ants might find attractive.
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Step 4
Remove food from your kitchen counters and table tops. Use a sponge to wipe down your counters and tables every night before bed to keep ants from searching for food in your home.
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Step 5
Create a honey bait by dribbling bits of honey onto the back of a piece of masking tape and leaving it on your floor or countertop. After a few hours, use a flashlight to follow the colony from the honey bait to its home, and (if the nest is outdoors) douse the ant hive with a liquid or aerosol pesticide product, such as carbaryl (Sevin), diazinon or chlorpyrifos (Dursban). Use boric acid for indoor nests.
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Step 6
Look for evidence of ant holes in your walls, door jams and window sills. If you see small piles of wood dust, broken or decaying insect bits or other tiny piles of debris, you probably have ants inside the wood. Drill into the wood, and spray an ant insecticide directly into the wood before using putty and paint to repair the area.
