Which of these NATURAL INGREDIENTS Keeps Ants Out of Your Home? (Experiment)

What natural, eco-friendly ingredient works best at repelling or killing pest ants in your home? Well, today we’re going to test 10 very common, natural, and eco-friendly ingredients, which are said to be "ant-repellents" on actual live ants, including the queen ant in the ultimate anti-ant substance test. The results were surprising. Hope you enjoy this week's #Experiment episode! Ant love forever! This video was shot in 4K Ultra HD resolution.

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Directed/Written/DOP/Edited by AntsCanada
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[AntsCanada]

Greetings Ant Lovers/AC Family! I felt it was about time to get to the bottom of this age old question: What is the BEST natural way to get rid of pest ants from the home? Well, now we've finally dispelled the myths and proved what actually works in this experiement! What did you think of the results? Hope you guys remember to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, and SUBSCRIBE (hit the BELL and select ALL) if you enjoyed this video. Thanks so much for the support, AC Family! Means so much to me. Ant love forever!

[Daemonworks]

Diatomaceous Earth (as it's usually called, around here at least) is sold in various forms. Very widely used and recommend for controlling a wide range of pests. The food grade works fine, and is pet/child/etc safe. There's also variations made specifically for pest control that often have added insecticides, so if you want to avoid toxic stuff, make sure to read the fine print.

[justinmacdonald]

Neem oil can be be used as an insecticide but due to the nature of how it kills insects, is only effective if the insect is covered in it (I.e via spray bottle) similar to black olive soap, it blocks the scriacles causing suffication. Although I'm not 100% sure if it applies to ants too, but it is sometimes used in organic greenhouses across Canada for pest control.

[StevenIngram]

I find the diatomaceous chalk fascinating. I'm sure you know that at one time people thought that disease was caused by demons. And I'm sure you've seen enough horror movies to see people drawing chalk circles as a form of protection against demons. Isn't it interesting that if you were to use diatomaceous chalk to draw the circle to "keep the demons out, " it would kill insects trying to get in, which could be vectors for diseases and parasites. So... the chalk circle would actually kind of "work" at keeping out some of the "demons" that cause disease. Weird.

[nighttalk]

It is also said that when you see a single ant in your home, that is a scout. You are to pour salt on the scout which makes it uncomfortable. It then goes back to the nest "telling" the other ants that your home isn't a good place to visit, so they stay away. I don't know if there's anything to it, but never know.

[LikeHurricane]

Small note of warning: diatomaceous earth in its powdered form can be an inhalation risk for toddlers/infants and any small pets that do a lot of sniffing around at ground level like cats and dogs; using the chalk form is safer around them for indoor use. Applying the powder around the garden is very effective against a number of pest insects, but if you do that try to keep your dogs out of that area because those fossilised diatoms aren't good for delicate mammalian nasal and lung tissue and can cause some real damage. 

Also fresh peppermint isn't a good ant deterrent but peppermint oil is, in my experience; however, it needs to be redone way more frequently than diatomaceous chalk. Pennyroyal, another member of the mint family, is also purported to be good against ants. I've also heard that tea made with tobacco leaves can act as an anti-ant barrier given that nicotine is a pesticidal neurotoxin.

[BloxfightaGamingHD]

I boiled some water and mixed in sugar, then placed that mixture into some cornstarch. This was pretty effective, they were taking the mixture and stopped showing up. What I've read online is that they take it to the queen and the queen cannot digest the cornstarch.

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

Mikey: Neem oil-
USA: Did somebody say *O I L*
UN: But you already colonized the Philippines!
USA: *TIME FOR ROUND TWO!*

I don't blame ants for not wanting to touch the cinnamon, I mean look at what happened to humans during the cinnamon challenge...ants played it smart. And I'm not surprised chalk worked, chalk is a powerful weapon used by teachers for a reason!

[xaratanga]

I live in an area that has been colonized by invasive Argentine ants. They are voracious about getting into houses. I found the best way to deal with this and keep them out of my apartment. I use diatomaceous earth in the entry points. The ants were coming in along the conduit inside the walls and exiting near either the kitchen or bathroom sink, coming out of the wall switch-plate. . So I pumped diatomaceous earth into the wall cavity at each wall plate the ants were coming out of and in a gap between the bathroom cabinet and the wall. Then, I make a mixture of water, liquid soap and cinnamon oil. Cinnamon oil works much much better than the ground stuff. When ants were still getting in, I would use that to kill them. The soapy water suffocates them. I found the cinnamon to be an excellent repellent. Now, I know that any ants that get through my diatomaceous earth barriers will die fairly quickly. I also, for added protection, give a little squirt of the soap and cinnamon mixture into my sink drains. They are coming in for the water, they can smell it, but the cinnamon interferes with their ability to smell and read their chemical trails, which is why its so effective. I do this so they wont look for new entry points. Mint oil is also effective but its corrosive, will take paint off baseboards. The oil would have worked where the leaves failed.

This is the biggest secret that exterminators don't want us to know. If you have a problem with invasive ants and you can track them to their colony, get a big bucket of soapy water, and a shovel. Quickly turn over one shovel full of dirt at the top of the colony then pour the soapy water in. That will destroy the colony without poison. Using soapy water spray in the house kills them as effectively as Raid without any toxic residue, and the cinnamon oil in the mix will keep them from coming back. PLEASE DON'T USE POISON!

[jaanzenelizondo]

I had an active ant hill near the hammock in our backyard. I wanted to do a little experiment to get rid of them naturally, and the solution to that problem is to just disturb the dome part of the ant hill for a few days and they will eventually give up on rebuilding it. I know it doesn't get rid of them entirely, but at least they've moved their opening elsewhere. My husband and I love your channel; keep up the good work! 🐜🐜🐜

[ThePrufessa]

You should've used concentrated peppermint oil instead of fresh mint. That works for rodents but I'm not sure about insects.

[TRDPaul]

Good to hear you're still keeping up eliminating the invasive ants
Did you use the same 3 workers for each experiment or different ones each time?

[matthewtracy]

The diatomaceous chalk is effective, but what about native ants finding the bodies and bringing back the dead for food? That could be bad for the colony in my opinion.

[beaconoflight]

This experiment was very interesting. The diatomaceous chalk was intriguing as well. It's ironic how something that's been dead for thousands of years can still kill something.

[TheNoteblockLizard]

Now I'm curious to see how other species interact with cinnamon ....
Is it based on the size of the ant? Like would Super Majors be more willing to cross it like the Queen was?
Also, I'd watch more such videos experimenting with various other invasive species to see if they too showcase the same results.

[Texan_christian]

I was completely surprised! I thought the ants would want to eat cinnamon!

[MatanteDodo]

I keep the ants out of my pet's food using that zinc powder you can get at the gym to protect your hands. Seems to work like the baby powder, making the ants slip down rather than hurt them.
I saw that egg shells were relatively effective. Ants are alarmed and cautious around chicken egg shells. They can step on it to inspect it but if I place some honey on a piece of shell they can't stay composed long enough to get the honey.
My neighbour puts petroleum jelly around her doors to block insects, and I saw it only works for a while, ants freak out when they get petroleum on their antennae but after a while maybe they remember not to put their antennae on it, because they eventually treat it like any other patch of wall.

[dahgman]

I knew the chalk would work but yes I also suspected the cinnamon, but it would be interesting to find the science behind it.
I also heard mint oil works on small crawlers but its more commonly used for spiders, or so I hear.

[kyokono]

So Cinnamon and Diatomaceous Earth, a combo my grandmother used to use saying it was a ward against 'evils that raid the pantry', was in fact her repelling ants? (which likely would invade the pantry)

[thecassandraeffectvsperilo]

Dawn liquid dish soap is what I use..make a solid line across your doorways AND *THEY WON'T* cross it..it's NEVER failed me *=)*
*EDIT:* plus you can easily see when the soap has completely faded and you need to reapply another line of soap