Patios add beauty, functionality, and resale value to a house. They’re a place to be for some good fresh air. Friends and family can over and be entertained on your patio.
But people aren’t the only ones that hang around patios. Ant colonies choose patios because the condition is perfect for them.
If you have an ant problem on your patio, then this article is for you. This guide will show you the many ways you could deal with ants.
Ways to kill Ants Off Your Patio
The Three Approaches
When you want to get rid of any ants, there are three approaches you could take. The first is destroying ant nests. The other two involves making an area inaccessible to ants.
Our advice is to mix all these three. As an example, you used baking soda to eliminate ants in their nest. But you specifically don’t want them on your patio. So you apply some ant killer to the pavement so they won’t come back. (Read Do Marigolds Grow Back Every Year)
More ants won’t come back to the area, while some would have died in the soil. Then there are preventive measures you could take to avoid attracting those little pests.
Human and Pets Safe
Nontoxic methods in this guide are safe for us. However, the ants would disagree with you. Most of the materials would be found easily in your homes.
- Boiling Water: You could get rid of pavement ants or other ants if you pour hot water. It’s a simple but effective method. Their mound -larvae, queen, and workers would be destroyed.
- Vinegar and Water: Get these in your kitchen and mix them evenly. Half vinegar and half water, then pour it over. This is especially good for those that have an outdoor kitchen who don’t want anything toxic.
- Baited Pest Solution: The gist of Ant Bait lies in lethal deception. Ants eat and share the food, and then they get constipated or something, which leads to their demise!
Present them with the bait, preferably close to the nest. And after a few days, results would show.
Cornmeal – Ants think that cornmeal is good food for them. But as with chocolate and dogs, cornmeal is bad for ants. They can’t digest it.
THIS IS A MYTH, though. Instead, add boric acid to the cornmeal because cornmeal alone won’t work because it never did.
This is a better way than boiling water. It works slower, but it will kill the larvae and the queen surely, given time.
Baking Soda and Sugar – Baking soda and a bottle of coke would be a perennial chemical demonstration. What doesn’t react as nicely with baking soda, though, is an ant’s gastric juices. Upon consumption, they would die.
Borax and Sugar- Borax is commonly found in our homes as cleaners. They are organic substances, but they can still cause serious harm, so be warned.
That said, all ants can’t tolerate borax. Carpenter ants, paver ants, or any other ants don’t stand a chance.
Ant traps serve as a slow-acting insecticide. That’s why this is a nest-killing solution.
- Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth: A word of caution: they come in different grades, and some are not organic. Filter grade contains lots of crystalline silica, which makes it toxic. Also, this ant bait comes from algae.
Now, to use diatomaceous, apply it to ant overrun areas and trails. Locate the ants and the ant nests, then apply the fossilized algae. Wear masks and gloves for your safety.
Also, these things are light and might fly around during windy conditions. So, avoid using on your patios on a windy day. Food grade DE is a lot safer than the filtered grade but be cautious anyway.
- Dawn Dishwashing Liquid: This product is safe for any sane pet or human being. This is why the liquid is placed in this group.
Use a spray bottle filled with half dishwashing liquid and half water. This will suffocate the ants as the product sticks to their bodies. You could also add vinegar and salt into the mixture if you feel like it.
- Cinnamon. It is a natural ant repeller. Pour it over the patio stones.
- Lemon Juice. This is another liquid you could use to spray to eliminate ants on your patio.
- Peppermint. You could try placing peppermint plants near your patio in pots. They are another natural insect repellant.
- Coffee Grounds – They are another insect repellant.
Ant Control Products
These products have probably been made to be safe as possible, but they might still be toxic. We do assume that they are a tad more dangerous than our baking soda.
- Nontoxic Insecticides. There are safer controls that would lead to dead insects quickly. Victors and EcoSmart are some of those. These products were designed to kill ants and other insects with the environment in mind
- Specially Made for Ant Killers. Products like:
- TERRO PreFilled Liquid Ant Killer II – ant bait
- Syngenta Optiguard Ant Bait Gel – ant bait
- AMDRO Ant Bait – ant bait
- Orange Guard Home Pest Control -spray
Some products are aimed explicitly at species of plants. So if ever, you are having a challenging time, resort to professional products. Identify the ants in your patio stones, then get that specific ant control product.
How to Prevent an Ant Infestation
The best way to prevent an ant infestation on your patio is to keep food away from it. That might be hard because ants forage far and wide.
You could always use a paving seal. Ants want to build mounds or go underground. With a properly working paving seal, the ants would find it hard to make a home.
Use polymeric sands as these are tough barriers the next time you redo your patio. If you aren’t planning on altering the foundation of your paving stones, use pest powder.
Make sure to hit the sides of the stones. And get it in deep if you could without damaging the arrangement. You could also drop repellants on your patio from time to time. (Learn Do Mushrooms Need Light To Grow)
Tips
Focus on eliminating the ant colonies. This means that you should use baits. Then use spray or a liquid insecticide to target the area on your patio. Then use a sealing paver to make it harder for ants to come back.
You don’t have to remove the patio stones when getting rid of the ants.
Consider hiring or consulting an expert when you are dealing with more than patios. Carpenter ants left alone for a long time will cause damage.
How do Ant Colonies Form?
A queen and a winged ant (male) will mate to start a new colony. The queen then starts a new colony and starts making her first workers ants. The mass production begins until the colony gets big enough to start producing queens and winged males.
Plant mounds are made up of fine soil.
Summary
There are many pest control methods on how to get rid of ants. We have discussed that there are three approaches. It would help if you incorporated all of these for maximum efficiency.
There are easy organic ways you could deal with ants, natural remedies if you will. You could also get a spray bottle to deal with pavement ants-not the most environmentally friendly way. But if it gets the job done, then we suppose it’s alright.
Ants prevention and some tips were discussed. You would be more effective in getting rid of any ant species with this information. Lastly, as added content, how new colonies form was also talked about.
Winged ants, carpenter ants, pavement ants, it does not matter. You are more than ready for any colony that invades your stone patio.
