Even if they do odor like mellifluous citronella when squished , you in all probability do n’t want grown white-livered emmet in your kitchen . Citronella pismire are n’t after most of your groceries , though they will go for sugary hooey when available . They feed almost exclusively on product secreted by creepy - crawlies that they in reality raise and " milk " for honeydew melon . These ants normally spend most of their lives underground . They really do n’t mean to remain in your dwelling house for good , just until the weather condition warms up in the spring . If you only ca n’t wait that long , you may practice bare home remedies to send these critter elsewhere .
Step 1
Clear your living area of stray sweet foodstuffs . Wipe out kitchen cabinets , keep counters fair and make the child end sneaking cookies into their rooms . While sugar is n’t a primary food source for citronella ants , they will make out inside after it if it ’s accessible .
Step 2
Locate the citronella ant nest . It ’s most probable outside and is easy identifiable by a mound of freshly dug territory from their hush-hush tunneling . Old logarithm or concrete blocks near a home ’s founding are common locations . Snoop around in the cellar for trailing ants or suspicious - looking little piles of soil .
Step 3
Block any entree the ants may be using to enter the inside of your home . Seal up holes , whirl or rickety blot in the grounding and in cellar walls .
Step 4
Move piles of heavy object like firewood by from your dwelling . Relocate your compost bin a piffling farther by , if possible . clean out piles of grass clippings and leaves , and off any yard debris .
Step 5
Suck up indoor invaders with a vacuum cleaner . Seal the bag in plastic wrapping at once and discard it .
Step 6
Pour a 5 - gallon pail full of seethe water into the opening of the outdoor nesting mound . This may be all that ’s needed to kill the queen and the entire colony .
Step 7
propagate diatomaceous earth on and around the hummock .
Step 8
patter boric acid on the mound .
Tip
The only commercially uncommitted sweetener known to be in force for getting rid of citronella pismire is Terro .
