How To Avoid Attracting Ants To Your Garden

Concerned that your garden will become overrun with ants? Worried that they’ll eat your prized vegetables or damage your favorite flowers? With 20 quadrillion ants in the world – it’s no wonder you’re alarmed, but don’t worry.

Read on to discover how to identify if you’ve got an ant problem. We’ll provide handy tips to discourage ants from visiting your garden, and outline the most effective way to remove them if all else fails.

How To Identify Ants In Your Garden

It can be extremely challenging to spot ants in your garden due to their small size, but fortunately these critters travel in large groups – making them easier to find amongst the leaves and soil. 

Ants travel together in queues and follow each other in a specific direction. You can follow them to see if they’re going back to a nest. An ant nest would prove you have a big ant problem on your hands. 

If you don’t spot any ants and can’t identify a nest, try placing some food in your garden to see if it draws ants out of their hiding place. Peanut butter is a great option because ants are attracted to the strong scent.

Ants like to hide under logs and leaves, and sometimes live inside wall cracks. Check these places to see if you can spot any colonies.

What Damage Can Ants Cause?

Despite being very small, ants can cause more havoc in your garden than you’d expect. They are capable of lifting large objects, which they can move around your garden. They move quickly, meaning they can make your garden untidy in as little as a few hours.

Ants eat plant and vegetable seeds, which prevents new flowers from growing and limits your garden from reaching full bloom. They’ll often form a colony in the soil of a potted plant, damaging the roots and depriving the flower of water.

Ants eat garden vegetables, ruining an otherwise bountiful yield. Cucumbers are their favorite food, and so check in on these regularly.

How To Avoid Attracting Ants

Deterring ants from your garden is possible with these simple hacks. Ants hate the smell of brewed coffee grounds and so sprinkling these on flower beds and vegetable patches will put them off exploring.

Baking soda is another great solution. Baking soda has so many brilliant functions, including deterring ants from entering your garden. Just like with brewed coffee grounds, sprinkle baking soda onto the top layer of soil and spread with a rake.

If you’re looking for a natural solution to an ant infestation, you can plant lavender or mint. The delightful scents coming from these plants discourage ants from sticking around – while keeping your garden smelling great. It’s a win-win.

How To Remove Ants

If your efforts to repel ants have proved unfruitful, you can count on the experts to remove these pests from your garden. Companies like Blue Beetle Pest Control can remove ants from your garden.