The time to get rid of an infestation is before it happens not when you spot ants marching their way through you kitchen. Once you find the ants and realize you have a problem, getting rid of them can seem almost impossible. Before you see ants in your kitchen, or any other room of your house, take action to keep them out. Here are four things you can do to prevent ants from invading your space.

Tip 1: Keep it Clean

Ants don’t come into your home to lounge around and watch television, they are usually looking for food and/or water. To help prevent ants from using your home as their dining room, you need to clean up after yourself. Ants, particularly sugar ants, are attracted to sugary or fatty foods, as well as pet foods. Washing your dishes immediately after meals will help and use combinations of lemon juice and water or vinegar and water to wipe down countertops or in your mop water. It is thought that ants don’t like those scents and they cut through traces of sugar and grease.

Tip 2: Seal it Off

Ants will take advantage of cracks in your home’s foundation or gaps around pipes and wires that come into your home. Since ants are small, they can squeeze into even the smallest opening, so you need to carefully inspect the outside of your house. Use caulk to seal off any gaps you find or make repairs to cracks in your foundation to prevent ants from invading. Carpenter ants like wood, so you will want to get rid of wet or rotting wood around your home and trim trees and shrubs that touch your siding or roof.

Tip 3: Create Scent Barriers

Some smells are off-putting to ants, so you will want to use them around your home, particularly around entry ways and baseboards and windowsills. Mix these natural repellents with water to create a spray or you can sprinkle them near entry points of a house:

Citrus oil
Cayenne pepper
Cinnamon
Garlic
Sugar-less lemon juice

You can also use plants to prevent ants as well. Add these plants in flower beds around your home:

Lavender
Mint
Citronella
Basil
Clove

Tip 4: Eliminate the Seekers

If you spot an ant or two wandering around in your home, get rid of them. These lone ants are scouting out food, and sometimes water if it is dry outside, and leave a chemical trail for the rest of their ant family to follow. See if you can figure out where they came from and seal off the area. It isn’t necessary to use chemicals to kill them, just squish them underfoot and wipe up after you do.

These tips should be able to help you prevent infestations of ants in your home. In Northern Virginia, residents often see invasions of Carpenter and Odorous House ants and using these tips will help you win the battle against ants and, perhaps, other bugs, no matter which state you call home.