Ants are a nuisance. It’s frustrating when you can’t keep your house in order because these tiny creatures are crawling all over.
Worse still, if it’s a colony that has raided your home, the untidy and unhygienic state of your favorite living space might make you want to move out.
The good news is, things don’t have to get to this state where you start feeling helpless in your own home. In this article, we explore 13+ unique ways to get rid of ants from your bed.
Read: Why Do Ants Smell Like Ink? (And Ways to Get Rid of Them)
Different varieties of ants have various consequences. For instance, the Harvester and Fire types can bite humans, which makes them even more dreaded. On the other hand, the Carpenter ants will damage building materials and contaminate food by carrying bacteria. Ants can also transfer bacteria to wounds, making them fester even more.
There are 12,000 varieties of ants and so their effects can be as diverse as the different types. However, the focus here is to help you get ahead of them and prevent or remove them from your bed and house in general.
13+ Unique Ways to Keep Ants Away From the Bed
Below are the homemade remedies that will help you ensure your home is a no-go-zone for the ants.
1. Use Peppermint
Peppermint has a solid repulsive smell that ants and any other bug, including mosquitoes, hate to tolerate.
It’s simple to use this method. Take 10 to 20 drops of peppermint essential oil and mix with 2 cups of water.
Pour the solution in a spray bottle and spray around the windows and baseboards of your house. When done, let dry.
However, you must keep the peppermint or the resultant mixture away from your pets as it can become toxic.
The good thing with peppermint is that you can easily find it in your local store or various online platforms.
2. Use an Ant Spray Killer
If the ants have become notorious in your bed, a spray killer could be another option to consider. However, it’s not advisable to put the spray killer directly in your bed for this option.
The most recommended approach is to spray around the bed as well as the edges of the room. If you can find a non-chemical ant killer, it would even be better. White vinegar is a perfect example of a non-chemical ant killer proven to be very effective over time.
Be keen to follow the manufacturer guidelines for the ant killers that you buy from the stores. Many of them will come with instructions that will tell you the mixing ratios and how to mix them and the safety precautions you need to follow.
3. Use Chalk in Your Room
Chalk comprises calcium carbonate, a chemical component that’s known to be repulsive to ants. There are several simple options to go about using this option.
The first is to draw a line of chalk across the entrance of the room or your house. That means you’ll first need to determine the ants’ entry point so that you stand a better chance of stopping them.
The second way is to spray powdered chalk in the spots where the ants’ activities seem high. As you do this, you need to ensure your children keep away from these areas as they become ill if exposed to the chalk.
4. Lemon Eucalyptus Oil
The oil is also a good repellent that works perfectly not just for the ants but the other notorious bugs that might be giving you sleepless nights. One of the oil extracted from lemon eucalyptus is citronella, used in making candles that repel mosquitoes, flying bugs, and others.
To use this remedy, all you need to do is saturate cotton balls with undiluted oil and then place them in ants’ operational bases. You should change the balls weekly, preferably weekly.
Your local store should have the oil in stock, but just in case you don’t find it, feel free to check online.
5. Salt The Area Around Your Bed
Salt, the area around the corners and nooks from where the ants enter the hose, is a simple remedy that might turn out to be surprisingly effective.
Table salt is the most recommended for this remedy to bear maximum results.
Boil water, add a large amount of salt to it, mix until it dissolves, and spray the solution around the ants’ entry points.
6. Use Boric Acid
Boric acid is a great enemy of the worker ants and their queens, destroying them entirely within three weeks of use. The acid erodes the ants’ stomachs and outer shells, making it hard for them to live.
Boric acid is poisonous and so you must take safety and precautionary measures when applying it. Use gloves when handling it and also keep it far away from the reach of children. Below are the guidelines on how to use this remedy:
- Mix a solution of ½ teaspoon boric acid with eight teaspoons sugar and 1 cup of water
- Stir until the components have dissolved properly.
- Saturate cotton balls with the solution and put them in areas you’re targeting to ambush the ants.
- Put some of the solutions outside in containers to trap unsuspecting ants and make sure to wash the containers properly or discard them altogether.
Read: Are Ants Attracted to Urine? (And How to Keep Them Away)
7. Starve Them to Beat Them
One of the easiest ways to get rid of ants is to ensure that they don’t find food sources in your home.
Ensure that all the food points are secured and the food containers are sealed so that the ants can’t access them. Pay particular attention to sweet and starchy things, including honey, cornmeal and sugar.
Always see to it that the outside surfaces of the containers carrying the foods are clean and dry. Don’t ever allow crumbs to linger around your home for a long time.
Below are other important areas that you should take care to clean on a regular case:
- in couch cushions
- under and around kitchen appliances
- in garbage pails
- eating areas
- Give your pet’s feeding bowls a rinse immediately it’s done feeding
8. Keep Your Sheets Clean
Use a bleach-based detergent to clean your sheets regularly so that you eliminate any possibilities of ants creeping into your bed untold.
The detergent will disinfect the seets, pillowcases, and blankets so that any scent or sweet substance that might have attracted them is dealt with in good time. If you can’t clean the blankets and pillowcases, it’s probably a good idea to take them to a dry cleaner.
9. Eating in Bed Isn’t A Good Habit
Eating in bed isn’t a good idea, especially if you want to keep ants far away. It doesn’t matter whether it’s just a snack. A fruit or anything else you might want to think is insignificant.
That’s because when the crumps drop on the bed, they act as beacons for the insects and bugs that had been waiting for the opportune moment to invade your bed.
It’s better to have your meals in the right place habitually – dining is the perfect place if you have one. You can use your living room instead if you don’t have a dining room.
10. Use White Vinegar
Ants can’t just put up with the smell of white vinegar. Take equal amounts of water and white vinegar, mix with a few drops of essential oil and shake thoroughly.
Sprinkle or spray this solution in spots you suspect the ants to be used as entry ants. Although the solution might not kill the ants necessarily, it will act as a good deterrent such that the ants will stay away from your home and bed in particular.
11. Use Cinnamon
Put cloves and cinnamon in areas that ants use as entry points. The natural solid smell will ensure that the regions you’ve put the two in are a no-go-zone for the ants. You can add several drops of essential oil to the cinnamon powder so that the smell is more pungent and, thus, more repulsive.
12. Try Coffee Grounds
For this method, you’ll first need to brew the coffee. Afterward, sprinkle the brewed coffee grounds on surfaces that are disposable such as index cards.
Leave the cards in a place that will easily attract ants, such as plants, windowsills and pet bowls.
13. Pepper Can Also Come in Handy
Sprinkle pepper in the entry points of your house or room where you want to exterminate ants from. Black pepper or Cayenne pepper are the ones known to produce the best results when repulsing ants.
You can also opt to make a solution of the pepper so that you spray instead of sprinkling. Ensure the surfaces you want to spray are clean beforehand.
14. Take Advantage of the Oranges
You can use orange peels and one cup of warm water to make a paste that will deter ants from venturing into your living space. Once ready, spray the paste around the target areas and then, after some time, wipe these areas.
You can also take these orange peels and place them in areas the ants are likely to invade.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Where Do I Look For Ants in My Bedroom?
Ants often hide behind furniture, ceilings, walls and rotten or damp floorboards.
2. Why Do I Look For Ants in My Bedroom?
There are several reasons why ants will come to your house. One, if there are plenty of food sources, that’s an attractive factor since they know they won’t starve in your home.
3. Are Ants Dangerous to ave in the Bedroom?
There are varieties of ants which have a painful after-bite. These can also deteriorate the quality of sleep that you get.
Some ants will transmit diseases, cause allergic reactions or carry food bacterias to areas they’re not needed.
4. Where Do Ants Come From?
As earlier mentioned, ants are attracted to a place that looks like it’s going to provide a lot of food to them. In most cases, the kitchen, food store, or dining room tend to be the most frequent places that attract them.
After they’re complete, the ants will look for a spot they know will make a good nest. In most cases, your bed area always makes the most comfortable zone for them. Others include under the kitchen carpet or even in cracks.
If None of These Works
By the time you’re exhausting the above methods, you should have gotten rid of ants from your home long enough.
But if these natural remedies don’t turn out too great, you can explore the pesticides option or other commercially prepared items that will exterminate ants from your home. You can take advantage of bait traps to deal with this problem.
The method involves a few of the ants eating the bait, taking it back to the rest of the ants, therefore killing them.