Yes – I have ants! Even in the winter here in Southern California, they have found somewhere to hang. Their food of choice is currently grapefruit and so they are congregating all over the big, juicy, ripe ones that are waiting to be plucked from a small tree in my yard. It’s actually totally put me off eating them; for all I know they could have created an entire ant’s palace inside each fruit and honestly, I’m too freaked out to cut one open and find out. So now, I’m turning to an essential oil ant repellent, and it works like wonders.
Before our transformation to green, my husband couldn’t wait to get out a huge ant-killing canister (filled with some awful poison) that had a convenient spray “gun” attached to it. Off he would trot, wildly jet-spraying into every nook and cranny. Now that this nasty concoction is banned in our household, what’s a green girl to do? As is the case with almost anything good and green, the answer is ridiculously simple: Peppermint Oil. My mother came up with this age-old remedy and it works brilliantly for a variety of pests. The truth is they HATE the smell (and I LOVE it). So if you have any pests you want to rid yourself of, buy a small bottle of peppermint essential oil. Fill a sprayer bottle with about 2 cups of water and then add about 40 drops of oil. Get spraying. It also works brilliantly on and around compost bins as apparently, rats can’t stand the smell either. Click here to find an organic peppermint essential oil on Amazon.
Now all the ants are disgusted with my peppermint flavored grapefruits and they’ve gone off to my neighbor’s yard to feed on his tangerines (there’s no way that he’s into peppermint). Give it a try and let me know.
Love DIYs? Me too – find my entire collection here!
I have never heard of using peppermint oil. I will definitley have to try it out. Thanks for the information!!
Filtered water was always an issue at our house, bottled, Brita system any number of things we tried until last year my husband put a filter on the main coming into the house. Now every drop is filtered and as I understand it is our skin the largest organ that takes in the most toxins from showering and bathing. The system we installed is called Wholy Water.