Does anyone know of any herbal "pesticides"?
~ Thanks!
Answers:
I have an excellent one for you, but it is not 'herbal" it is mineral. The best thing for you is to use a borate salt, which is a naturally-occurring mineral, environmentally-friendly, non-toxic to humans and pets. It is a common ingredient in such things as Borax and can probably be found in supermarkets in the laundry section or in hardware/ home and garden stores in the pesticides/ insecticide aisle. It's not a poison, however. You can eat it in small amounts without adverse effects. Insects and such have a bad time with it. Borate will seize up their joints and effectively kill them. Sprinkle a little of this white powder in areas where you see the ants and soon your problem will be gone without poisonous, foul-smelling hazardous sprays. You can even use this outside, but since it is readily water soluble rain will wash it away. You can find this stuff on the internet by doing a search for "borate". It's quite cheap. I have a 5-gallon pail of it. You can mix it with warm water and use it in a sprayer.
Borate salts are slightly LESS toxic than common table salt.
Other answers:
Garlic
Garlic
Sometimes bleach will help, as they can't smell the trail anymore. Keep surfaces clean and food off the floor's and counters.
well, i don't know about herbal, but my husband put used motor oil around our whole house on the foundation- both on the outside, and the inside by going under the house. It had stopped them cold, and we have had no ants since.
spray vinegar water on their paths, pour it down their holes, and once they're gone become hard core about cleaning up every little crumb so they don't come back.
Boric acid works really well. You can out it in your places children and pets cannot get to. We also used to use honey traps, a plastic lid filled with dark, viscous honey (wildflower or buckwheat work best). The ants get stuck in it and drown.
after cleaning really well, I've used vinegar and water. vinegar staraight in some areas.
I found this stuff online... never had to use it, but it's apparently made totally of natural plant oils.
If you weren't necessarily interested in buying a commercial product, the second site has a list of recommended "home remedies" which includes something that I'D always heard: ants don't like cayenne. Go figure. It has some other helpful tips, too (Make sure you scroll all the way down for her recipes for ant repellant).
Hope you get what you were looking for between these two links. Good luck.