ants

I am trying really hard to live as simply and naturally as we possibly can. We are still switching to white vinegar and washing soda for all our cleaning (from conventional cleaners). But we now have an ant problem. It's so tempting to just call Rid-A-Pest or go to Lowe's and buy some Terro. But I am going to try to stick to my guns. It's getting pretty ridiculous. Today we killed about 5 that were just crawling on the couch. Mind you, ants really are pretty harmless. I am sure they carry germs, but it's not like we're dealing with ROACHES. Or SPIDERS. Or CENTIPEDES. Like we have in the past. These are just your garden variety black ants, no biting.

It's really encouraging what you can find my simply doing searches for "natural remedy ..." and enter whatever you're struggling with. From fevers to pests, I've found lots of really fun and simple cures to typical issues, like ants.

You won't be able to guess what one of the first suggestions is to get rid of ants! (drum roll, please!) ...VINEGAR. I love it. That stuff is amazing. When I read that, I recalled that last week when I noticed the ants coming in (through our windows, which are original to our 1961 home), I sprayed with vinegar, but haven't seen them since. That stuff is amazing.

There are quite a few other suggestions for "natural" remedies, but a lot of it, I don't want the babe getting into -- Borax, cayenne pepper. Most of the entryways of the the little buggers are likely along our windows and doorways. The other thing that I read that sounds pretty doable for us is cloves. So I'll spray the (nontoxic!) vinegar and spread some whole cloves around.

We'll see how this goes.