5 easy ways to make DIY ant traps

Why are ants dangerous?

Numerous colonies of ants can cause a lot of problems for a person. For example, their presence on the site can be fraught with the following consequences:

As for the ants that have settled in the house, here they also bring considerable damage:

• litter food stocks with their own waste products;
• spread pathogens of dangerous infectious diseases;
• equip special storage facilities for food in hard-to-reach places, thereby provoking the development of fungus and mold;
• representatives of the woodworm genus can harm furniture;
• some species are aggressive towards humans and bite painfully.

Effective do-it-yourself ant traps

One of the most popular methods of dealing with ants are all kinds of traps. There are many ready-made devices on the market that are in demand, but self-made traps are not at all inferior to them in terms of performance and are much cheaper than purchased ones.

Trapping belts

Fruit trees often suffer from invasions of ants and aphids, which is their eternal companion. To protect trees, gardeners have found a very effective solution, because trapping belts are something like a barrier for harmful insects. To prevent the pest from climbing up to the fruits, the trunk is wrapped with material through which they cannot get through. The most commonly used materials are:

• sticky tape for flies;
• stationery tape smeared with petroleum jelly, glue or any other viscous substance;
• food film or cloth lubricated with special glue for pests;
• rubber or soft plastic, from which a special funnel is constructed to prevent the passage of ants;
• car tire groove filled with water.

In this case, it is very important to carefully treat the surface of the bark before fixing the trapping belt. It should be coated with garden pitch or clay so that the ants cannot get through the cracks and cracks.

Sticky traps

Traps of this type are almost universal in use. They are small strips or rectangular pieces of cardboard, thick paper, plastic, or any other suitable material. A sticky layer is applied to such a rectangular base, which attracts ants with a pleasant smell. Such traps can be laid out near trees in the garden, in the beds between plants and even at home, in places where insects accumulate. As an adhesive, it is best suited:

• honey;
• thick jam;
• special glue for insects.

Traps from cans or plastic bottles

For such traps, you will need an ordinary glass jar or a plastic bottle with a cut off neck. At the bottom of the vessel, be sure to put a bait with a pleasant smell. It could be:

• honey;
• marmalade, jam or jam;
• pieces of sugar or sugar syrup.

Kitchen sponge traps

Such devices can be made even by a small child. The essence of the trap is to dip an ordinary kitchen sponge in a sweet, sticky substance:

• sugar syrup;
• liquid jam;
• honey.

After impregnation, it is enough just to spread the sponges near the habitats of the pests. The next day on such a trap it will already be possible to find the first "captives". The sponge can be used countless times. It is enough just to clean it of caught insects, rinse and re-dip in a sweet liquid.

Saucer traps

The principle is to fill small saucers or lids with a viscous liquid. For these purposes, it is best to use liquid honey or thick sugar syrup. You can also add any ingredient dangerous for ants to the composition:

• boric acid;
• dry yeast;
• borax solution.

Such a trap can be effective without the use of poisons, since with sufficient viscosity of the bait, insects simply stick and cannot get out. They place saucers with bait near ant nests or on the path of the main pest routes.

Prevention of the appearance of ants

Ant colonies can have a huge number of individuals, and therefore the fight against these insects takes a lot of time and effort. It is much wiser to prevent the appearance of pests on the site or in the house. To do this, it is enough to adhere to several important rules:

• maintain indoor cleanliness, and regularly clean crumbs or other food residues from kitchen surfaces;
• do not leave construction debris, rotten wood or old stumps on the territory of the garden plot;
• regularly treat garden and indoor plants, and prevent the spread of aphids;
• annually carry out digging of the soil on the site.

Conclusion

Ants are a serious problem both inside and outside the house, and it is worth understanding that it is necessary to fight them on all fronts at once. If the ants were inside the living quarters, then most likely before that they settled well in the garden. Therefore, it is necessary to clean up and lay out traps wherever the movements of these insects were noticed.