How to Deter Pests – Naturally

The dry weather is driving all kinds of critters into our home – especially ants. With so little water outside, bugs try to find moisture indoors The other night my wife Janessa got into bed and ants started biting her. She apparently leaned against the countertop while brushing her teeth and some ants crawled on her. I went to look under the sink and found a trail of ants crawling up the drain pipe from under the house.

A few weeks ago I was digging through a laundry basket in the washroom and nearly got stung by a scorpion hiding in the basket of clothes.

What can you do about these pests if you don’t want to spread chemical poisons through your house?

Scorpions and spiders hate the smell of cinnamon. You can sprinkle cinnamon powder around baseboards, under cabinets and any spot where these insects can enter your house. Cinnamon powder loses its scent after a few weeks, so be sure to replenish it.

Sometimes folks recommend cedar as a repellent for spiders and scorpions. But I think this applies mainly to western cedar, which grows in the western United States. The cedar trees in our area are eastern red cedar, which is actually a tree in the juniper family. I recently got my sawmill back up and running, and I milled some red cedar a few weeks ago. I have noticed spiders and scorpions around the sawdust pile, so I’m not so sure our cedar repels these bugs. On the other hand, eastern red cedar is well-known to repel moths and beetles that chew holes in fabric. Eastern red cedar lumber is often used to build closets for this reason.

To control ants inside your home, a solution of orange oil and water will kill them on contact. Mix orange oil at a rate of two ounces per gallon of water. Fill a spray bottle with this solution and spray any ants you see crawling.

In my experience, ants seem to hate molasses. It seems counterintuitive. You would think a sweet product like molasses attracts ants. I don’t know why it repels them. It might have something to do with the compounds other than sugar in molasses. Some experts say molasses has no effect on ants. I’ve been using a lot of molasses in my garden, mainly to feed the soil microbes. But I have seen a reduction in ants. Others tell me molasses keeps ants away from their gardens, too.

Horticultural molasses comes in two forms: liquid and dry. The liquid product is meant to be mixed with water and applied to the soil. Dry molasses is made from bran granules that have been sprayed with molasses and dried. It can be spread on top of the soil or lightly scratched into the soil. I think it’s a good idea to spread some dry molasses around your yard and especially the perimeter of the house. I think it helps to deter ants from crawling into your house.

Apply dry molasses at a rate of 20 lbs per 1,000 square feet. Many farm and ranch stores sell it in 50 lb. bags. Just be sure to use up the whole bag at one time. If you try to store a partial bag that’s been opened, moisture in the air will turn it into a brick that’s nearly impossible to break apart.

I’ve written several times about using molasses and orange oil to kill ant mounds. But people ask me about it all the time, so here’s the recipe: I mix a solution of four ounces of orange oil and four ounces of liquid molasses to two gallons of water. Mix in a watering can that will hold at least two gallons. The can needs to have a removable shower head so that it can pour a single stream.

Gently walk up to the mound with your watering can (ants can sense your footsteps and may protect the queen by carrying her deep into the ground). Pour the mixture down the center of the mound. The orange oil kills any ants that come into contact with it, hopefully including the queen. And the molasses, I think, keeps any survivors or new ants from re-colonizing the mound. I have found that it usually takes a full watering can to kill the mound.

Correction: Last week I wrote about former County Judge Ed Janecka’s dwindling pickle supply and his plans for a fall crop of cucumbers. Janecka said he does not make the pickles, as I erroneously stated. His wife Margie makes them. He just grows the cucumbers.