Hi all,
I keep seeing ants pop up in the same spots every year, and while killing them works short term, I’m more curious about what actually repels them. There’s a lot of advice floating around, but it’s hard to tell what really keeps ants away versus what just sounds good online.
For anyone who’s tried different approaches, what seemed to genuinely discourage ants from coming back — even temporarily?
In my experience, most “repellents” don’t stop them for long. They just reroute.
Some smells definitely seem to bother them, but it’s not permanent.
I stopped focusing on repelling and started thinking about removing whatever attracted them in the first place.
Repelling only works if the ants have somewhere easier to go.
@TrailSense That makes sense, I probably gave them plenty of alternatives.
A lot of stuff people call repellents just disrupts trails briefly. They rebuild fast.
I’ve noticed results depend a lot on the ant type. What works on one barely fazes another.
@QuietKitchen Yeah, that’s been my takeaway too. It’s more delay than prevention.
The only time I felt like I “won” was when they stopped scouting altogether.
Most things repel ants temporarily, very few keep them gone.