Do you have ants in your kitchen? With the weather warming up and your family staying at home more these days, you may just get some unwanted visitors. And their favorite room in your house is the kitchen.

Yuck! Nobody wants ants in their kitchen but what can be done to keep them away? The first step is DO NOT LEAVE FOOD SITTING OUT! If you leave a dirty pan with food scraps, an uncovered cake, or even leftovers from a restaurant in a To-Go box, ants are going to find them. The foraging workers are constantly in search of food. If you make it easy for them, they’ll create a nightmare in no time at all.

Same goes for the garbage can – make sure it is sealed so no crawlers can easily get access. Any type of access to food is a no-no! Also, seal your pantry items securely. Place opened and folded over bags of cereal, flour, sugar, etc. in sealed containers to keep them safe.

Next area to consider is entry points into the home. Ants are experts at finding access! It can be through a windowsill, from underneath the floor trim, or along the insect super-highways of plumbing fixtures and/or electrical wires. The craziest story recently showed ants climbing up a tree that due to wind. The tree periodically brushed up against the second story apartment kitchen window and they made it in! That is especially odd since they could only transport the food source back to their brethren if the winds were cooperating… Seriously, very skilled at gaining access!

Make sure all access points are adequately caulked, sealed, closed, by whatever means necessary to eliminate entry points.

Imagine you’ve done the preventative effort but still get ants in the kitchen – here is what you do to control ants…

Follow the trail of ants to determine the entry point into the kitchen. Using a safe, non-toxic and natural pest control product, liberally spray all around the entry point. Do not use a synthetic, toxic pesticide as this is the kitchen! You do not want a neuro-toxin near your food!

Now go outside and find that entry point from the ants’ perspective. Keep in mind if ants are going along a pathway, the entry point into the home and into the kitchen may be several feet from each other. Again, liberally spray that entire entry point area to keep them away.

Bonus Tip: Ants HATE cinnamon. They want nothing to do with the stuff. So if you find their entry point, sprinkle a little cinnamon on the spot and say bye bye to unwanted house guests.

Once you treat this area several times, it should keep ants our of your kitchen. However, if they find a new route (sneaky little things, aren’t they?), then repeat the process of finding the entry points from the inside and the outside and treat well.

Now you know how to keep ants out of your kitchen!