When the weather warms up, the creepy things start coming out, looking for food and a good place to mate. Ants, stink bugs, lady bugs, and spiders all start making their way toward your home. Like most people, these crawlers are uninvited guests. You start looking for ways to rid your house of these invaders. Here are 3 tried and tested ways that WON’T work:
#1 - Cucumber Peels
Many of the old wives tales say that if you place the peelings from cucumbers around your sink areas, ants will be repelled. This is NOT true. Ants love food scraps of any kind. The only thing this old myth will do cause you to have an army of ants crawling all over the peelings and your sink area.
Also, what about the other creepy crawlies coming in? Are you going to tape cucumber peels to the ceilings and window frames to keep out stink bugs or spiders? No. Well then, it’s probably best to skip this ‘remedy’.
#2 - Dawn and Glass Cleaner
Using a 50/50 mix of Dawn dish detergent (it has to be Dawn, ants are picky!) and glass cleaner is supposed to work at confusing the ants. Apparently, the mixture causes the scent trail to be destroyed. The fellow ants can’t find the scent and just give up and go home. Of course, this is false.
First of all, the residue left from the mixture dries quickly. If an ant walks over it, they still leave a trail that the others can smell. Secondly, ants do not give up. If one trail is lost, there are hundreds more ants in the colony to blaze different trails into your home. The only thing you are really accomplishing with this mixture is leaving a filmy residue on your surfaces.
Thirdly, this remedy isn’t even practical for spiders and stink bugs. Are you going to spray the mixture up in the corners of your home? That will be messy. All you will do is cause the spider to drop down, possibly disappearing under a chair or behind an appliance. Do you really want that?
#3 - White Vinegar
Ah, good old white vinegar. It seems to be the cure-all of wives tales, fixing everything from boils to weight gain to insects in the home. Just clean your countertops, sinks, and even the floors with white vinegar and your problems will be solved. WRONG!
Spiders, stink bugs and beetles don’t care about the strong smell of vinegar. They will scuttle off to the nearest corner or window frame and start making it homey. White vinegar does not deter the ants, either. Wiping the counters and floors will only make them seek a different access point, like a cabinet or window. The only thing vinegar actually does is make the house smell like a pickle jar.
Maybe it would be best to skip all of this advice and just call a professional pest control team or an exterminator.
