Picnic season is just around the corner. For many, you are counting the days until you can pack up the car and take the family on a picnic. Some people like to stretch picnics out into weekend camping trips.
Either way, the idea is the same; you love having delicious food while enjoying nature and all it has to offer. Unfortunately, nature is full of ants and ants love picnics. This means that you stand a good chance of your picnic being ruined by ants.
Ants love all of the wonderful food you love eating on a picnic. They love ham sandwiches, potato salad, smores and even pickle spears. Ants will travel great distances to enjoy a picnic.
So if you plan on going to a picnic this summer, you need to prepare. Earthwise Pest Control, your home pest control in Sacramento, offers tips to keep the ants away from your picnic.
Distract Them
Before you head out on your picnic, pack some watermelon rinds or a bowl of sugar. When you arrive at your destination, place the sugar or watermelon a few feet away from where you plan to eat. This is the distraction.
When the ants find these tasty goodies, they will focus on collecting this food and they won’t bother you as you chow down your ham sandwich and deviled eggs.
Make a Barrier
Ants are very persistent when it comes to getting to your food. But you can stop them if you create a barrier around the picnic area. If you are eating at a picnic table, place the legs in wide containers that contain water. This acts as a moat around a castle and keeps the ants at bay. Ants don’t like water and they won’t cross.
If you are picnicking on the ground, make an ant barrier by pouring talcum powder around your area. Ants don’t like climbing over this substance and will leave you be and go bug somebody else.
Natural Scents
There are several natural scents that will repel ants. For example, ants can’t stand the smell of vinegar, it also breaks up the scent marking that ants make. This means they cannot communicate with other ants and let them know about the picnic. So bring some vinegar on your picnic and rub it on the blanket or tablecloth to keep the pests away.
Lemon juice will repel ants as well and lemons smell better. So if you can’t stand the smell of vinegar, try rubbing lemon juice on the blanket or tablecloth. Mint mouthwash will repel ants as well, so that is always an option.
Look Around
One of the easier ways to keep ants away from your picnic is to have your picnic far away from any ants. This can be done by simply walking around and discovering an area free from anthills. If there aren’t any ants around, they can’t break up your picnic.
Avoid Certain Foods
Ants love sweet and sticky foods, probably as much as you do. Items like melons, sodas and grapes remind ants of the nectar from flowers. Flowers are their favorite food so these items will attract them.
Sugars are easy for ants to detect, and once they detect it, they will start to track it down right away.
Of course, this means that you are going on a picnic without some of your favorite foods. Another idea is to go ahead and bring along your favorite sweet dishes, but make sure they are all sealed up until you have eaten them. Storage bags and Tubberware works well enough to keep the scent sealed and the ants away.
Get Elevated
Eat your food up off the ground on an elevated location. Sure, it is traditional to have your picnic on a blanket on the ground, but ants can easily find you there. It is more difficult to pinpoint where your food is if you are on a picnic table.
Check Your Gear Before You Leave
You don’t want to get home and discover that ants have invaded your picnic basket or clothing. Before you leave to go home, check your picnic basket and all of your clothing for potential hitchhikers.
If you do bring ants home with you, give Earthwise Pest Management a call.