What to do about Pesky Ants Invading the House

Is your senior parent dealing with ants coming into their home? Ants can be annoying for anyone, but for an elderly person, it can be a bigger problem. For seniors who are wheelchair bound or do not have energy for doing much of their own housekeeping, they’ll need some extra help.

If you’re still struggling with caregiving in general, you should consider hiring senior care services. When your parent needs more than you can give, it’s a bad idea to let yourself get burned out. Having a professional caregiver can lighten your load and give your elderly mother or father exactly what he or she needs.

Getting Rid of Ants

There are many easy ways to keep ants out of the house, if you know what to do about it. In the late summer, it’s the last chance to enjoy the food and fun of the season, and the ants seem to feel the same way!

There are a few different ways you can do this, and no one right way. Try one, and if it doesn’t work or is too much of a hassle for you, then you have other options.

Here are some simple ways to get rid of ants:

• Prevention: make sure your senior’s house stays clean, keep the floors swept, and all food put away or covered. Take out the trash daily and clean up liquid spills immediately.
• Find their nest: if you can follow the trail of ants out to your lawn or backyard, and then spray some boric acid power and it’ll kill every ant in the nest. Also, you can use baking soda and then pour vinegar over it.
• Natural repellent: if you can’t find the ants’ nest, then sprinkle some cayenne pepper across the place where the ants come into your senior parent’s house. This will prevent them from walking over the line.
• Another natural repellent: blend lemon and citrus peels with water, or pure lemon juice and spray it in the places where you see ants.
• Barricade your home: you can use caulk to seal cracks in windows and doors. Also try putting salt or baby powder near suspected ant entryways
• Make a dry buffer: ants like shrubs, plants and trees to use to get into your senior’s home. Try trimming back branches, and create a plant-free border around the house using gravel or rock.
• Killing ants: if you see ants in your house, a quick fix is to vacuum them up! Be sure to add some baby power or boric acid powder into the vacuum bag before putting it in the garbage, or the ants will make a new home there.
• If your parent has pets: put the pet food bowl into a larger bowl filled with water, making a moat that will discourage ants from crossing to get to the food.