Ants Hate Cinnamon

I'm sure it has happened at your home -- maybe by a door, or in the driveway, or on your patio. You're outside, enjoying a sunny day in the yard, and, to your dismay, you notice one of those big, black, wriggling clusters of ants. Yuck.

It's that time of year when you start seeing ants everywhere, inside and out. It doesn't help, either, when you live with little kids who leave crumbs and bits of food in their wakes. I've been able to keep ants under control in the house with those covered ant baits, but haven't found anything that works really well with them outside.  Well, except for a can of aerosol ant spray -- that always does the trick -- but I hate the fumes and chemicals, especially around my young kids.  For that reason, I've tried all sorts of natural ways to kill them -- mint leaves, salt, baking soda, vinegar, etc. They've all worked okay, but not nearly as well as the stinky poison spray.

Back when I took my beekeeping class and the topic of pests came up, the instructor suggested using cinnamon to keep ants away from hives.  Then a couple weeks ago, while doing an inspection of our hives, my husband and I noticed that one of the hives had ants crawling around it, on the cover, and even a couple on top of some of the frames inside. So, as instructed, we sprinkled cinnamon around on the ground below the hives (since they're up on cinder-blocks) and dusted some on the cinder-blocks, too.  A week later when we inspected again, there was no sign of ants.  The cinnamon worked so well!

A couple days ago, Max ran into the backyard shouting, "Mommy! There are millions of ants going into the garage!"  I went inside and grabbed my big cinnamon container.

I'm not sure there were millions, but there were a ton of ants on the ground by the open garage door and also crawling up bricks next to it. The second the cinnamon hit the ground and the backs of the ants, they all started freaking out. Max found this all pretty exciting. "Oooh, they hate that stuff!"

In no time, the ants were high-tailing it out of there and the corner by our garage door was ant-free!

I bought my big bottle of cinnamon at Costco for less than $3, so I didn't mind using a generous amount on our ant invasion. (Sidenote: the Kirkland brand of cinnamon is my favorite! It has such a great flavor and smell.)  Even with the generous sprinkling, I only used a few cents' worth. It's a much cheaper alternative to buying that can of ant spray (I checked Amazon -- a can of the stuff runs for around $5-10). Not only is it non-toxic, but it smells nice. Even yesterday, you could smell little notes of cinnamon in the garage! All in all, it's a pretty pleasant way to get rid of some not-so-pleasant invaders.

Note: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have disclosed.

{This post is linked up with Homestead Barn Hop, Your Green Resource, and Little House Friday}