27-05-2025
Aussies urged to try $2 supermarket hack to rid common pest from home: 'It's worth a try'
Aussie homes are no stranger to a pest or two, and one resident who has been recently wrestling with an army of ants in her home claims she has a "very easy and simple" hack to rid them once and for all.
She claims the answer lies in cloves, holding up a $2 packet of the spice from Coles in a video shared online. The resident said a sprinkling of the spice near the ants is all it takes to send them packing.
"If you have ants, what you want to do is get whole cloves and you want to put them along the ant trail and that is it, it will get rid of them. I've tried this one time and I have not had ants in my house since," the resident said, adding that she recommended it to a friend and it worked with her too.
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Eduardo Garcia from Toro Pest Control told Yahoo News he's been inundated with calls from Aussies recently and said he wasn't surprised people were turning to natural remedies in a desperate attempt to rid their homes of ants. However, he reckons there are other, more efficient methods to try.
"Getting a spray bottle with water and vinegar with peppermint oil would help more than cloves," he told Yahoo News. "Or people often use baby powder. Campers often sprinkle it around their caravan or tent as it neutralises the ants' ability to communicate because they communicate through pheromones... They get lost and veer off and then just move onto the next area where they can communicate."
While natural remedies can be beneficial, fellow industry expert Warren Bailey from ABC Pest Control suggested steering clear of them altogether as they're not often effective long-term.
"It's worth a try but often with ants, they get immune to it very quickly. You can try it once and it works then you go to use it again and they've built up resistance," he told Yahoo. "People can get lucky with natural remedies but we usually have to come back with something stronger."
While many of us think about the heat encouraging pests into our homes, high rainfall can do the same, Eduardo explained.
"Pests are coming out at the moment with all the rain. The water is saturating their workings in the mud and they get destroyed easily so they come out of the ground. Obviously our properties are nice and sturdy, so they go in for food, shelter and water," he said.
To reduce the likelihood of ants coming into your home, it's recommended to block entry points such as weep holes or visible gaps in the walls and floor to stop ants from entering. Keeping indoors clean and crumb-free is also vital. However, the best to avoid pests getting inside your home is to call a professional.
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