If you want to stop ants from getting into your kitchen, you can do this by sealing entry points and eliminating food and water sources. It also helps to disrupt the scent trails ants use to navigate.
Seeing ants scurrying across your counter is uncomfortable. And it’s also deeply frustrating because they are very hard to get rid of once established.
When a scout ant finds food in your kitchen, it lays an invisible pheromone trail on its return to the colony. That chemical path tells every other ant exactly where to go. Within just a few hours, a single crumb can draw a highway of ants through a gap you never knew existed. Wiping down the visible ants doesn’t fix it because the trail itself persists and there’s a whole colony full of ants ready to send reinforcements.
Cleaning helps here, as ants like sugars, grease, and protein. Wipe counters and stovetops daily, especially around edges and behind small appliances where crumbs collect. Store sugar, honey, cereal, and pet food in sealed containers. Take the trash out regularly and keep the bin itself clean.
Ants also like moisture. So if you have dripping faucets or leaks, you will want to fix those and dry out any areas that were soaked before the fix was applied.
Then find and seal entry points. Ants exploit tiny gaps: the space where a pipe enters the wall under the sink, a crack along the window frame, a gap where the backsplash meets the counter, or the weatherstrip under the back door. Caulk small cracks and gaps. Use weatherstripping on doors and windows.
As for the existing trails, you can disrupt those by cleaning the trail path with a vinegar-water solution or soapy water. This breaks down the pheromone signal and forces scouts to start over. You may need to do this repeatedly until the colony gives up on the route.
If ants keep returning despite your best efforts, you can always reach out to Mosquito Squad of Princeton for help. Mosquito Squad can help you identify the kind of ants you’re dealing with, find the colony, and treat the problem. A trained technician will come up with a custom plan for your property and then they’ll carry it out so you won’t have to deal with the ants for much longer.
