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Will Dawn Dish Soap Repel Fire Ants? (All You Need to Know)

There are countless varieties of house insects that crawl all around our house and in various corners. They usually live in harmony alongside us and do not interfere with our lives.

However, you may notice a large number of insects scuttling about or some insects that have painful stings. Therefore, if you wish to know how to handle those insects, read the relevant information given below.

Will dawn dish soap repel fire ants?

Dawn dish soap is very effective at repelling fire ants as well as getting rid of them. Dawn dish soap dissolves the fire ant’s exoskeleton which leads them to perish from dehydration. Spraying a solution of dawn dish soap with hot water at the fire ants is sufficient to get rid of them.

Fire ants become problematic when they infest your house, gardens, or driveways. Their bites are quite painful which causes itching and burning – some people are allergic to fire ants as well, so more reason to get rid of them.

Although using insecticides might seem like an obvious option, you should not use them if you have small kids or pets in the house.

Fire ant queens reproduce in huge amounts with up to 1,600 eggs per day, so if left untreated, your house will be filled with fire ants lurking about in no time. Therefore, if you wish to cleanse the fire ant colony, you need to get rid of their queen who is buried deep inside their mound.

To do so you can use dawn dish soap as a homemade insecticide that is good at getting rid of fire ants. Dawn dish soap is an optimal solution to deal with fire ants or other similar insects because they are cheap to make and safe for the environment.

Dawn dish soap solution can either be sprayed onto the incoming ants or be poured directly into their mound. Once the ants come in contact with the dawn dish soap solution, their exoskeletons will break down and they will begin to suffocate and resulting in their dehydration.

How to use dawn dish soap to repel ants?

If you want to get rid of a bad ant infestation, you can use the dawn dish soap lying around in your house. To learn more about the detailed procedure, follow along:

Making a dish solution:

Dawn dish soap cannot be directly used since it is very thick, thus cannot be sprayed. So take a container and add one tablespoon of dawn dish to the bottle for every half a gallon of mild hot water you add.

The mixture should contain one part of the dawn dish and two parts of water. However, if you want to increase its potency, you can add more tablespoons of dawn dish per half a gallon of water.

Mixing the mixture:

After adding the ingredients into a container, close the lid and shake to mix the contents. If you mix the solution in a bucket, use any rod-shaped object to stir the mixture.

Afterward, you can either pour the mixture into a spray bottle or a watering can be depending on your usage. Use spray bottles if you want to get rid of fire ants throughout the house or use a watering can if you want to destroy the ant’s mound.

Baiting the ants to a spot:

If you don’t know the ant mound’s location, place sugar as bait where you regularly notice ants. Once they take the bait and form a trail, backtrack to their mound and wash it away with the solution.

You should also get rid of the trailing ants and other stray ants. You can also spray the solution on floors or surfaces where you used to see ant activity.

What do fire ants dislike the most?

Rather than taking an active attempt at exterminating fire ants yourself, you can take a passive approach by surrounding your house with items throughout your house area that fire ants dislike. Doing that will reduce the amount around your vicinity or better, keep them away for good.

One of the most effective and attractive ways of keeping fire ants off is to cover your yard with a diverse group of plants that require regular watering.

Fire ants only thrive in dry and hot areas whereas watering the plants will keep the soil moist and discourage ants from building mounds.

If you wish to make the interior of your house fire ant-proof, you can place cinnamon, citrous fruit, or even peppermint essential oil-treated cotton balls near cracks or potential entry points for ants.

Not only will they keep ants away from your house, but they will also keep your house well scented.

How do you repel fire ants without chemicals?

It is better to make homemade fire ant repellents and avoid chemical insecticides as they are harmful to both humans and pets. You can make many effective repellents with the items lying around your house or buy cheaply from any local store, such as:

Cayenne Pepper powder and solution:

Boil 4 cayenne peppers in a quarter gallon of water, and you can add more pepper for higher potency. Next, pepper extracts diffuse throughout the water by letting the water sit for one day to ensure the water is well saturated.

Afterward, locate the ant mound and surround the spot with cayenne pepper powder. Ants dislike traversing over powdery surfaces so they will trap off most of the ants within the boundary.

Finally, pour your pepper solution into a watering can and drench the anthill to get rid of the ant queen along with the other ants.

Vinegar – Baking soda solution:

Fire ants cannot stand the smell of vinegar and will stay away from them. You can use this property to your advantage by mixing equal amounts of vinegar and baking soda with water to form a solution.

Keep in note that this solution will repel the ant but not exterminate them. So once you treat your home and its surroundings with vinegar solution spray, you have to manually destroy the anthills.

Lemon juice solution:

Mix lemon juice with hot water to make the solution and spray them in infested areas. This method is only effective if sprayed consistently.

How do I treat my yard for fire ants?

You may notice fire ant mounds across your yard and that could be the source of ants coming indoors. Fire ants can deliver venomous and painful stings if you accidentally trample into their territory so it is crucial to get rid of them.

Several ways of getting rid of them have been stated below:

Spraying Insecticides:

After spotting the ant mounds in your yard, do not kick or trample them which would cause them to relocate their mounds. Ideally, you should use a powerful insecticide such as Reclaim I/T to take care of these mounds.

You should mix the insecticide with water and fill it in a pump sprayer and start spraying the area around the mound. You should drench the soil enough to cause the insecticide to penetrate the soil deep enough to reach the ant queen.

Syngenta 73654 Demand CS Insecticide, 8oz, Beige

Spreading insecticide granules:

Sometimes a huge number of ants in the ant colony are out of the mounds, so to ensure they are taken care of – you can use granular insecticides such as BIFEN L/P.

To apply the granules, either uses a push spreader or handheld spreader and distribute them per square foot according to the product labels.

You can also use granular bait such as Extinguish Plus if you choose to only get rid of fire ants. Spread the bait across the yard where you notice ant activity – the ants will take the bait back and feed the colony, which will sterilize the queen and finish off the colony.

Do fire ants have a natural enemy?

Almost all insects or animals have a natural predator or enemy against who they are particularly weak. Fire ants are no different in that case either, there are several types of natural predators to fire ants and can be a non-chemical solution to fire ant control.

Animals and reptiles such as armadillos, antlions or spiders, and lizards do eat fire ants. And if they are around your yard, you will notice them burrowing into ant mounds in search of food.

Although they are very effective at removing fire ant colonies from the yard, they do not eat the ant queen – thus the ants repopulate.

Be aware of keeping armadillos as ant control because not only can they not eradicate fire ants but also they create ugly-looking holes in the yard.

Final Thoughts

Dawn dish soap can repel fire ants as well as get rid of them. They cause the fire ants to perish from dehydration by dissolving their exoskeleton. You can spray a solution of Dawn dish soap and hot water at the ant colony or ant mounds to exterminate them.