How To Get Rid of Ants on Carpet in 7 Ways

Getting bitten by ants is a bad feeling, but worse is when you see the ants are crawling on your carpet and up your leg. You need to do something about it before it goes out of hand. This is how to get rid of ants on a carpet.

You can use natural or traditional ways to solve the ant infestation problem in your home. Using baking soda and sugar mix, borax and honey mix, and cucumber peels are the natural ways, while using ant bait, ant powder, and calling for professional help are the traditional ways.

Keep on reading to find out more about how you can execute these methods and get rid of the ants. We’ll also discuss why ants take refuge in your carpets, to begin with and how you can prevent it from happening. So, let’s dive in!

Natural Ways to Get Rid of Ants on a Carpet

There are numerous ways to get rid of the ants from your carpet naturally as long as the infestation isn’t too severe. Before moving on to drastic steps like using ant bait or ant carpet powder, why not try some natural ways to solve this problem?

You can find most of the ingredients you’ll need to destroy ants in your own kitchen. Which is ironic because we often find tiny ants around the sink in the kitchen. Here are some of the easiest and yet most effective natural ways to get rid of ants from your carpet:

Baking Soda & Powdered Sugar Mixture

You may find it hard to believe that you can kill ants with ingredients available in your home. And it can be easily done with a mixture of baking soda and powdered sugar. The baking soda will act as the ant poison and sugar as the bait.

Mix equal parts sugar and baking soda together and put it in an area that’s infested by ants. It’s completely safe to put on carpets. The sugar will sweeten the deal to the ants, and they’ll be attracted to it. But the next, they’ll carry the baking soda back to their nest, which will take care of the whole population.

Borax & Honey Mixture

You’ll be applying the same principle as the last one but with different ingredients. The honey will be the ant bait, while the borax will be the poison. Never put sweet ingredients like honey or ketchup directly on the carpet.

Use a teaspoon of honey, water, and borax and mix them together to create this mixture. Place it close to the ant-infested area on a small plate or a thick sheet of paper and wait for the magic to happen. The ants will consume the mixture and be dead within a couple of days.

Cucumber Peels

If you’re a merciful person and you don’t want to kill the ants, cucumber is a great option for you. Ants can’t stand cucumbers. And when you place cucumber peels close to an ant-infested area, they’re likely to leave the area.

It won’t kill them but will solve your problem without hurting them. Now, that’s a win-win. The downside to this method is that it’ll only work if the infestation is not too big. And ants in a carpet may very well just travel to a different part of the carpet or in your home entirely.

Non-Natural Ways to Get Rid of Ants on a Carpet

We recommend trying the natural ways first because using chemicals and insecticides can be harmful to both insects and humans. It can also be dangerous if you have pets in the house.

If the natural ways didn’t bring the results you wanted, it’s time to take a more serious approach to getting rid of the ant infestation on your carpet. Here are the main ways you can get rid of ants from the carpet:

Use Ant Bait

As the name suggests, ant bait is the bait that ants carry with them to their nests. The ants will eat the bait in their nest and, hopefully, die. It’s one of the best methods you can use to get rid of an ant infestation problem.

There’s a right way to apply ant bait. You should place the ant bait around the carpet rather than on it. That’s because the crumbs of food on the carpet will also attract ants and interfere with the ant bait.

Place it as close to the ant colony as possible f you’ve located it to kill the maximum number of ants. Ant bait is effective but slow as the idea is to eradicate the entire colony. If the queen has it and dies, the colony will no longer survive, and your problem of how to get rid of ants in carpet will be solved.

Apply Ant Powder

If the infestation is large and you see a good number of ants swarming on your carpet, so ant bait won’t be enough as you’ll need to act fast. Ant powder is a more destructive way to kill the ants and get faster results.

One of the best options you can use for this purpose is Cimexa dust. It’s one of the rare pesticides that doesn’t hurt humans or pets but is deadly to ants. It cuts the waxy exterior of the ants and makes them die of duration in less than a day.

The idea when using Cimexa dust is for the ants to walk through it. So, apply only a little of it to the areas where the ants are crawling or most likely to crawl. If the ants walk past it, they’ll die. You can also easily clean the dust with a vacuum after the ants are wiped out from the area. If you don't care about the method, this is how to get ants out of carpet fairly easily, just remember to vacuum after.

Professional Help

If you’ve tried all the methods for how to get rid of ants on carpet we discussed so far, then you’ve tried enough on your own. The case of infestation has to be very serious for the problem to still persist. You can no longer try DIY methods or cut corners anymore; it’s time to seek professional help.

The experts of a professional exterminator company will locate the source of ant infestation and deal with it. They’ll use chemicals if necessary to get rid of the ants. If the case of the infestation is serious, you may have to live elsewhere for a few days as they’ll need to use toxic products. It's the most efficient answer to how to kill ants on carpet if you want it done correctly.

These products can include what are called “bug bombs” or foggers, which release a gas and fill up your entire home with it. The ants can’t survive this and will perish, as will other insect infestations such as fleas. Sometimes it's small amounts of spray that pets or children may get into.

How to Prevent Ants From Getting on Carpets

You want to keep ants far away from your carpet and your home, and dealing with an ant infestation problem can be quite troublesome. If you can get ahead of the problem, you can keep the ants from entering your home or carpets in the first place. Here are some useful tips for it:

Keep Your Carpets Clean

There are two ways to go about it - either you stop eating around your carpets, or you clean up after with a vacuum cleaner once you’re done eating. Ants come to your carpets looking for food. If you eliminate the chances of ants getting food from the carpet, it won’t be infested by them. While you're cleaning, you can also make your carpet fluffy again with these techniques.

Store Food in Sealed Containers

The idea is simple - ants won’t come to your house if there isn’t an available food source for them. Store your food in sealed containers and clean up your dirty washes immediately instead of letting them sit overnight. A full night is a plenty of time for ants to infest your home.

Destroy Ant Mounds Around Your Property

This is where you get to them before they get to you. If you’re worried about an ant infestation, walk around your property and look for large ant mounds in the grass or dirt. If you find any, place ant baits close to the mounds and apply pesticide all over the mounts to kill the ants.

Moisture & Cracks

If you have leaky pipes you obviously need to get that fixed up sooner than later. But rain coming through and sitting on window sills can be a problem too. Fix all of that the best you can and then make sure you seal up all the cracks you can with caulk. You can't fix every little path an ant can use to enter the house but you can drastically reduce their chances of coming in and calling all of their buddies along with them.

Can You Vacuum Ants Out of Carpet?

You can vacuum ants out of carpet just like fleas and other insects. You don't have to be as concerned with capturing every single one, either, as they won't reproduce in your carpet. They're just there scouting for food crumbs and sugary moisture.

Vacuuming ants can work. Not only will you remove the ants but also a lot of the food they're hunting for. Just repeat the process daily for a few days or more and it should solve the issue. But if you want it to be a permanent fix you'll need to shampoo the carpet eventually, too.

What Causes Ants to Be on Your Carpet?

Ants have no interest in carpets. Coming into carpets is a risk for them as they prefer to stay hidden, and they’re exposed when on the carpet. So, what brings them to the carpet despite the risks? Here's the main reasons in summary:

• Scouting in general
• Food crumbs
• Water & moisture
• Indoor plant foraging

It’s a no-brainer - ants are in constant search of food, and your carpet may be an excellent food source for them. The tiny pieces of breadcrumbs lying on the carpet fibers can feed an ant for a long period. The food you leave during snacking is what attracts ants to come to your carpet.

What happens is one scouting ant finds food in your carpet and carries it home while leaving a trail of pheromones behind them. Then they return with their nest-mates, following the same trail, which only gets reinforced as they start to shuttle crumbs back to their nest.

To make matters worse, ants are likely to build a nest near your carpet if they get a constant supply of food from it. Worker ants risk their lives by being on the carpet and taking most of the food back to the nest to feed the queen and other ants.

Another thing that can attract ants to your carpet is water. If your carpet isn’t cleaned or maintained well, there’ll be enough moisture in it to keep the ants happy. Ants are attracted to places that aren’t cleaned frequently.

Ants are foragers, always scouting for food (they're omnivores that will eat plants), and they'll even munch on your live indoor plants and create nests in the soil of your containers. Make sure to check there if you're having an issue and move the offending plant outside for the time being. Alternatively, there are plants that repel ants, too, that you can keep inside.

The chances of the ants making their nest under your carpet are slim but not impossible. The gaps between the carpet fibers can give ants the opportunity to hide and build their home. If the areas under your carpet look rotten, that’s a good indicator that the ants have built a nest there.

If ants take shelter in your carpet, it won’t be long before they move on to the other parts of your house, like your kitchen. If you have a rug or carpet in your kitchen, you'll soon realize how much of a disaster this can be. So, you must get rid of them as soon as possible. Before you lose your cool and take your carpet apart because of the ant infestation, try the methods we’ll teach you to get rid of ants.

That's How to Get Rid of Ants on a Carpet

If you have a severe ant infestation, it’s a good idea to finish them off with ant bait and powder. You’ve learned enough - it’s time to take action and get rid of those pesky ants.

By now, you no longer have to wonder about how to get rid of ants on carpet as you know about both the natural and traditional ways to deal with an ant infestation. We always prefer trying the natural ways first if the infestation problem isn’t too big.

You'll Also Enjoy:

• How to Remove Moisture From Closets Easily Today
• Flooring for Closets Made Simple: How to Choose
• 13 Types of Vacuums for Every Carpet, Fabric, & Purpose
• The Best Colors for Closets: More Than Just Paint!
• 9 Types of Bed Bugs You Need to Get Rid of Pronto