TikTok is full of cleaning tricks. Whether it’s to keep the house free of fungi and moisture during the winter, or keeping your house dust-free in the summer (because, hey, you have to open the windows to ventilate, and that brings dust and pollen), there are some tips that work and others don’t. And there is nothing like a cool summer breeze blowing through the house in today’s hot summers.
Opening the doors and windows is inevitable, if you do not want to have a heat stroke. The problem with opening the house wide is that some bugs can also get in, as is the case with the ants. Don’t get me wrong: They’re great for the environment and I love them, but not into my house… me inside, they outside, and we’re all happy. But, how to keep them away? Well, we’ve found this TikTok viral trick and tried it. How did it work?
The TikTok viral trick for getting ants out of your home
The trick that everyone is talking about on TikTok has accumulated more than 1.5 million views and received more than 10,000 likes, revealed the secret to getting ants out of the home, without using insecticide. To be able to achieve this definitively, the first thing you have to do is find out where they come from: where is their nest and what is their route to your house.
Once you identify this, the video shared by Purdy & Figg advises placing some baking powder to block their route to the property. Charlotte Figg, cleaning expert and founder of Purdy & Figg, explained, “Sadly there’s no quick trick to find out where ants are coming in from. The best thing to do is to watch them and trace the line back to the original entry point.”
How will one simple ingredient keep ants away from your home: decrypting the TikTok viral trick
Ants are social insects known for their ability to navigate and communicate effectively within their colonies. When they establish foraging trails, they tend to follow the same path repeatedly. This behavior is attributed to a combination of pheromone trails and memorization of landmarks.
Ants release chemical signals called pheromones, which act as a communication mechanism. As they move along a specific route, they leave a trail of pheromones behind. Other ants can detect and follow these trails, reinforcing the path and attracting more ants to it. This creates a positive feedback loop, causing the ants to follow a common trail.
Ants have a strong aversion to certain substances, including baking soda. Baking soda disrupts the scent trails left by ants and masks the pheromone signals they use to navigate. When ants encounter baking soda on their path, they become disoriented and are deterred from entering your home or specific areas.
Basically, what you are doing is forcing them to find a new route so that they do not enter your home. Whenever you find an entrance place where the ants make their way inside, place baking soda there. It can be a window, a door, or a ventilation opening: a handful of partner baking soda will keep them away.
This way, you won’t be killing those precious ants that we need to keep the earth oxygenated and that pollinate important plants and flowers. It is an effective and eco-friendly way to keep ants away without using those dangerous chemicals.