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Tips For Preventing Ants From Disrupting Your Outdoor Meals

23 April 2016 by Lillian Bishop

A backyard patio, deck or gazebo can be the ideal place to enjoy a meal with your family in the sun -- until the ants arrive and leave you grabbing your plates and scrambling indoors. Even if they aren't biting you, ants can be pests, and the emergence of food seems to alert every ant in the neighborhood. If you're facing chronic issues with ants or other backyard pests, it's worthwhile to call your local pest control service to investigate the specific cause of the problem and use different measures to keep the ants at bay. In the meantime, you can employ these tactics to be able to enjoy your outdoor meals in peace.

Remove Rotten Stumps

If you have rotten stumps in your yard, they're likely full of ants and other pests -- and this means that these insects are well within range when you have food outdoors. You can reduce this problem by removing any rotten stumps. Cut the stumps with a chainsaw or, if they're soft enough, break them up with a sledgehammer and dispose of them at your local yard waste facility. Ideally, the majority of the ants that have remained will seek some rotten wood in a neighbor's yard to take up residence.

Keep The Eating Area Tidy

While sweet-smelling food can often attract ants while you eat, leaving your eating area messy will certainly bring these pests to the area. Each time that you're done eating, make a point of surveying the scene and ensuring that any food scraps are dealt with. This means picking up any dropped particles of food -- which is especially important if you have children who frequently make a mess while eating -- as well as using a small broom and dustpan to pick up any crumbs on your picnic table or patio set.

Use Some Natural Remedies

Although it's still a smart idea to call a pest control company to deal with a large ant problem, you can use a few simple home-based remedies to discourage the ants from hanging out where you eat your food. Spraying some vinegar around the patio or deck can prompt these pests to find another avenue to explore for getting their food, for example. Sprinkling a little black pepper -- which is handy if you already have pepper outside for your meal -- can also act as a natural deterrent to keep the ants away from your eating area.

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