For most people, having a dream home means having a yard, perhaps a good stretch of property, and that often means coexisting with nature in a very real way. Forests, creeks, hills, and so on can make up the countryside along which your home is built. While this can afford you the opportunity to enjoy the flora and fauna native to your area, this also means that you will have to put up with creatures that are commonly considered pests.

Specifically, you will have to deal with mice, raccoons, squirrels, foxes, deer, rabbits, and other animals that can have varying degrees of impact on your home and lifestyle.  Some of the most invasive and obnoxious species that you must deal with, however, are considerably smaller; specifically, ants can cause quite a bit of trouble. Fortunately, ants are in fact quite easy to deal with, so long as you arm yourself with a little knowledge and a few simple remedies to ant problems.

1. Peppermint Oil

Oils are, in fact, incredibly strong; you know this just by smelling those oils and extracts or getting them on your skin. The scent is incredibly powerful, and the oil – upon making contact with your skin – can even burn, or at least cause considerable discomfort. If it is that bad for you, consider how bad it must be for a much smaller creature who would be much more sensitive to the oil! In this case, peppermint oil, once mixed with some water, can ward off ants once it is sprayed into the point of origin of the ants.

2. Cucumbers

Cucumbers, on the other hand, can strike us as rather bland. Yes, everyone enjoys a good, crisp cucumber slice or two, but in the end these vegetables are rather tasteless, and certainly lack the incredible scent of an extract or oil. Yet, for whatever reason, ants absolutely hate the smell of cucumbers; leave some cucumber gratings or peels near an ant infestation and the ants will quickly leave.

3. Honey and Borax

Up to now, we’ve described deterrents and ways to ward ants off; ultimately, these are non-lethal solutions to an ant infestation. Yet ants are, if nothing else, persistent. Their society functions like a machine, relentlessly pushing towards whatever it is they are seeking: generally, more food for the hive. Sometimes, it becomes necessary to go nuclear on your ant problem, and for that there is honey and borax. Mix sweet, delicious honey with borax and hot water, layer it on a flat surface (something you don’t mind ruining, like a plate, a lid, or cardboard), and then wait a couple days as ants locate it and try to bring it back to the hive. They will get caught, and they will die.