Many people use witch hazel astringent at home as extracts obtained for twigs, dried leaves, and barks positively impact people’s health. You can also use this to deter insects like ants.
Does Witch Hazel Kill Ants? Witch hazel cannot kill ants, but its lemony odor can repel insects away from areas with its powerful scent. You can use witch hazel solution to deter ants or mix it with tea tree oil, peppermint oil, cedarwood oil, and a cocktail of essential oils. It helps retain the odor of other essential oils for 2 to 3 days, which usually disappears in a few hours.
It is commonly used as a natural remedy for many problems, but few know its repelling effect on insects.
Can you use Witch Hazel to kill ants?
Witch Hazel is a colorful deciduous shrub with beautiful flowers and a unique fragrance. The flowers appear in winter that have significant medical significance and improve health.
These flowers and other parts of this shrubby plant also help reduce the infestation rate due to the flowers’ vibrant colors and strong scent.
Oil extracted from the flowers of the Witch Hazel plant can help prevent the ant attack when you put a few drops of extract at the possible entry points.
Moreover, it is not known to kill insects but to repel them from a distance due to its powerful scent. The essential oil obtained from these flowers has a lemony or citrus scent.
Ants do not like citrus odors and prefer to stay away from them because these dominating odors can cause problems in detecting the scent of pheromone secretions.
It does not contain any toxic ingredients that are harmful to ants, but it is commonly added to ant-killing sprays in smaller quantities to sustain their repelling effect for a long.
In addition, it increases the shelf-life of sprays and keeps them effective for many days instead of a few hours to a day.
It also allows proper mixing of essential oils in the solvent or water, as two separate layers form in the solution, usually because oils cannot dissolve into polar water.
Accordingly, the oil drops float on top of the water due to its lower density than water. So, it helps break this separating layer and allows better mixing of polar and non-polar liquids.
It improves the efficiency of ant-killing sprays when you add a small amount of witch hazel extract to the solution.
How do you use Witch Hazel to keep ants away?
There are many ways to use Witch Hazel to keep ants away, as you can mix it with natural essential oils to improve their effectiveness at repelling insects.
Peppermint oil and Witch Hazel
Ants hate peppermint and its essential oil, so you can use it to prepare a repelling solution against these tiny creatures. You can use tap or distilled water to prepare a solution with peppermint oil.
Take 3 cups of water in a spray bottle and mix 10 to 15 drops of peppermint oil into it. You can add 15 few drops of witch hazel extract as it helps prepare a homogeneous solution.
Spray this solution in narrow spaces or gaps to remove the insects if the size of the infestation is small. You have to re-spray the solution after 2 to 3 days, as its odor disappears after 72 hours.
Tea tree oil and Witch Hazel
Use tea tree oil with a powerful aroma to help deter insects from a distance until its scent remains in the air.
Mix around 1/4th teaspoon or 10 to 30 drops of tea tree oil in 1 to 2 cups of water. Add 5 to 7 drops of witch hazel extract or essential oil to increase the effectiveness of the solution.
Shake the spray bottle thoroughly; this extract helps dispense oils into water easily. After that, spray the solution into tiny cracks within the floor or walls to get rid of ants.
Cedarwood oil and Witch Hazel
You can this in cedar wood oil that works well against the annoying indoor pests and keeps them away from the property for a few days.
Pour 3 cups of water into a spray bottle and mix it with 25 to 30 drops of cedar wood oil. Add 1.5 to 2 tablespoons of witch hazel extract into it to retain the odor of the spray for many days.
Sprinkle it on windows and entrances of buildings to keep these insects at bay and protect plants and pets from damage. It can also avoid the attack of insects on food to avoid contamination.
Witch Hazel and essential oils
Mix 2 to 4 tablespoons of witch hazel extract into 2 cups of water to make an ant-deterring solution. However, it can also be mixed with other essential oils separately to improve their shelf life.
A cocktail of essential oils can also work when you mix its extract with lemon, orange, mint, or eucalyptus oils to repel ants from home or outdoor areas of the house.
How long does Witch Hazel keep ants away?
The time duration Witch Hazel extract takes to keep ants away from your home, and other areas of the house primarily depends on the species of insects and environmental conditions.
Its efficiency reduces in dry conditions when the humidity level is low, and it results in quick evaporation of the solution from surfaces.
You have to re-spray the solution every 48 to 72 hours, which is considered relatively better than other essential oil sprays. It can retain its odor for a long if conditions are favorable.
Sometimes, you need frequent re-spraying to avoid a reduction in its efficiency as its odor begins to get mild over time, allowing a few species of insects to re-enter the building.
So, replace the cotton balls if you place the cotton balls after soaking them in this solution because the solution begins to evaporate quickly on hot days.
Where can you use Witch Hazel to remove ants?
It can efficiently remove ants because these insects cannot tolerate its powerful odor and run away from the specific site.
You can use it spray at many locations indoors and outdoors, having the risk of infestation or areas providing entry routes to these insects.
Sprinkle the witch hazel solution on the exterior walls of the buildings, close to the windows, and other holes in the pavement or floor. Its scent leaves a pleasant fragrance inside homes and deters insects.
Moreover, you can also wipe the hard floors or countertops to remove the trails of these insects that can pose a risk of contamination in the storage boxes and food trays.
Spray the solution in every tiny crack or space, as they usually infest narrow spaces and affect the house’s stability by living inside the walls.
What type of ants can be removed using Witch Hazel?
Almost every species of ants hate a lemony scent except citronella ants, which smell like a lemon. It can effectively remove indoor and outdoor species in the cabinets or garden soil.
Moreover, you can spray it in the dishwasher to deal with the pharaoh ants that can get inside it for a darker environment. It can also remove sugary insects or odorous house ants in the trash cans.
You can deal with smaller infestations of fire, carpenter, and ghost ants crawling on the edges of the sink in the kitchen or bathroom while looking for moisture.
Remove moisture drops and wipe the hard surfaces with witch hazel solution to remove these moisture-loving pests. Furthermore, spray it close to the plants to get rid of ants in the soil.
You can also sprinkle the solution on the infested wooden log to remove the carpenter ants living inside the wood by making tunnels.
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