Natural Ant Repellent?

By: Esther Walker and Family

PROBLEM/QUESTION

➢Can you rid ants from your home

with natural solutions?
➢Can a natural solution be an effective
ant repellent?
HYPOTHESIS

➢I believe that the rubbing alcohol and liquid dish soap combination will
be the most effective natural solution/repellent to help rid your home of
ants. I don’t think the ants will like rubbing alcohol.
MATERIALS
✓ Table cloth
✓ Rocks to secure table cloth
✓ Vinegar
✓ Lemon Juice
✓ Cayenne Pepper
✓ 1 tsp Liquid Dish Soap/1 tsp Baking Soda in water
✓ Chalk
✓ 1tsp Rubbing Alcohol/1 tsp Liquid Dish Soap
✓ Chili Powder
✓ Q-tips
✓ Little dishes to put solutions in
✓ Ants
✓ Mason jars with paper towels as lids to put ants in
✓ Notebook and pencil to record results
✓ Kids to help you catch the ants
PROCEDURE
1. Catch your ants and secure them in mason jars with paper towels as lids making sure not
to kill them
2. Lay your table cloth down outside/use rocks to secure the edges
3. Mix your solutions in bowls
4. Get all of your materials ready next to your table cloth outside
5. Make a circle with one of the solutions using Q-tips on the table cloth
6. Place 5 ants inside the circle and observe the ants
a) Record your data in your notebook
b) Write down how many ants were trapped and how many ants escaped
7. Continue to do steps 5 & 6 till you have done this for every solution
8. Make a bar graph using your recorded data
RESULTS/DATA
Potential repellents

5
CHILI POWDER
0

5
CAYENNE PEPPER
0

1
1TSP RUBBING ALCOHOL & 1TSP DISH SOAP
4

5
CHALK
0

2
LEMON JUICE
3

2
1TSP BAKING SODA & 1TSP DISH SOAP IN WATER
3

3
VINEGAR
2

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Number of ants that escaped Number of ants trapped

CONCLUSION
The results of our experiment show that the
alcohol and dish soap solution was the most
successful repellent at trapping the ants in the
circle. Our hypothesis was right! We can now
conclude that there is an effective way to rid ants
from your home without having to use harmful
chemicals. I also have concluded that it is best not
to leave your children unattended with a bag of
powder sugar outside as it is likely that they will
throw it at each other and all over the yard!