Are Ants Taking Over Your Home? Your Dried Flower Decor May Be The Culprit

Whether you dried them yourself or picked them up from your favorite home decor store, dried flowers make the ultimate bathroom decor. Actually, dried flowers, when styled correctly, are a great way to add color and texture to any room in your home. However, if you've recently noticed an influx of tiny black ants streaming through your home, those beautiful dried flowers may be to blame. Although there are many things that make it easy for ants to wander into your home, dried flowers that haven't been properly treated may still have delicious nectar or pollen on them that ants can't resist.

If this is the case for you, don't worry. Not only are there a handful of ways to say goodbye to ants with natural remedies, there are also ways to treat your flowers to prevent the problem from happening again. So before you go and throw out your favorite dried bouquet or floral wreath, you first need to identify if these are causing your ant problem.

The easiest way to tell if your dried flowers are attracting ants into your home is to carefully inspect your floral arrangements. If the flowers are to blame, you will likely see the ants congregating around your blooming display. The main reason ants would be attracted is because the flowers weren't cleaned properly before they were dried. While unlikely, it is possible for nectar, pollen, or sap residue to still linger on the blooms. Other signs such as small holes in the petals, fine webbing, or mold spots could be signs that other bugs, such as spider mites or moths, have targeted your dried flowers. This can be due to a number of non-ideal conditions such as humid, dusty storage areas, or the flowers not being fully dry.

To keep ants away from your flowers, you can spray them with a diluted vinegar mixture. Be cautious with this method as it could cause discoloration of your flowers. If there is a large infestation of ants, however, simply spraying them may not work. You will also want to thoroughly vacuum and clean the surrounding area to help remove the bugs. Remember to empty your vacuum cleaner bag so the ants don't crawl right back out. Additionally, if your dried flowers haven't incurred too much damage, you can try sticking them in a plastic bag and placing this in the freezer for around two days to get rid of any remaining ants or bugs.