afraid to eat.

[oetmanafets11]

Hi. I'm 16w pregnant and I live with my family and husband. All of them work so they're not home all the time and don't really bother keeping the kitchen clean. I clean everyday but in the last 3 weeks the kitchen is full of ants.I even find them on my food. They come from outside so they're not safe. The people I live with keep food on the table and they don't really care about it, but I do cause every morning when I want to have breakfast, I find them everywhere in the kitchen and I prefer not to eat than having something which came in contact with dirty ants and could harm the baby. It stresses me out cause he needs food to grow and develop but I barely eat. I want to get rid of them as fast as possible. Help!

Bless you, that’s not a nice environment to live in!
Ants are only coming because of the food so you need to address people putting the food away every day. Can you buy some large plastic Tupperware so things like bread / fruit can be stored easily?
Naturally you can use white wine vinegar and water with a few drops of essential oil, mix in a spray bottle, spray it around the bass boards, skirting, doors, cupboards, sideboards etc then leave for an hour or so and wipe up. Repeat this every morning / evening as needed.
You need to speak up in your family and make it clear that this is unsanitary for everyone but especially for you.
I’m sorry you’re having to deal with this! the only way they’ll stop coming is to control the food situation!

This needs sorting or you need to move out before you have a baby at home.
Buy and store your own food for now.

The other thing you could do of course is keep YOUR food in Tupperware! Put your fruit, bread, snacks etc in different Tupperware and put a label on them stating that they are YOURS ONLY! Then just wash up plate and cutlery and take your nicely stored food and eat it away from the kitchen

Oh no you can't keep your child's things in this house! You need to move out or have a serious word with them. Apart from anything else it's disgusting.

I really don't think the 'dirty ants' will harm the baby BUT that is pretty disgusting. Move out? Buy one of those traps that the ants eat and then take back to their nest and it kills them?

Do you work? If not then are you the one expected to pick up with the housework? If so then just put everything in tupperware / the fridge and ensure you have a massive clearout in the kitchen. There is probably some crumbs lurking in a corner of the countertop or something - the ants will leave when you clear it up.

We've had ants this summer my house certainly isn't dirty and I've brought a few different things to get rid of them. I haven't seen any for a few days and recently started usings nippon ant gel. They eat it take it back to the other ants and it gets rid of them all. Maybe try something like that but of course they need to start being a bit more hygienic and putting food away to.

Ahh this used to piss my Nan off no end. Her solution was to just throw away anything left on the side. I lost many a loaf of bread that I hadn't put back in the cupboard!

I think you need to start doing the same, and you need to communicate to your husband that living like this can cause serious harm to the baby (get a bit overdramatic about it if you need to). I also agree with PP that you could put your food in sealed containers so that no ants can touch them.

Ants love and will find crumbs no matter how minuscule. I had an invasion of them a couple of summers ago and was baffled as to what was causing them. Turned out I had some very fine crumbs behind the sofa they were after. I cleaned that and kept on top of it as well as sprinkling cinnamon, pepper and salt all over the door frame where they were entering. They soon stopped coming.

Seal food up as much as possible or put it in wall cupboards. Make sure any sticky surfaces are wiped clean. Put ant powder down all around the edges of the floor. Should get rid of them within a few days.

Trace where they're getting in the house and seal it, cleaning would obviously help but once they find food they keep coming back, I think they leave a scent trail for the other ants. Maybe look for nests outside the house and destroy them.

I highly doubt that ants are going to give you anything which will harm your baby. Not eating will cause more harm than ants will.

Your issue is twofold:

Firstly, your family sound like they're lazy. This needs addressing. They either put their food away or you separate your food out and put yours into airtight containers.

Secondly, and probably most importantly, the ants getting into the house needs to be sorted too, so you need to follow the trail of them to find out where they're getting in and seal their access off. If they can't get in, that's half of your issue sorted. If you don't know where they're getting in, then you need to call pest control who will find out any gaps where they can enter the house.