Woman shares clever 80p hack she swears by to get rid of ants

People are flooding to social media in appreciation after a woman revealed her best hack to keep ants and spiders at bay.

As the sun's rays slowly creep in, unfortunately, so do creepy crawlies. With the warmer months often come lots of bugs, crawling and whizzing around in a bid to nab any leftover Pimm's or rosé you may have splashed on the floor.

It's an arachnophobe and myrmecophobes' worst nightmare, but fear not, because a DIY and non-toxic tips content creator has you covered.

If you're not the type of person who seeks joy in picking up one of those electric tennis racket-like fly swatters and prancing around the house zapping away - and ultimately would prefer to spare a bug's life - then this holistic approach is the one for you, so listen in:

In a video posted to Instagram, Olivia Shaffer - who goes by the handle livholistic online - explains she often has spiders and red ants come knocking at her door as soon as the weather warms and has come up with a cheap solution to send them packing.

The Instagrammer says: "One cup (237ml) of vinegar and one cup of water. Next we're going to do 10 drops of peppermint oil. Now, let's spray."

Olivia then sprays the low-cost solution - vinegar costing 29p at Tesco and pots of peppermint oil able to be found online for around £2 - on her porch and decking, noting you can also spritz it onto your windows, or apply it to cotton wool balls and leave them on sills too.

But does the DIY concoction really work?

Viewers of Olivia's life hack video have flooded to the comments in appreciation of the tip.

One Instagram user wrote: "This works so well!!! One of our staff members tried it at home and no spiders anymore. What a life saver."

"Wow thank you," another commented.

A third added: "I was just on Pinterest trying to find a spider remedy. I've got some biggies lurking around and I know they like to drop down and hang. Ahhhh thank you for this holistic recipe!!"

Another user questioned how often you need to spray in order to make sure the mixture remains effective.

"Every few days until eventually they just give up trying to make a web there," Olivia replied.

Others asked how safe the solution is to use around pets and children.

Olivia explained: "Just don't spray dog toys/bedding, kids toys, and keep cotton balls out of reach of pets and kids."

Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@livholistic

Topics: Animals, Instagram, Life, Real Life, Social media, Weather, Hacks

Poppy Bilderbeck

Poppy Bilderbeck is a Senior Journalist at LADbible Group. She graduated from The University of Manchester in 2021 with a First in English Literature and Drama, where alongside her studies she was Editor-in-Chief of The Tab Manchester. Poppy is most comfortable when chatting about all things mental health, is proving a drama degree is far from useless by watching and reviewing as many TV shows and films as possible and is such a crisp fanatic the office has been forced to release them in batches.