Ants can be annoying when you’re trying to enjoy a picnic outdoors.

But fortunately, there are some things you can do to keep them away.

Keeping ants away from a picnic can be very simple if you know the right things to do.

Like being careful with smells, choosing where to set up, and creating barriers to your picnic.

In the following article, we look at the best ways to keep ants away from a picnic so you can be sure to enjoy an ant-free time.

Including how you can use different smells to repel them, how to choose the right area, and how to avoid encouraging ants.

How to keep ants away at a picnic table or blanket

Keeping ants away from a picnic might seem challenging, but it’s relatively simple.

It’s well known that ants love to interrupt picnics and ruin fun, especially when your picnic is full of bright colors and powerful smells.

Fortunately, keeping ants away is straightforward, using both natural methods for repelling them and deliberate choices to ensure your picnic goes smoothly.

You can do a few natural things to keep ants away.

Including using natural smells that repel ants and avoiding anything that invites them in.

Otherwise, how you set up your picnic will need to be well thought out.

The wrong setup will invite ants to ruin your food and cause irritation, so you must get it right.

Consider the food and drinks you include in your picnic, as ants are attracted toward aromatic scents and bright colors.

Avoid anything patterned or colorful and try to stay away from smells and scents that ants like.

You’ll also need to consider where your picnic table is set up, so think about digging beforehand to ensure you have the right place.

Be careful where you set up

One of the best things you can do to keep ants away from your picnic is to check out the area first.

You should be able to check for ants in the area simply by looking for signs of them.

You should either see actual ants scurrying about or signs of an anthill.

If you spot any signs that an area is full of ants, you’ll need to move away to somewhere better.

If you can find somewhere free from ant trails or hills, you are more likely to be safe from ants interrupting your picnic.

Of course, this is a given if you use a picnic table or blanket.

However, the same goes if you have bought your table to set up, as ants will climb legs easily and get to your food that way.

Staying away from risky areas helps to keep them away.

It would help if you also tried setting up your picnic as far away from trash cans.

Setting up your picnic is likely to draw ants quickly.

It’s also very unpleasant when you’re trying to eat and enjoy having trash and bad smells around you.

Aim to set up your picnic at least fifty feet away from the nearest trash can, and you will have a more enjoyable time.

Be aware of colors and smells

When packing your picnic, be aware of the colors and smells of the things you are packing and anything you might use.

Items such as baskets, picnic blankets, and cutlery.

Ants are attracted to bright colors and strong scents and are more likely to invade your picnic if it is appealing to them in terms of how it looks and smells.

So, it would help if you did all you could to ensure your picnic table is as unappealing to ants as it can be.

This means sticking with plain colors and minimal scents.

Things like bright patterns on your clothes, picnic basket, or setup will serve as invitations for ants.

Try to avoid them wherever possible, and instead, stick to plain colors and patterns as much as possible.

It’s also important to remember that ants work off their sense of smell.

Which is incredibly strong to pick up food quickly, even at some distance- so it’s effortless to attract them when you’re having a picnic.

Smells from strong perfumes or body lotions can attract ants just as much as the smell of food.

Avoid using them when you can to keep the ants away.

Use certain scents to repel them

As well as avoiding strong scents that draw ants in, you can also use other smells to ensure they stay away.

Scents are a powerful tool for stopping ants from ruining your picnic, since their sense of smell is so strong.

Ants rely on their sense of smell to locate food, so blocking them from doing this is an excellent way to protect your picnic set up from the colony.

An obvious choice for keeping them away is an ant or flying bug repellent.

Which you can get hold of easily, and is used by spraying the area around your picnic table to prevent ants from catching the scent and following it.

However, if you choose to use a repellent, you will need to find a repellent that is safe for use around people and won’t harm any animals that may also use the area.

If you are worried about the chemicals in repellents, mainly when used around food.

Consider some of the many natural options for repelling ants.

Smells like lemon juice, mint, or vinegar won’t be tolerated by ants.

These scents work by stopping them from communicating your location back to the colony.

Meaning they won’t be able to invade your picnic.

Don’t allow ants to get near

Ants can only interrupt your picnic if they can access it.

So if you can, do your research and think about some of the different ways you might block ants from getting to your picnic set up in the first place, which is a great way to protect it.

Luckily, you can do a couple of different things to create a barrier to your picnic, whether floor-based or on a table.

You might have some protection from ants if you have a picnic table, but they can still get up there if they want to, especially when there’s more than one of them.

One way you can stop this is by using water to create a barrier to your picnic area – as ants won’t cross water, it can help protect your setup.

If you have your table, put the legs in buckets of water, so ants are prevented from crawling up.

With picnics on the floor, you’re immediately more exposed to ants, and you may need to protect your setup more.

You can protect your picnic by using chalk or talcum powder, both of which have a similar effect to water and won’t be crossed by ants.

You might use either of these if your picnic is on the floor, where you can circle them around your picnic area to create a barrier.

Think about setting up a decoy

Most insects, including ants, will leave you and your food alone if they are given something else to focus on, especially if it’s food.

So distracting them with a decoy should help to keep them from invading your picnic.

By placing something sweet and sugary a reasonable distance from the picnic area.

Ants should be drawn more toward that and less toward your food.

Anything sweet and sugar-based will distract ants and hopefully draw them away from your picnic.

A couple of things you might want to try our sugar water and watermelon rinds.

Either of which should be sweet enough to encourage ants over and make them leave your food alone.

Make sure your decoy is a safe distance away from your picnic, and you should be safe.

The important thing is that you stop the entire colony from getting to your picnic, which can cause your food to become completely overrun.

The added benefit of a decoy is that if one ant falls for the trick and goes for the decoy.

It should report its findings back to the colony, which should cause them all to flock to the decoy and draw them away from your picnic.

Conclusion

Keeping ants away from a picnic might seem challenging, but it’s pretty simple.

By choosing carefully which foods you include and where you set your picnic up, you can keep ants away.

If they fail, things like ant repellant or a barrier should help to stop them from interrupting your fun and allow you to enjoy your picnic.