What’s a healthy way to combat sugar ants in my kitchen and clothing moths in my closet?

While ants can invade the cleanest of kitchens, you should first make sure there’s nothing around for them to eat. A sticky spot of spilled orange juice on the floor can be a real treat to an ant. The ants’ nest is usually outdoors, but they send out scouts to look for food, and the scouts lay down scent trails for others to follow. You can often follow the trails and find where they’re getting in, so you can caulk or seal up the entry points. Then, you should clean everything again to destroy the scent trails. If you can’t seem to keep them out, sprinkling talcum powder near the entry points and along trails often takes care of them. It works by clinging to their bodies and preventing normal respiration. Ants take air in through tiny holes (spiracles) in their bodies, and the talcum powder clogs the holes, so they suffocate and die. Clothing moths like to eat the lanolin on wool. (Actually, it’s moth larva that do the damage.) If woolens haven’t been cleaned, they can contain human ...  more