I had heard before that cinnamon works great as a natural deterrent for ants so when I discovered two colonies of ants swarming outside my front door I had to give it a try. Then, like most scientific inquiry I found that I had a few more questions: How do ants signal? What does the cinnamon actually do to them? Can other spices work?

Link to blog:
http://youcanscienceit.com/?p=32

Linkography:

Ant signaling:
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/....science-fair-project
http://journals.plos.org/plosc....ompbiol/article?id=1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messor_barbarus
http://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Th....e_Ants_Chapter_7#Rec
http://www.antwiki.org/wiki/Th....e_Ants_Chapter_10#Of
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavement_ant
ants on sidewalk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpenter_ant
ants at my parents house


Effect of Cinnamon on ants:
http://www.ijsrp.org/research-....paper-0714/ijsrp-p31
cinnamaldehyde demonstrated marked deterrence but ant species was not specified.
http://0-auraria.summon.serial....ssolutions.com.skyli
Leaf debris containing cinnamon leaves was shown to act as both an insecticide and repellent when placed near by red imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta
http://0-auraria.summon.serial....ssolutions.com.skyli
cinnamon essential oil consisting of 75% cinnamaldehyde was demonstrated to induce mortality in red imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta
http://0-dx.doi.org.skyline.uc....denver.edu/10.1093/j
Mint oil was demonstrated to be an effective repellent when used on ant colonies of red imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta this article was cited by all papers concerning cinnamon effectiveness.
http://0-dx.doi.org.skyline.uc....denver.edu/10.1016/S
Cinnamyl Alcohol was tested along with some other chemicals for insecticidal effective on three different insect species including Carpenter ants (Camponotus pennsylvanicus De Geer) while the paper’s focus is comparing relative effective between chemicals and species it is taken for granted that all chemicals including Cinnamyl Alcohol were effective toxins.
http://www.entm.purdue.edu/ants/pubs/8.pdf
cinnamaldehyde showed no effect on Pharoh Ants


About Cinnamon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvWT5FvOsrk
http://cinnamonvogue.com/how_t....o_get_rid_of_black_a
http://www.thriftyfun.com/Gett....ing-Rid-of-Ants-1.ht
http://theparsimoniousprincess.....blogspot.com/2012/0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamomum_verum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamyl_alcohol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamaldehyde