Flickr photo by photogirl7Cleaning gets kind of creepy in the spring time in my neck of the woods -- creepy crawly that is.

Living in an aging home beside a river, my parents saw their first ant last weekend. Or should I say, I saw their first ant while washing dishes from the family's Sunday dinner? And promptly squashed him?

Out of the house for more than a decade, the memory of the chemicals my parents' pest control guy used to spray around the house this time of year still tingles in my nostrils.

But cleaning the critters out of your house doesn't have to make you worry about the effects it will have on your kids' nervous systems.

A few green tips my parents' have tried instead:

We used to create a solution -- 50 percent water/50 percent vinegar -- and spray it at the spots where the ants were sneaking into the kitchen. This one really worked best if we could find the source.

Black pepper -- another one you have to use at their entrance, the scent seems to scare them off.

Cinnamon -- sprinkle it on their ant hills outside the house and at the entrance.

Diatomaceous earth -- sprinkle it in the house where you find the ants, at their entrance and outside on their anthills.

Have any of these home remedies against ants worked for you?