I just found some ants in my kitchen, Spring must be here!
Perhaps you all know this tip, but I'll pass it along anyway. I mix a
couple spoonfuls of sugar with a couple of borax, and sprinkle it behind my
stove, under the sink, and anyplace where my dogs can't get to it. ( It's
bad for pets) That has always gotten rid of them. I was told that they
carry it back to their nest, and it kills the colony.
Ron
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I just spread something perfumy --baby powder or talcum or whatever --
across their trails into the house...they travel by scent trails and get
confused...and *usually* stay outside where they can do some good.
Barb in Southern Indiana Zone 5/6 dorsett@blueriver.net
A root is a flower that disdains fame.
Hi Ron,
Not only does it work - it was the only thing that did -
One year I got tiny, tiny black ants and sprayed and all,
but it was the borax that did them in.
Best,
June
Ron wrote:
Plain salt apparently works as well, and would be safer for the dog.
Brenda in Lethbridge
"june m. dean" wrote:
I use a mix of peanut butter, honey, corn syrup and boric acid. Did the
Pharoah ants we were infested with completely in. Also kills roaches if
you have any. The ants will travel pretty far to get the stuff and I put
it in little plastic cups and up high enough the dog can't get to it.
Haven't seen an ant or a roach around in months now. Got the recipe off
the web but durned if I remember where.
George
Hi Gabrielle,
Borax is a white powder sold over the counter at CVS etc. -
It lasts a long time. And if you want to sprinkle it in the
cracks between the house and floor (in older houses) it does
a good job too.
Like Ron, I mix it. First I take a rolling pin and crush a
cookie on a paper plate, then I add sugar and borax, and put
it under the little cubboard that I have.
Those little black ants have totally disappeared now.
It was so strange - first I saw them by the sink and I
thought I got them all -- with masking tape yet -
but no. A few days later, down the hall in my bedroom,
they invaded my handbag because I had some mints in them
(with phoney sugar too) and they were attracted to it.
What a shock! I opened my handbag and it was full of ants.
But I haven't seen them in 2 years now -whew!
They survived Raid - but not the borax.
Best,
June
It's
The exterminator that does the inside of the condo units has a
professional borax-based spray that I had him use in the attic. I'd
rather have that than all the other chemical kinds they use.
Karen, (temporarily in FL)
NW of Pittsburgh, PA, Zone 6/5b
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Sodium Borate (Na2B4O7.10H2O) Used in cleaning products, as a water
softener, and as a preservative. Source of Boron as a trace mineral for
deficient soils (prevents club root in brassicas) and ant destroyer. Make=
s a
weak acid (Boric acid) in water.
Ant destroyer formula:
Mix 1 cup water, 1/3 cup sugar, and 1 1/2 tsp Boric acid. Shake well. Fil=
l
small bottles with cotton balls and saturate with solution. (Label as
poison) Poke some holes large enough for the ants to get in and place bot=
tle
on it's side at suspected entry point. This is usually available at hardw=
are
stores already mixed in a squirt bottle. A few drops is all it takes from
the bottle..
Bill Loke; Kars, Ontario. USDA Z 4B/5A
> The exterminator that does the inside of the condo units has a
professional borax-based spray that I had him use in the attic. I'd
rather have that than all the other chemical kinds they use.>>
Since a lot of us have garden sprayers, why couldn't we mix borax and
water and spray, too?
I wonder what ratio...water to borax?
Jo
NJ
> What is borax?
Borax is a laundry washing product that contains boron.
--
Barbara Martin
en Reports!
http://www.garden.org
What is borax? If it works I want to try it too!
Gabri??lle
mix a
> couple spoonfuls of sugar with a couple of borax, and sprinkle it behind
my
Ok George. Share the recipe with the rest of us. This sounds like a
keeper. :-) My yearly ant invasion hasn't started yet, but I want to
get the concoction mixed up as it's about time for them to start coming
in. They should know that they are outside animals! :-)
Bambi
Coastal Carolina
USDA zone 8
Too much boron is bad for the outdoor plants just as too little is bad.
Spraying it indiscriminately could kill your plants.
Bill Loke; Kars, Ontario. USDA Z 4B/5A
Bill, I wasn't considering spraying the yard with it. I wondered if it
was possible to do doorways or garage floors or concrete walkways,
places like that.
I don't get the tiny ants in the kitchen, but I do get the occasional
humungous black ant in odd places. Walking the ledge in the family room
or in the bathroom. Not worth spraying for those.
My daughter seems to get kitchen ants every year, though.
Jo
NJ
Too much boron is bad for the outdoor plants just as too little is bad.
Spraying it indiscriminately could kill your plants.>>
Sorry, when you are talking of spraying, I think outdoors. We usually put a
few drops here and there where we have seen ants. The ants, when they find
the drops, cluster around and soon no drops but the deed is done. :-)
The trick with this stuff is to make it weak enough so than the ants can get
back to the colony and pass around some of the sweets before they keel over.
Usually the queen ant gets first dibs on any food coming in to the colony,
and without the queen the colony withers away.
Bill Loke; Kars, Ontario. USDA Z 4B/5A
B Cantrell wrote:
Go to http://ktrh.com/antbait.html and print out the recipe. KTRH radio,
am 740, in Houston is well known for their gardening show.
This recipe worked well for me, Pharoah ants were gone in less than two
weeks and then we noticed the roaches that come in from outside were
eating the stuff. Don't see roaches of any kind anymore. I keep a little
feeder of it in each bathroom, under the vanity. Under the kitchen sink,
behind the fridge, and on counter tops. Have noticed no bites taken out
of any of the feeding stations in some time.
George
