Like clockwork, during the warm months, my kitchen succumbs the to the dreaded tiny black ant invasion. Even when there is not a speck of food on the counter, somehow they find something attractive and gather in clusters all over my sink area and under the window. Mass ant extermination with a sponge and hot running water is a time consuming not to mention quite unpleasant way to start your day.Then of course within minutes, more ants start to appear.
Time to break out the big guns!
This is a cheap and easy way to kill the ants at their source and eliminate your ant problem.
Borax is the star of this recipe. Borax is a mineral! I never did any borax research so this was interesting to me. Sodium tetraborate, when purchased in the familiar box, is a white, powdered substance that dissolves easily in water. Borax is actually the active ingredient in some commercial ant baits. From what I can gather, when this is ingested by ants, it interferes with their digestion and they don't perish immediately, which allows them time to share it with their colony and most importantly, the queen.
To attract the ant to it, I simply dissolve powdered sugar into water along with the borax. When absorbed by cotton balls and placed at the busiest ant sites, they can't pass this up.
From what I can read, borax has a low level of toxicity to humans and animals, but is lethal to most insects. I made sure to place the cotton balls out of reach of children and pets though.
In my experience, this will eliminate my ant problem in about 24 hours. If you still see a few stragglers, just leave out fresh bait to make sure you get the whole colony.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Natural Borax Ant Killer
(measurements don't have to be exact)
3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
1 tablespoon borax
Mix together until dissolved. Soak cotton balls, and place in high ant traffic areas. (Out of reach of children and pets.) You can place on a piece on tin foil or wax paper, etc. if you must protect a surface. Squeeze the cotton ball a bit every now and then so there is a little pool of liquid directly on the surface that the ants can find easily.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You better watch the big black crumb snatcher and the curly curious Georgette.
ReplyDelete