Saturday, January 07, 2006
The Anti-AntI have an ant problem, or rather, I had an ant problem. It started last year during the rainy season -- otherwise known as California winter. One day a bunch of ants appeared in one of the bathrooms, most of them going in a line from one crack in the wall behind the sink to another crack next to the bathtub, but there were also many that were just scouting randomly around the floor. That drove me nuts. It felt like taking a shower with thousands watching, without paying.
I used some caulk to fill the holes but they'd just pop out of another hole. I put down double-sided tape to block their path, but except for a few dumb ones that got stuck, the ants just went up and around the tape. Home Depot had some expensive bait -- it was basically a plastic ant take-out restaurant with an entry and an exit. Inside was the bait which the ants were supposed to grab and take home, and poison their entire colony. Ingenious idea, except that it didn't work. Maybe the bait didn't appeal to them, or maybe the contraption was too slippery, but they refused to go in, even after I added sugar to literally sweeten the pot. That went on for about two weeks. Then I came home one day to find a procession of ants from the bathroom across the living room carpet to the garage. The next morning they were gone. I didn't know where they went, but it didn't matter. The ants were gone!
They came back this year, just after Christmas when it rained almost every day for a week straight, and they showed up in the thousands in both bathrooms. Enough was enough. This called for firm action. That meant going to the Internet, that vast repository of all of mankind's knowledge. Quite a few sites suggested using borax as an all-natural ant remedy. It sounded too weird and I always thought these home solutions to be of dubious value. But then powerful sounding commercial stuff hasn't worked, so I was willing to try almost anything.
The borax was a cheap bluish powder you can find at Home Depot, next to the pest control poisons. I mixed a small amount with some sugar, added warm water to dissolve it, and placed empty yogurt cups with this liquid inside along the ant paths. The short story is that it worked beautifully. A few of the ants drowned, but most of them must have carried the stuff back to their nests and killed the rest. I don't know if their heads exploded or if they died quietly, but it was a truly miraculous result. Within three days, there were only a few random ants left, and after a week, they had all disappeared. Better than Raid, better than Combat and caulk and double-sided tape.
I know now, to never doubt the power of the Internet ever again.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 8:09 AM
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Never doubt the power of cheese. Or the internet. As to that ant food they wouldn't eat? I eventually mixed it with syrup. They ate it. They didn't die. Of course that was years ago and far away, when ants were smaller.
Perfect timing. We are having a bad ant problem in our kitchen. Of course I get accused of keeping a dirty kitchen, which is only partly true. I have to try this borax thing right away. I may need your help to find this stuff and use it.
# posted by 
: 07 January, 2006 15:32
: 07 January, 2006 15:32
John,
Apparently there is little evolution (or intelligent design) in the ant family. They have no problem plunging into the sugary liquid even when there are hundreds of other ants dead floating in the cup.
Cindy,
Be glad to. The hardest thing is finding the borax, Home Depot has it where they sell the garden pesticides. But this will not fix your dirty kitchen :)
Apparently there is little evolution (or intelligent design) in the ant family. They have no problem plunging into the sugary liquid even when there are hundreds of other ants dead floating in the cup.
Cindy,
Be glad to. The hardest thing is finding the borax, Home Depot has it where they sell the garden pesticides. But this will not fix your dirty kitchen :)
Borax? Never heard of it. I'll give it a try if we have ants. Our ant problem usually starts in the summer.
# posted by : 08 January, 2006 11:46
: 08 January, 2006 11:46
Hey WoofWoof,
That borax stuff really works! My humans use the commerical product 'Terro'. It is already mixed up and in liquid form. As with your situation, after the third or fouth day, the ants are fewer in number and then disappear. It can be found at Home Depot and Ace Hardware.
My secretary use to work at a zoo. They had lots of ants and cockroaches. The borax powder worked very well with the roaches. As the story goes, they would run through it and the powder would adhere to their exoskeleton. The abrasive powder would then begin wearin' holes in their armour at the joints. Then various diseases would eventually kill the roach. The ants needed a syrup/bait to carry back to their nest.
Mom and Dad say that I'm not allowed to eat the 'Terro'. Well, of course! I'm not an ant. ARF!
Woof!
Freda
That borax stuff really works! My humans use the commerical product 'Terro'. It is already mixed up and in liquid form. As with your situation, after the third or fouth day, the ants are fewer in number and then disappear. It can be found at Home Depot and Ace Hardware.
My secretary use to work at a zoo. They had lots of ants and cockroaches. The borax powder worked very well with the roaches. As the story goes, they would run through it and the powder would adhere to their exoskeleton. The abrasive powder would then begin wearin' holes in their armour at the joints. Then various diseases would eventually kill the roach. The ants needed a syrup/bait to carry back to their nest.
Mom and Dad say that I'm not allowed to eat the 'Terro'. Well, of course! I'm not an ant. ARF!
Woof!
Freda
Connecticut,
Never heard it myself until I saw it on the internet. And then I didn't believe that it worked until I tried. Amazing stuff.
Freda,
Thanks for the scientific explanation. Exoskeleton? Good enough for me to know that they all died. The borax cup was placed high on the sink, out of the reach of pets. I wasn't sure what it would do to dogs (no cats here -- the dogs will get to them long before the borax does).
The borax is really cheap. A whole bottle is only $3, and I used half a teaspoon. There is probably enough in there to kill all the ants in the world.
Never heard it myself until I saw it on the internet. And then I didn't believe that it worked until I tried. Amazing stuff.
Freda,
Thanks for the scientific explanation. Exoskeleton? Good enough for me to know that they all died. The borax cup was placed high on the sink, out of the reach of pets. I wasn't sure what it would do to dogs (no cats here -- the dogs will get to them long before the borax does).
The borax is really cheap. A whole bottle is only $3, and I used half a teaspoon. There is probably enough in there to kill all the ants in the world.
After a long search, I found the borax at Home Depot. Nobody in the store knew what it was or where it was. The instructions on the bottle are to sprinkle it near the ants, nothing like what you said. Let me know how you used it. I want to follow exactly since it worked for you.
# posted by : 14 January, 2006 12:01
: 14 January, 2006 12:01
Cindy,
Get a small dish or cup. In my case, I used an empty yogurt cup. Put about half a teaspoon of borax and half a teaspoon of sugar in there, and add a quarter cup of hot water. Slosh it around until the borax and sugar are dissoved. Place the cup on the ant path, but away from kids and pets.
It could take a few days to get rid of all the ants. You might see a lot of ants drowning but that's OK, as long as some of them carry the stuff back to the nest.
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Get a small dish or cup. In my case, I used an empty yogurt cup. Put about half a teaspoon of borax and half a teaspoon of sugar in there, and add a quarter cup of hot water. Slosh it around until the borax and sugar are dissoved. Place the cup on the ant path, but away from kids and pets.
It could take a few days to get rid of all the ants. You might see a lot of ants drowning but that's OK, as long as some of them carry the stuff back to the nest.
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