Ant Update
I will be posting just a bit later today, but in the meantime, I thought I would share an update on the ants in my kitchen.
A few weeks ago, I posted about trying 20 Mule Team Borax to get rid of ants here.
I am happy to say, Borax worked like a charm to get rid of them. It took a few days, but I haven’t seen a trace of them since.
It takes only a few minutes to make the “traps.” Better still, it’s a solution that only costs pennies, especially because I already use Borax in my laundry and for cleaning.
Great idea! I sprinkled lines of Borax along the baseboards and doorways and that worked but it was a little messy. I’ll try your method next invasion.
I was so excited when I saw this, and I tried it too. Unfortunately I didn’t have any success with it. I have a bajillion HUGE ants and none of them seemed phased by it, nor did I see any even interested in it :( I wish it would have worked for me, it seemed like such a great idea!
Hi Jenni, I had small black ants in my kitchen, and it might have worked because of the type of ants, I don’t know. It also worked really well for my mom, but she lives in a neighboring community, and probably has a similar type of ants. I am just about to place my cards in my daughter’s room on the opposite side of our house. We just saw ants in their room as we were cleaning. It was a great chance to discuss why breaking our house rules and taking food in their rooms is such a bad idea! A few people mentioned the product Terro http://www.terro.com/ . I wonder if you would have better luck with that.
I just made a Borax ant bait using Borax and honey. The ants I have seem to like that.
I hope it works because I’ve been getting ants in my washing machine and the dishwasher… nowhere else in the house. Just those two confined places. I thing they may be coming in the drains or something. But hopefully the borax bait around the outside of the house will kill the colonies.
Terro is made with boric acid, too, so it will work the same way. Just the bait part is different.
A great Child/Pet friendly way to get rid of ants are BAY LEAVES (from the grocery store with the salt & pepper). Ants can’t stand it. I live in an apartment and when the neighbors moved I started noticing an ant trail and before they could get lost all in my brown carpet I placed the leaves on the trail & all over & haven’t seen them since. Also Baby Powder works great especially since it’s alway givin at a baby shower but isn’t good for baby’s to actually breath in so that way it gets used without just sitting up for years. Works outside too during those summer ant hills. Boiling water with soapy stirred in & some salt on ant hills work to. Hope it helps.
Sounds like you have carpenter ants. They won’t take sweets, they eat wood. They can destroy a house, tree, anything wood. If they are living outside, usually in a tree trunk, if you can find the nest entrance you may be able to pour borax dissolved in water into the hole. I’m going to try it myself. The small ants are sugar ants. Hope I was of some help.
When we lived in the south I learned that grits work to keep the ants away- big and small. The ants take them back to their friends and they all munch on the grits. The grits will then expand in their little ant tummies and the ants die.
We took a box of grits and sprinkled them all around the outside of our house and the ants never came inside again. in fact, they left our home area all together!
Thank you so so much for sharing this. I found your blog through your cookie in a jar post but saw this. I am having ant problems right now and I know the store traps don’t work. So thank you! I will be going to get Borox from the store today!