Hi Andre. Use enough water to make a very thick paste, but not enough to dissolve the sugar completely. I do this totally haphazardly but it worked last year on more than a dozen. I have also used this recipe with some good results, the only change I made was giving it some kind of flavor to drive them to it. My grandfather had a chicken farm for 60 plus years. I’ll let you all know if the Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth works. 1 measure borax + 19 measures of sugar should be close enough. Since the ants won’t touch the Terro I don’t know what to suggest. Neither chemical is toxic to humans nor pets when used as recommended, and neither chemical has been shown to contribute to cancer or other long-term illnesses. I don’t know about you, but around this time every year, I seem to get ants popping up around the house and having the recipe for the best homemade natural ant killer has really come in handy. You can also mix the borax with syrup or jelly. I’m going to the garden store to buy some Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth. Reapply the mixture as needed until all the bugs are gone. Carol, the tiny ants we have love dog food(so much that if one crunchy bit is on the floor there will be a hundred ants around it within the hour)…and we have also discovered they love regergitated cat hair balls… I am trying the sugar solution tonight, but if I don’t have great results, i was planning on soaking some dog food in water to make a mush, then adding the borax.). Now that I have the ants under some reasonable sort of control inside, I decided to make this mixture that I got from an Australian YouTube video. They are all the small ones and we have never seen any large carpenter ants or any other variety in here. Currently you have JavaScript disabled. Hope it works for you. Thanks for sharing them. (several hours of testing – at least 5 or more). Thank you! Have her try protein based traps instead. It should be kept in mind that the ants won’t get attracted to the Borax. I mixed about a teaspoon of borax with an egg and cooked it. A friend uses peppermint essential oil on cotton balls. Maybe I just got lucky and surrounded the nest, I don’t know. Once I had all my mixtures together, my test now was to place the four home made mixtures side by side with the Terro Brand,  down on my clean counters. The main ingredient for all the home made versions of the ant killer is Borax, as in 20 Mule Team Borax which can be found in the laundry aisle of most supermarkets, or if you cannot find it,  you can Buy Borax on Amazon here. I only made about 1 Tbsp of water/syrup mix and used less than 1/4 tsp of Borax. However, it seems as though nearly everyone contributing ideas on this site believes the ants are taking the liquid mixtures back to the nest too. The first time I did this it drove them nuts to the point they left the terro alone. We have the tiny ones here around my house. Try meat, etc. With any of the products tested, one must take care using it around animals and small children. Heck, I’ve made it pretty clear I am not super thrilled about the neighbourhood being invaded! This leads me to believe that there is significantly more active (ant killing) ingredient in Boric Acid, than in Borax per a given quantity of powder, would this assumption be correct? Carol. (fingers crossed) Carol. And sign up for pest service A friend’s dog ate one, she called poison control, since it’s labeled as harmful. I tried mixing coconut oil in with the sugar/borax mixture. Carol, Sorry, my mistake! Brown sugar with baking soda & borax (3Tbsp/1tsp) ratio (again two separate mixtures, I’m not mixing baking soda & borax together). Peanut butter was ignored. This worked wonders and he never had to flea treat his dogs, not did any of the animals get sicl from eating it. Tip 1: Put the cornmeal in the area of Borax application. They are sold separately for a reason. where i live i have the big black carpenter ants hard to kill terro wouldn’t kill them . Fingers crossed the scouts took enough back to the colony to wipe it out! But, in your post you described using 8 teaspoons of borax with 2 cups of sugar. Whenever two ants pass each other, they signal with their antenna and then place their mandibles together to transfer whatever food they have found to each other. I did not measure out the jelly, but I would guess that I used approximately half cup with approximately half cup borax. A month after tenant moves in, she mentioned finding ants in kitchen from time to time so she sat out bait traps too. it doesn’t take long and has the same effect as the borax. This homemade ant bait can be prepared quickly and help you get rid of ants around your home or garden for up to a year. 342.2965 g/mol. Some say to use just apple cider vinegar, some suggest honey, and some swear by sugar. Carol. The ants love it and empty a bottle cap in a matter of one day. Soak the cotton balls into the prepared mixture for a minute or two. OK…After two weeks of dealing with these little black ants, and with only moderate success in attracting them with various sweets, and even peanut butter (which they showed absolutely no interest), I decided to try something new! Table of Contents. As a result, these compounds are used as natural and safe ways to combat ants and other pests. That is interesting. Thanks for sharing this it really got me thinking as to what method to try. We are attracted ants with our cat’s canned food. If you just want to keep them out of a particular area or cupboard, ants don’t like bay leaves. It attracts the little ants but it seems to be killing them while they are eating it I’ll try the brown sugar next time to test it too. On another site, there was an article that stated that a dry mixture of sugar (icing sugar/powdered sugar) and borax is necessary in order for the ants to travel with the bait back to the queen. A simple homemade ant killer is prepared by dissolving 1 cup sugar in 1 cup of lukewarm water. Since we were well over the 10-14 days Terro claimed to kill the colony, I started looking for other alternatives. It was very interesting to read. Stir well to make sure it’s completely mixed. Only dry baits can kill the queen! Mine are entering wall and feeding on orchids that has micro honey dew on stems, the kind that attracts aphids. I’ve read through all of the comments, and it seems that maybe they want a greasy alternative? Penny. tb1234 nests???? I’d wished he would have used regular peanut butter instead of low fat. The sweetness of the sugar draws the ants to this mixture, but the toxicity of the borax is the killer ingredient. Then, I mixed the pb and sugar water, about 4:1 so it’s still thick, but there is more sugar in the pb. Carol. I turned over a vase with some flower food in it and did it bring on the ants. A few went for the corn syrup, but not many. i finally tried the peanut butter recipe last week and wow what a hit it was with them. It’s a good one! it is made up of the silica shells of diatoms and is harmful (like most powders) if inhaled. In general, ants avoided mixtures with too much Borax. Electrical boxes can be sealed as well by removing the plate and squirting a bead of foam where the wire exits the box and in any cracks where the box meets the sheet rock. A big endorsement for sugar, water and borax. Inhalation of borax by your pet could cause shortness of breath and coughing fits so care should be taken when using it. Carol. The new mounds would pop up in lines several feet from old (so it looked like extraterrestrial phenomenon activity). But wait! Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." Carol. Crafty little devils! A natural ant killer Borax is a combination of sodium salts and boric acid. Does the retail Terro brand work better/worse than the home made baits? She goes crazy spraying and kills them out. I am rather curious as to how the spray bottle works for her outdoor mixture. Place in a location where you have seen the ants. Raid ant baits also work pretty well but I hate the idea of having them on the counter even at the back. Disinfect and Clean your Garden Tools and Surface. The ants are attracted to the sugar in the mixture, and when they eat it, the Borax kills them. Make this Borax ant killer recipe by thoroughly combining any flavor of fruit jam with two tablespoons of Borax. It’s already working!!! Not sure if all are. It gets very confusing at times. You can put this into a container with a lid. This stuff really works! but they do not die. I’m using 1 teaspoon borax to 9 teaspoons of karo syrup and they are eating it up! Boric acid and borax are both best known as low-toxicity pesticides used in homes. Add a small amount of water (I added about 1/2tsp for this) Best of luck to you all. They will be back. In order to post comments, please make sure JavaScript and Cookies are enabled, and reload the page. Place dish in microwave. I also put it out for the ants to see if they would like it, they didn’t. Another natural way to get rid of ants is to mix peanut butter with borax powder. I put the two baits (white and brown) side by side, and the ants ignored the white mix and but consumed the brown mix. 7. boric acid can be mixed with sugar water or honey for ants and bugs who eat sweets. I love it! If you have an ant problem in your home and want avoid the use of chemical-laden pesticides, borax is an organic alternative that is also effective. I have witnessed how they left food on the counter, so it was no wonder. haphazardly try equal parts. We live in Texas, where we have a LOT of bugs! My friend suggested rice would expand in belly, no idea if true. Unlike chemical bug killers, these homemade ant killers kill off the entire ant colony rather than only get rid of ants that you see. I use it for all types of Ants, last year on my driveway where there was a crack I had a colony of these tiny tiny ants put down the Baking Soda and icing sugar and they were gone by the afternoon, and it is not toxic to your pets. The U.S. Supreme Court: Who Are the Nine Justices on the Bench Today? About a year later, they complained about ants in the kitchen area. The slow rate of kill gives the worker ants a chance to consume the bait and then head back to the nest to share it with the rest of the colony and then the queen. It has been raining here and I don’t know if that has caused the rapid increase, but we are about to go crazy. Hi John, I have never tried this but it does make sense. The second spot, they are split between the sugar water and peanut butter. They have two stomachs, one for themselves, and a second stomach called a ‘crop’. This post may contain affiliate links. I hopped onto the web, as I’d cleaned up those I could and wanted to refresh my mind to the options. citizens inside it, it can take up to several weeks to kill them all, if the colony is large. I love my rhubarb, not the ants. The kill effectiveness is also complicated by how many other food sources the colony has access to. hand held spray can, that I can spray right on the ant hills to kill them. This mineral is also as effective for exterminating ants as any of the other active ingredients available on the market. Apparently, borax will get stuck to the legs of the roaches, they will try to clean it off and then will die. Borax is deadly for them. Carol. Perhaps they’d already taken it in and were just roaming around somewhat aimlessly, not knowing how to ‘go home’? I run a small home preschool and moved into this place 3 years ago to discover an ant problem. Doing my best to DIY to get rid of these buggers. Carol, I love that you are still willing to talk about ant bait 6 years after writing this article! We have quite a large property and it gets expensive to use Terro everywhere. tb1234. so far I’ve tried: 1.) Putting wet pet food bowls in a slightly larger container of water, as a moat for stopping marauders. The ants will pretty much ignore any baits with a lot of Borax relative to the total amount of the bait. Be sure to place the trap where your animals and children can not get it as borax is not something that should be ingested! The peppermint not only smells nice, but it works as a deterrent. I am going to try the peanut butter as well as the sugar water. The sugar borax seemed to work fine but not as well as the commercial brand. , I’ve heard that cinnamon works. Is borax the same as boric acid? They went crazy for it. Keep trying different things. I remained ant free for the rest of the season. I have not had an ant problem really in my house going on 3 years now. So… To. I want to use this. Nice article! The formula was made by combining 1/2 cup of honey, 1/4 cup of Borax and 2 tbsp of boiling water – another strong mixture. This is the correct recipe. They have thinned out a lot but not all gone yet. Mix equal parts of granular sugar and borax. Jam and Borax Ant Bait. Are you looking for things that we can do to protect the environment in small ways? Already done that Carol. I likely sprinkle water so it doesn’t run off then I use a rake to disturb the pile AND bring them up to eat and go back a few days to week later to do it again with more bait. I see their “scouts” out and about. Thanks for all the tips Lucy. The types of use of borax, showing it out of the reach of pets should pose no harm, but Borax outside with animals that can ingest it is not safe. I use a dilute solution of Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Soap and clean the baseboards with that. I’ve read on the internet that this kills them as well. I’ll try the coconut oil and see how it does. That makes the poison about 2.0% of the total. 3. Directions: For both the liquid and solid ant baits, you want to mix the borax or … I think 1 bag treated 5,000 sq ft so I more than double dosed it anyway. Haven’t figured out what concoction works yet for that. I’d make it less strong and see how it works. Wait. So I won’t know the true end results as they are coming back out tomorrow requesting I remove all my concoctions (oils, borax, chalk etc). However, one downside to using DE is that it will not work to kill the entire ant colony, as it is not designed as a bait for ants to bring back to the queen. I just wouldn’t leave it open like he did. 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Thanks, she says, grimly, considering the massive Underground Facilities being created, expanded upon!... On that ants consume a borax weed killer, we clean everything up, now... Different results if you just want to make borax ant killer mixture biger mess than ants... Wiping down the outer slope to reach every ant on plants rarely see on. Per the researchers, Terro does state that it uses borax in the mixture over pieces of cardboard... Yup, they complained about ants in your homes crop ’ at least i will treat yard! The companion plants tip horrible infestation for a few larger varieties mixed in here acid /water mixture sugar/borax and... For outdoor locations as the Terro i don ’ t seem to like to find something that many them. Then they totally stop as long as i put a little watermelon kool aid and makes... Bowls in a 3 gal re speaking my same anti-ant language and i remain ant free for bait... Pets and people pretty well but i do use it on their house completely ant for! 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