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My mother in law lived in a trailer park and had these terrible. They were worried about their animals. I mixed boric acid with molasses, poured a little in the bottom of old soda cans so the pets couldn’t get to it. I placed them in the planters and tossed a few under the house. They were gone for years.
Years ago I put out two caps with boric acid and sugar and enough water to make a syrup. In about two days they were gone for years. Then about two weeks ago they came back so I did the syrup yesterday and today they have disappeared. Hope they stay gone for years again. 💖👏👏👏🤗
I put the caps where ever I see the ants. Use as many as you need but one cap per area should be sufficient. I used old milk bottle caps I got off my empty milk jugs. Any type of cap will work.
@@DIYHomesteadProjectsDIYHP10 I JUST did this. However I had to add a LOT of boric & sugar to make thick. Is that ok? Or should it just be more Sugar than boric?
Terro (boric acid based, yes) is cheap, ready to use and DIY is really not worth it in this case. 1-2 drops on a piece of cardboard or a bottle cap wipes 'em out. Save DIY for other things!
When you see ants trailing to the bait. Move the bait closer to their entry point. Go outside and see if you can find ant trails coming into the houses. Place the bait outside, seal up the entry points. The majority of time, ants are looking for moisture inside. And they are nesting in moisture areas outside. Solve the moisture sources and you can solve many pest problems.
Also Apparently adult ants eat the liquid but baby ants eat solid, so if you put a piece of waffle or bread into the solution the ants will take chunks of it back to feed the young in the colony.
I've had great success with 50% Borax and 50% powdered sugar. Someone in the comments mentioned Borax and peanut butter. I guess some ants like sugar and some prefer oils.
@@michaelg.294 I've done pretty much the same. 20 Mule Team Borax and some sugar, some in water, some dusted on the ant trails. 20 Mule Team Borax is the exact same chemical as Terro ant killer. One little tube of Terro costs close to several lbs of Borax.
I didn't have many ants this year, but they were always right near where I was sitting using my laptop. Occasionally one would suddenly appear on my screen and startle the hell out of me. I get the creepy crawlies around indoor insects. But there was never, ever a trail. Most of the time it was just one damn ant. If it had been in the kitchen at least that would have made sense. But no - it would be here crawling on the lampshade beside me or the sofa I'm sitting on or the coffee table in front of me - or in the bathroom on the wall. I found the colony outside and covered it liberally in borax, and the indoors was ant-free for several days, but it didn't last. Even the exterminators' treatment didn't completely eliminate them, which is VERY unusual. I have cats so would have to find a good way to set up a trap with liquid. I'm sort of concerned, though, that next year that sweeeet liquid might attract more of them. Any thoughts, anyone?
I am finding them in the same situation in my living room. I'm pretty sure they came from contaminated potting soil when I had my plant repotted at a plant shop. Got rid of the plant but the ants are lingering and like my laptop.
I have a bad trail of them in my kitchen after my plants. Twenty Mule Team Borax washing powder in the laundry section at the grocery store. They started picking up bits and taking them back with them to where they came from.
Not sure where I picked this up but I also used boric acid and sugar or a little syrup….. it does work great. I do like the apple juice idea. I will try that next time.
The ants coming into our place go after the cat food we put down for our cats. If our cats don't eat much of their food when it is first put down, ants will basically take it over. Then our cats won't go near their bowls. There are other things the ants go after as well, like what is in the trash can, or in dishes not yet washed. Now some of these things can be solved by rinsing the ants off with hot water, which if hot enough cooks them to death immediately, but these ants are coming in from multiple openings they are able to fit through. Wish I had some Boric Acid, as I would certainly use it in a solution something similar to yours. Thanks for this video!
I have the same problem, also going to try this solution. In the meantime, I've been keeping the cat dishes on a tray with a lip and keep water in it. Ants can't get to the dishes (as long as the cat doesn't move it to the edge.
Thanks, I have used a sugar, borax and water mix in closed jam glasses with "doors" for the little rascals which also knocked their socks off and yes, they come back after a while and I'll try your solution to see which one they like more or which one works better.
You need to consider the air speed in the hose. Higher air speed will carry larger particles. A larger diameter hose is not necessarily better, probably worse as air speed is more important than total volume flow. There are always tradeoffs, the idea of “one” better solution is misguided. It is good to consider both pros and “cons.”
I'm trying this I'm in an all out Caddyshack style war with these tiny monsters everytime I think I've killed them they just move locations and come back with a vicious attack
I've already deployed the K9 units, honestly. (One of my puppies in training will put anything in her mouth, and I was using a safe honey bait at one point that made the ants taste delicious, and now if she sees an ant, she eats an ant. I'm not complaining, but I can definitely never use toxic bait now!)
soak some cotton balls/pads in the solution and put those out if you dont want to worry about a container or ants drowning instead of eating and returning to nest. YOu will have to resoak the pads if they dry out, but thats easy.
I've also had luck in the past using borax in 2 forms, 1) Terro brand liquid ant killer (5.4% borax, 94.6% "other ingredients"); this is a syrup-like liquid that works when the ants are looking for something sweet. And 2) borax powder mixed with peanut butter, which worked when the ants were looking for protein. I've read that depending on the time of the year, they are either looking for sweet food or protein food. This approach worked for several years of multiple infestations until our last major infestation a couple of years ago. I put out both my Terro and peanut butter mix (placed separately on small pieces of plastic wrap), but several days later the ants were still coming and going in large quantities. I thought about how effective Orthene fire ant bait (a white powder available at my local Walmart) had been for me in the lawn killing entire mounds of fire ants in less than a day, and thought it would be worth a try with my current home infestation of regular ants. So, I located the place in the house where the ant trail disappeared under a piece of tile/carpet transition wood trim. I placed a small bit of Orthene powder (about the size of an English pea) on the floor and went on about my business. Several hours later I noticed a significant decrease in the number of ants. The next morning when I got up I checked my Orthene bait location and I could not see any ants anywhere! Months later we had another infestation at a different entry point. I placed another bit of Orthene where the ant trail disappeared under the quarter round underneath a window. The ants completely disappeared in less than a day! Remember, Orthene is a poison, so be careful if you have small children or pets and be sure and place the bait in a way that the little ones can't get to it. Hope this helps.
I've had invasions from two sides of my house, and I've seen a colony moving through my kitchen with multiple queens. Because Argentine ants are an invasive species world wide, their genes are the same by region and between some regions. This means that if ants from one colony meet up with ants from another colony they treat each other like sisters and don't defend the territory. This is why two colonies can invade a house from two directions. When I wipe out the current colony(s) my house is usually clear for several months to over a year. There was one period of more than two years I had none of these ants. I asked my neighbors if they'd hired an exterminator. No.
I wouldn't store the poison solution in something that looks like a food container. The way I do your method is I use sugar water (because I already mix this up to fill hummingbird feeders). I just mix it as I use it. The ants I'm battling are Argentine ants - an invasive species that has displaced native ants. What I do is mix a little boric acid with the sugar and water in a small cup. Look for ant & roach powder at places like Home Depot $12 will last you 20 years. Just make sure the label says Active Ingredient: Boric Acid - you don't need any dangerous pesticides. Initially mix in some but not much boric acid, you want them to start feeding and not mind the boric acid. Once they start feeding you then keep increasing the amount of boric acid so long as they'll keep coming . When they stop coming and they're no where else in your kitchen you've wiped out the entire colony. I've been wiping out colonies of these ants using this method for twenty years. At the moment my ratty old California house, still full of gaps and cracks, has no ants. I wiped out the last assault months ago and they've yet to return. I strongly suspect that the Terro ant trap business model is: You buy a $7 Terro thing and keeps the ants busy for a few weeks, distracting them from the rest of your kitchen. You think it's working. When the trap is sucked dry, they head over to your countertop and you go out and buy another Terro trap, Repeat, repeat, repeat. DIY Homestead and my method is dirt cheap, safe and highly effective. The only problem with an open container is it dries out. As soon as it's a sugar crystal they stop coming. I've put tinfoil and saran wrap over the top, or I just check them every few days and mix in a little water. A few dribbles painted on the side of the cup and a stick down into the mixture makes it easier for them find it and get to it, speeding up the process.
I'm having a lot of luck getting rid of ants with a flame thrower. It also works great with eliminating uni-brows!!! (seriously, this borax w/ apple juice mix works great!)
Thanks for the tips! Something that I find works for the ants as well is baby powder, it kills them and keeps them away. Only problem is, it can be a little messy. A HUGE problem we are having in southwest Virginia is gnats, they are everywhere! They get in through my windows and I have yet to figure out how to get rid of them!
Almost anything that is sweet juice or vinegar, with a bit of dish soap to break the surface tension, and the fruit flies, gnats, and ants fall under the surface and drown. Use Nutra-sweet. Free with coffee. Harmful to people, and ants. It is an excito-neuro-toxin. They carry that home. Next day. No ants. Never see dead ones. Maybe they move. Large ants find the powder too fine, so mist it down a bit to get it clumpy. Spread a couple of sachets on an anthill and the ants disappear quickly. Mixed with water, large ants quickly start twitching and many don't make it far. They will climb into a glass of water and Nutra-sweet, to drink. Many don't make it out before system failure. Just use Borax from the grocery store. Save money.
You are awesome! I live in a little old trailer in the forest beside a river and these mofos are hard to get rid of. This is a perfect mostly non toxic solution! 🙉🙈🙊
Interesting and thanks for the info. It may be cheaper that way for a one time use application but in my case this is an annual issue where I live. (every spring) I am still using the original bag of Boric Acid I purchased and it will probably last me the rest of my life. One time lifetime purchase for a supply that will last forever LOL. Ant control doesn't get much cheaper than that IMO. I wish you the best!
I don't think boric acid is hazardous to pets or Children. It equates to table salt which is why I have used it for many years. The Apple juice is a good idea. I would make a paste of sugar, borax, cornstarch and water. The paste is useful for actually getting into entry points.
Boric acid is not safe for humans. Boric acid poisoning may be acute or chronic. Acute poisoning occurs when individuals swallow powdered cockroach-killing products that contain boric acid. Chronic poisoning occurs when individuals are repeatedly exposed to boric acid.
Boric Acid in concentrations >1.5% is not toxic to children or pets. In-fact a well known eye drop, which shall remain nameless ( it gets the red out) contains 1% Boric Acid. In the example shown in the video, if the mixture truly is 3 Tsp Boric Acid to 1/2 gallon of juice, the percentage of Boric Acid to juice is only .78%, well below toxic levels, and is safe for occasional and or accidental contact.
I’ve tried Terro and Raid ants traps and at first, the ants were taking the Terro bait, but after a while they stopped. Plus, it didn’t kill the colony because there’s still a lot of ants. So, I tried the Raid baits and the ants didn’t even go in it. I’ll try this simpler solution and see if it works. This ant nest is in a tree somewhere, and is a huge problem. Ants everywhere in the house…🤷🏻♂️🙄😡
This worked well for us. I treated the ants last year and they disappeared after a few days of using this method. I haven't seen any ants yet this year so fingers crossed, I might get two years of no ants for one treatment. I'd be curious to know how it works for you if you try it. I wish you the best.
Put your bait outside your house near the window or door that they come through. It will be more effective and ants won’t leave scent trail into your house.
If you haven’t done so already, it’s good to keep tree branches trimmed up and away from the house. Insects will use tree branches touching the roof, as a superhighway to a whole new world of food! 😊
Terro has always worked for me. I’d see a few and put the bait out and hours later you would see a heavy stream of ants going both directions. A few times I’ve seen the queen come out to get it herself. I squished her :). The next day or so they would all be gone. Maybe a straggler here or there but that’s it.
I scooped out some vanilla ice cream for my dog and failed to put the scooper in the sink in water. It was out on the kitchen counter all night. When I got to the counter on the next morning, the scooper had about 65 million little picnic ants licking up residue ice cream from inside the scooper. The sight of it makes my hurl. What I might do is just mix some boric acid in ice cream and leave it out in a paper plate of the counter overnight. No children to worry about and my little dog can't get on the counter.
Born in NE Ohio, we referred to these as sugar ants also. The ants I have recently found in my house are VERY tiny, are they babies or a totally different kind of ant? I'm going to try sugar water and Borax. There isn't a whole lot of them, just enough to be annoying. Thanx for the video.
I don't think they are babies, I think they are just a different kind of ant. The boric acid and sugar water will probably take care of your problem. I don't know if borax works, I haven't tried that.
The problem with your solution is that not all ants are "sugar ants". Some species care about proteins more than sugars. If your solution is working, great. But a better all-purpose mix is peanut butter + honey + boric acid powder.
Baking soda won't work effectively. I used comet cleanser and it worked. I also used duck tape on ants to remove them. After 2 weeks they decreased in number.
would love to see an experiment with this, by putting a bowl of the mixture right beside an anthill, to see if it can kill the whole colony or not. Bec i got a big one i want to get rid of.
@@DIYHomesteadProjectsDIYHP10 right, well at the moment, i'm trying to figure out if i can even buy boric acid where i live in norway. So far its not an easy task to just search on google. i know borax i cant get, but idk yet about boric acid.
@@DIYHomesteadProjectsDIYHP10 Hey, i have an idea, but idk if it would work. I've got plenty access of anti ant powder. If i supsitute the boric acid with ant powder, would that still kill the ants? I mean surely, if its toxic to them to just touch it, would eating it just straight up kill?
Cedarcide oil really helps to keep ants away but it's not a permanent solution but it does help and it does keep bedbugs away permanently and you can spray it all over your mattress and the gussets in your mattress and all around your bed and every place and it won't hurt you
They are not the same: Borax and boric acid are two different formulations of the same compound. Borax is a mineral that is taken straight from the ground (a form of the element Boron) and used in cleaning products. Boric acid is its extracted, processed and refined form, found in a variety of chemical products.
I need some help with this. I’m new to seeing these ants in my home and I’m freaking out. So I made the mixture but what do I do next? Yes, I put some in a cap but what about the tall half gallon jug? What do I do with the concoction?
If you put the solution into a thin medicine bottle or travel pill tube and stop up the end with cotton, will the mixture still be lethal to the ants as they drink it from the cotton?
I tried this, and it 1) didn't seem to harm the ants and 2) trained my puppy to start eating the ants because they apparently tasted or smelled like honey (her nose is something else, which is why I adopted her for detection work). On the one hand, self-trained K9 unit to deploy in the war on ants, but on the other hand now I can never use toxic bait because the dumb puppy will just straight-up eat the poisoned ants. 😂
Thanks for the info! I have a bunch of sugar ants in my room and have no clue where they are coming from or where they are going so I vacuumed and am going to fill a 20 oz gatorade bottle with apple juice and 1 spoon of the boric acid and will get back with how that works with those proportions since I don't have a large jug (college student who doesn't do groceries often).
I'm looking forward to hearing how it works for you Devon. You may want to use more than 1 spoon in a 20oz bottle. I would suggest maybe 3 or 4 spoons in a bottle that size.
@@DIYHomesteadProjectsDIYHP10 Ah. I had assumed since you used so much juice (I used half or a third of what you had) that I should put less boric acid in it so I don't outright kill the ants. I have had it out for about 9 hours now and I have collected about 20 ants on the rim who I am not sure if they are dead. Most ants are not moving into the room now and are just at the mixture. I will look again in a few days when I am back at my room.
Same; my wolf spiders that I've protected in my house to outcompete the brown recluse and black widows also take care of a lot of my sugar ants, so I just need to clean up a few problem areas where the entrances are known. Have you gone looking for any cheaper/smaller packages of Borax? Because I might.
Ants are everywhere inside the house, I think some are from my neighbor house since I live in condo complex. I see them outside, bathroom, kitchens different spots, I used commercial ones and borax with sugar they are gone for a week then come back again! 🤪
Absolutely. I had left out a mostly empty can of Baja Blast Mountain Dew two weeks ago, and in the morning we found a trail of ants leading from a window all the way across the room straight into it. No other ants anywhere else in the house all summer, and the entire colony found it overnight! That stuff must be like crack to them. I removed the can, but they keep coming back now and scavenging on any trace of *anything* they can find, including Itty bitty bits of dog chews and kibble, so now I've got to get rid of the suckers. Right now I've got no-escape traps full of Dew along that window so I can relocate them without killing em all, but that is not a long-term solution, unfortunately.
You ought to keep them. They're doing a fine job cleaning your carpet. What sort of trap do you use for the wasps? Nevermind...found the link to the video.
Sure, it will work anywhere as long as it doesn't get washed away. You really only need it in one location. When the ants find it they will all come to it and take it back to the nest and it will kill the entire colony.
A little orthoboric acid roach powder placed in their trail will wipe out the whole nest. You don't even have to bait them, just find where they're coming in.
I have a different theory. Ants are useful outside, but pests inside the home. I believe killing off the nest leaves a natural vacuum, which will be filled by another nest next year, possibly with a worse type of ant (mine are almost microscopic and tickle, not bite). So I found some natural peppermint spray that repels them. It kills some that it hits directly, but the smell keeps them away for a few days per spray. Thus, the niche is still filled by the ant nest, but they avoid going where I don't want them. It also doesn't harm my parrots, who have free range of my house, esp. the kitchen counter where the ants want to forage.
@@DIYHomesteadProjectsDIYHP10 it is my understanding that ants do not like sulfur in any form. Some of the local farmers put it in course bags for the cows to walk under and it gets on their back and discourages the Flies.
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Boric Acid Granular Powder 2 Lb. Create Your own Solution
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My mother in law lived in a trailer park and had these terrible. They were worried about their animals. I mixed boric acid with molasses, poured a little in the bottom of old soda cans so the pets couldn’t get to it. I placed them in the planters and tossed a few under the house. They were gone for years.
Great idea!
Thanks I needed this. I have a dog that would happily hoover anything off the ground otherwise.
Was wondering about molasses. I don't have any sugar! Wonder if honey would work too? 😊
Years ago I put out two caps with boric acid and sugar and enough water to make a syrup. In about two days they were gone for years. Then about two weeks ago they came back so I did the syrup yesterday and today they have disappeared. Hope they stay gone for years again. 💖👏👏👏🤗
It does work well! I hope they stay away for years to come. 👍
Do you lay the caps in every corner? How many caps? Where do you get these caps?
I put the caps where ever I see the ants. Use as many as you need but one cap per area should be sufficient. I used old milk bottle caps I got off my empty milk jugs. Any type of cap will work.
@@DIYHomesteadProjectsDIYHP10 I JUST did this. However I had to add a LOT of boric & sugar to make thick. Is that ok? Or should it just be more Sugar than boric?
Terro (boric acid based, yes) is cheap, ready to use and DIY is really not worth it in this case. 1-2 drops on a piece of cardboard or a bottle cap wipes 'em out. Save DIY for other things!
I use Borax and icing sugar - doesn't leave a sticky mess that way and it seems to work.
Thanks for this! Now I can get rid of both of my pet anteaters. They were getting expensive to maintain.
When you see ants trailing to the bait. Move the bait closer to their entry point. Go outside and see if you can find ant trails coming into the houses.
Place the bait outside, seal up the entry points. The majority of time, ants are looking for moisture inside. And they are nesting in moisture areas outside. Solve the moisture sources and you can solve many pest problems.
Get 20 Mule Team soap power it has Boric Acid. Mix sugar with equal parts. Any store has this soap.
Also Apparently adult ants eat the liquid but baby ants eat solid, so if you put a piece of waffle or bread into the solution the ants will take chunks of it back to feed the young in the colony.
Thanks for the tips!
i will try bread crumps or coarse flour.
I've used a mixture of Borax laundry detergent and sugar (50-50) that works "okay." I'm going to try your method. Thanks.
I wish you the best!
I've had great success with 50% Borax and 50% powdered sugar.
Someone in the comments mentioned Borax and peanut butter.
I guess some ants like sugar and some prefer oils.
@@michaelg.294 I've done pretty much the same. 20 Mule Team Borax and some sugar, some in water, some dusted on the ant trails. 20 Mule Team Borax is the exact same chemical as Terro ant killer. One little tube of Terro costs close to several lbs of Borax.
I didn't have many ants this year, but they were always right near where I was sitting using my laptop. Occasionally one would suddenly appear on my screen and startle the hell out of me. I get the creepy crawlies around indoor insects. But there was never, ever a trail. Most of the time it was just one damn ant. If it had been in the kitchen at least that would have made sense. But no - it would be here crawling on the lampshade beside me or the sofa I'm sitting on or the coffee table in front of me - or in the bathroom on the wall. I found the colony outside and covered it liberally in borax, and the indoors was ant-free for several days, but it didn't last. Even the exterminators' treatment didn't completely eliminate them, which is VERY unusual. I have cats so would have to find a good way to set up a trap with liquid. I'm sort of concerned, though, that next year that sweeeet liquid might attract more of them. Any thoughts, anyone?
I am finding them in the same situation in my living room. I'm pretty sure they came from contaminated potting soil when I had my plant repotted at a plant shop. Got rid of the plant but the ants are lingering and like my laptop.
I have never tried mixing the acid into something... Good idea
Just saw a similar video with about 1/2 coffee cup boiling water, borax (2 spoonfuls) and about 2 spoonfuls of honey mixed in. Trying that right now.
That sounds like it just might work.
I have a bad trail of them in my kitchen after my plants. Twenty Mule Team Borax washing powder in the laundry section at the grocery store. They started picking up bits and taking them back with them to where they came from.
It will be interesting to see what happens to them in a day or two.
So I buy the powder and just leave it on a tissue and leave it from where there coming from?
Not sure where I picked this up but I also used boric acid and sugar or a little syrup….. it does work great. I do like the apple juice idea. I will try that next time.
The ants coming into our place go after the cat food we put down for our cats. If our cats don't eat much of their food when it is first put down, ants will basically take it over. Then our cats won't go near their bowls. There are other things the ants go after as well, like what is in the trash can, or in dishes not yet washed. Now some of these things can be solved by rinsing the ants off with hot water, which if hot enough cooks them to death immediately, but these ants are coming in from multiple openings they are able to fit through. Wish I had some Boric Acid, as I would certainly use it in a solution something similar to yours.
Thanks for this video!
I think you might have meat ants.
I have the same problem, also going to try this solution. In the meantime, I've been keeping the cat dishes on a tray with a lip and keep water in it. Ants can't get to the dishes (as long as the cat doesn't move it to the edge.
Thanks, I have used a sugar, borax and water mix in closed jam glasses with "doors" for the
little rascals which also knocked their socks off and yes, they come back after a while and
I'll try your solution to see which one they like more or which one works better.
Thank you for posting this helpful video
You're welcome, thanks for stopping by!
I melt an old Christmas candy cane with some borax in water, heat until it thickens and put in bottle caps placed in problem areas.
Put it in a soda can if you have pets around. Sugar in the soda attracts them also.
You need to consider the air speed in the hose. Higher air speed will carry larger particles. A larger diameter hose is not necessarily better, probably worse as air speed is more important than total volume flow. There are always tradeoffs, the idea of “one” better solution is misguided. It is good to consider both pros and “cons.”
Thanks for sharing this! Bought a pound of boric acid today... hopefully get rid of some wasps around here.
You're welcome, I hope it works well for you. Thanks for watching!
Sugar and Boraxo 4 to 1. Make syrup.
That would work too
I'm trying this I'm in an all out Caddyshack style war with these tiny monsters everytime I think I've killed them they just move locations and come back with a vicious attack
I've already deployed the K9 units, honestly.
(One of my puppies in training will put anything in her mouth, and I was using a safe honey bait at one point that made the ants taste delicious, and now if she sees an ant, she eats an ant. I'm not complaining, but I can definitely never use toxic bait now!)
That one super ant dragging the huge chunk of food and one of his buddies must work out a lot! LOL 🏋️💪🐜😄
Yeah I know! He slung the others and the chunk around! Lol
That's a 🇷🇺 🇷🇺 RUSSIAN 🐜 ANT.
soak some cotton balls/pads in the solution and put those out if you dont want to worry about a container or ants drowning instead of eating and returning to nest. YOu will have to resoak the pads if they dry out, but thats easy.
I've also had luck in the past using borax in 2 forms, 1) Terro brand liquid ant killer (5.4% borax, 94.6% "other ingredients"); this is a syrup-like liquid that works when the ants are looking for something sweet. And 2) borax powder mixed with peanut butter, which worked when the ants were looking for protein. I've read that depending on the time of the year, they are either looking for sweet food or protein food.
This approach worked for several years of multiple infestations until our last major infestation a couple of years ago. I put out both my Terro and peanut butter mix (placed separately on small pieces of plastic wrap), but several days later the ants were still coming and going in large quantities. I thought about how effective Orthene fire ant bait (a white powder available at my local Walmart) had been for me in the lawn killing entire mounds of fire ants in less than a day, and thought it would be worth a try with my current home infestation of regular ants. So, I located the place in the house where the ant trail disappeared under a piece of tile/carpet transition wood trim. I placed a small bit of Orthene powder (about the size of an English pea) on the floor and went on about my business. Several hours later I noticed a significant decrease in the number of ants. The next morning when I got up I checked my Orthene bait location and I could not see any ants anywhere!
Months later we had another infestation at a different entry point. I placed another bit of Orthene where the ant trail disappeared under the quarter round underneath a window. The ants completely disappeared in less than a day!
Remember, Orthene is a poison, so be careful if you have small children or pets and be sure and place the bait in a way that the little ones can't get to it.
Hope this helps.
Thank you for sharing this information!
I've had invasions from two sides of my house, and I've seen a colony moving through my kitchen with multiple queens. Because Argentine ants are an invasive species world wide, their genes are the same by region and between some regions. This means that if ants from one colony meet up with ants from another colony they treat each other like sisters and don't defend the territory. This is why two colonies can invade a house from two directions. When I wipe out the current colony(s) my house is usually clear for several months to over a year. There was one period of more than two years I had none of these ants. I asked my neighbors if they'd hired an exterminator. No.
I wouldn't store the poison solution in something that looks like a food container. The way I do your method is I use sugar water (because I already mix this up to fill hummingbird feeders). I just mix it as I use it. The ants I'm battling are Argentine ants - an invasive species that has displaced native ants. What I do is mix a little boric acid with the sugar and water in a small cup. Look for ant & roach powder at places like Home Depot $12 will last you 20 years. Just make sure the label says Active Ingredient: Boric Acid - you don't need any dangerous pesticides. Initially mix in some but not much boric acid, you want them to start feeding and not mind the boric acid.
Once they start feeding you then keep increasing the amount of boric acid so long as they'll keep coming . When they stop coming and they're no where else in your kitchen you've wiped out the entire colony. I've been wiping out colonies of these ants using this method for twenty years. At the moment my ratty old California house, still full of gaps and cracks, has no ants. I wiped out the last assault months ago and they've yet to return.
I strongly suspect that the Terro ant trap business model is: You buy a $7 Terro thing and keeps the ants busy for a few weeks, distracting them from the rest of your kitchen. You think it's working. When the trap is sucked dry, they head over to your countertop and you go out and buy another Terro trap, Repeat, repeat, repeat. DIY Homestead and my method is dirt cheap, safe and highly effective.
The only problem with an open container is it dries out. As soon as it's a sugar crystal they stop coming. I've put tinfoil and saran wrap over the top, or I just check them every few days and mix in a little water. A few dribbles painted on the side of the cup and a stick down into the mixture makes it easier for them find it and get to it, speeding up the process.
Thank you for the info!
I'm having a lot of luck getting rid of ants with a flame thrower. It also works great with eliminating uni-brows!!! (seriously, this borax w/ apple juice mix works great!)
Thanks for the tips!
Something that I find works for the ants as well is baby powder, it kills them and keeps them away. Only problem is, it can be a little messy.
A HUGE problem we are having in southwest Virginia is gnats, they are everywhere! They get in through my windows and I have yet to figure out how to get rid of them!
You're welcome and thanks for the tip!
VINEGAR!!
Sandi is right. Vinegar is clutch for gnats
An apple cider vinegar trap for gnats.
Almost anything that is sweet juice or vinegar, with a bit of dish soap to break the surface tension, and the fruit flies, gnats, and ants fall under the surface and drown.
Use Nutra-sweet. Free with coffee. Harmful to people, and ants. It is an excito-neuro-toxin. They carry that home. Next day. No ants. Never see dead ones. Maybe they move. Large ants find the powder too fine, so mist it down a bit to get it clumpy. Spread a couple of sachets on an anthill and the ants disappear quickly. Mixed with water, large ants quickly start twitching and many don't make it far. They will climb into a glass of water and Nutra-sweet, to drink. Many don't make it out before system failure. Just use Borax from the grocery store. Save money.
You are awesome! I live in a little old trailer in the forest beside a river and these mofos are hard to get rid of. This is a perfect mostly non toxic solution! 🙉🙈🙊
I just buy Terro. It's basically the same thing that you are making. I just don't need as much. It's also cheaper for me to buy at Lowe's for $6.99
Interesting and thanks for the info. It may be cheaper that way for a one time use application but in my case this is an annual issue where I live. (every spring) I am still using the original bag of Boric Acid I purchased and it will probably last me the rest of my life. One time lifetime purchase for a supply that will last forever LOL. Ant control doesn't get much cheaper than that IMO. I wish you the best!
I don't think boric acid is hazardous to pets or Children. It equates to table salt which is why I have used it for many years. The Apple juice is a good idea. I would make a paste of sugar, borax, cornstarch and water. The paste is useful for actually getting into entry points.
Thanks for the info and nice tips Andrew. I appreciate it!
it's basically laundry soap
Boric acid is not safe for humans. Boric acid poisoning may be acute or chronic. Acute poisoning occurs when individuals swallow powdered cockroach-killing products that contain boric acid. Chronic poisoning occurs when individuals are repeatedly exposed to boric acid.
Boric Acid in concentrations >1.5% is not toxic to children or pets. In-fact a well known eye drop, which shall remain nameless ( it gets the red out) contains 1% Boric Acid. In the example shown in the video, if the mixture truly is 3 Tsp Boric Acid to 1/2 gallon of juice, the percentage of Boric Acid to juice is only .78%, well below toxic levels, and is safe for occasional and or accidental contact.
You didn't pass high school chemistry.
I’ve tried Terro and Raid ants traps and at first, the ants were taking the Terro bait, but after a while they stopped. Plus, it didn’t kill the colony because there’s still a lot of ants. So, I tried the Raid baits and the ants didn’t even go in it. I’ll try this simpler solution and see if it works. This ant nest is in a tree somewhere, and is a huge problem. Ants everywhere in the house…🤷🏻♂️🙄😡
This worked well for us. I treated the ants last year and they disappeared after a few days of using this method. I haven't seen any ants yet this year so fingers crossed, I might get two years of no ants for one treatment. I'd be curious to know how it works for you if you try it. I wish you the best.
Put your bait outside your house near the window or door that they come through. It will be more effective and ants won’t leave scent trail into your house.
If you haven’t done so already, it’s good to keep tree branches trimmed up and away from the house. Insects will use tree branches touching the roof, as a superhighway to a whole new world of food! 😊
Terro has always worked for me. I’d see a few and put the bait out and hours later you would see a heavy stream of ants going both directions. A few times I’ve seen the queen come out to get it herself. I squished her :). The next day or so they would all be gone. Maybe a straggler here or there but that’s it.
The Raid traps suck.
Thanks, great tip. I most certainly will try this method immediately. 😊
Great! I wish you the best!
I scooped out some vanilla ice cream for my dog and failed to put the scooper in the sink in water. It was out on the kitchen counter all night. When I got to the counter on the next morning, the scooper had about 65 million little picnic ants licking up residue ice cream from inside the scooper. The sight of it makes my hurl. What I might do is just mix some boric acid in ice cream and leave it out in a paper plate of the counter overnight. No children to worry about and my little dog can't get on the counter.
Sounds like it will work great 👍🏻
Thank you for your great tips
You are quite welcome!
Thanks for the tip, they are called pharaoh ants
Thanks for watching!
I'll give it a try. I tried a borax/sugar water solution (seen on another channel) and the ants ignored it.
I wish you the best!
Born in NE Ohio, we referred to these as sugar ants also. The ants I have recently found in my house are VERY tiny, are they babies or a totally different kind of ant? I'm going to try sugar water and Borax. There isn't a whole lot of them, just enough to be annoying. Thanx for the video.
I don't think they are babies, I think they are just a different kind of ant. The boric acid and sugar water will probably take care of your problem. I don't know if borax works, I haven't tried that.
@@DIYHomesteadProjectsDIYHP10 Okay then, it'll be a learning experience for both of us.😁 I'll keep you posted.
I'm looking forward to hearing your results.
The problem with your solution is that not all ants are "sugar ants". Some species care about proteins more than sugars. If your solution is working, great. But a better all-purpose mix is peanut butter + honey + boric acid powder.
Baking soda won't work effectively. I used comet cleanser and it worked. I also used duck tape on ants to remove them. After 2 weeks they decreased in number.
would love to see an experiment with this, by putting a bowl of the mixture right beside an anthill, to see if it can kill the whole colony or not. Bec i got a big one i want to get rid of.
It will! Give it a shot and I would love to hear how it goes for you.
@@DIYHomesteadProjectsDIYHP10 right, well at the moment, i'm trying to figure out if i can even buy boric acid where i live in norway. So far its not an easy task to just search on google. i know borax i cant get, but idk yet about boric acid.
I understand. Best of luck to you with your project!
@@DIYHomesteadProjectsDIYHP10 Hey, i have an idea, but idk if it would work. I've got plenty access of anti ant powder. If i supsitute the boric acid with ant powder, would that still kill the ants? I mean surely, if its toxic to them to just touch it, would eating it just straight up kill?
I've never used anti ant powder but it sounds like it might work. One way to find out.
Cedarcide oil really helps to keep ants away but it's not a permanent solution but it does help and it does keep bedbugs away permanently and you can spray it all over your mattress and the gussets in your mattress and all around your bed and every place and it won't hurt you
Maybe the plastic cap off a Pringles tube might work well ?
That would probably work great IMO!
boric acid is the same thing as borax? or are they different?
They are not the same:
Borax and boric acid are two different formulations of the same compound. Borax is a mineral that is taken straight from the ground (a form of the element Boron) and used in cleaning products. Boric acid is its extracted, processed and refined form, found in a variety of chemical products.
@@DIYHomesteadProjectsDIYHP10 thanks boss! great to know
You're welcome!
You'd think one Ant would tell the others to stay away,don't go there,it's a trap.😱☠😀
No kidding, but apparently they don't think or know it's a trap. 😀
I need some help with this. I’m new to seeing these ants in my home and I’m freaking out. So I made the mixture but what do I do next? Yes, I put some in a cap but what about the tall half gallon jug? What do I do with the concoction?
Save it for more applications. Now days I just mix it up one cap at a time and that has been working well for me.
Great video 👍
Thanks 👍
If you put the solution into a thin medicine bottle or travel pill tube and stop up the end with cotton, will the mixture still be lethal to the ants as they drink it from the cotton?
I would think so.
Would this solution work for flies as well?
I haven’t tried that but it’s worth a shot.
It's a great solution, no pun intended!!!😄
😁
I didn’t poison them. I just put a bit off grease around the piers they were climbing up. No more ants!
You should try the honey and baking soda mixture. It did wonders for me while having a infestation of exotic ants.
Can you provide the recipe/ratios for your baking soda + honey mixture and how you used it?
I tried this, and it 1) didn't seem to harm the ants and 2) trained my puppy to start eating the ants because they apparently tasted or smelled like honey (her nose is something else, which is why I adopted her for detection work). On the one hand, self-trained K9 unit to deploy in the war on ants, but on the other hand now I can never use toxic bait because the dumb puppy will just straight-up eat the poisoned ants. 😂
@@Nylak-Otterpmsl😂thanks...I have a puppy..will heed your experience
How do you safely dispose of the residual.
I just dump it down a drain and rinse out the sink. In small quantities it is not harmful to animals or humans.
Leave a can with a bit of cat food in the bottom, or a bit in a tray or dish. They love it and it kills them. I don't know why.
Interesting
Probably not good for your pets either!!!
We call the either sugar or piss ants. I will have to figure out something for outside. We have them in our walkway every year
This worked real well for me and I'm sure it will work for you too. It's worth a try.
I have in my house ty for this
Thanks for the info! I have a bunch of sugar ants in my room and have no clue where they are coming from or where they are going so I vacuumed and am going to fill a 20 oz gatorade bottle with apple juice and 1 spoon of the boric acid and will get back with how that works with those proportions since I don't have a large jug (college student who doesn't do groceries often).
I'm looking forward to hearing how it works for you Devon. You may want to use more than 1 spoon in a 20oz bottle. I would suggest maybe 3 or 4 spoons in a bottle that size.
@@DIYHomesteadProjectsDIYHP10 Ah. I had assumed since you used so much juice (I used half or a third of what you had) that I should put less boric acid in it so I don't outright kill the ants. I have had it out for about 9 hours now and I have collected about 20 ants on the rim who I am not sure if they are dead. Most ants are not moving into the room now and are just at the mixture. I will look again in a few days when I am back at my room.
I don't believe the amount of boric acid is critical. It sounds like what you are doing is working.
@@DIYHomesteadProjectsDIYHP10 good news. I have not seen an ant all day! Thanks for the video and info.
Excellent! It's good to hear it worked for you too Devon! Have a great day!
Thank you
Thanks for stopping by!
You mixed enough up for 10 years, how long does that solution last? Seems to me a cup full is plenty.
Same; my wolf spiders that I've protected in my house to outcompete the brown recluse and black widows also take care of a lot of my sugar ants, so I just need to clean up a few problem areas where the entrances are known.
Have you gone looking for any cheaper/smaller packages of Borax? Because I might.
Could you use this outside in areas where lots of those little ants seem to congregate?
Sure
2:22 Recipe
Used Nippon last night at about 5 pm. By 6 this morning...NO ants !!! There were thousands of the things last night!
Whats nippon
I have also had success using nematodes that are made for ants.
Interesting
No fuss, no muss, no fluff.
😉 My kinda vid.👌
👍
I sprayed Windex on a line of ants in my room. Don't know if it killed them but when I looked later they had all gone & no bodies were left. 🤷🏻♂️
Ants will clean up their dead bodies.
Cheap Borax from Walmart and some sugar disolved with a little water is all you need.
How do the ants carry the liquid back to their nest?
Good question, I don't know the answer.
How would this work with fire ants?
I haven't tried that but I would think it will work as long as they eat whatever type bait (solution) you use to mix the boric acid with.
Ok thanks its worth a try. I'll let you know if it works.
How long does the Apple cider last before it turns to turns to vinegar???
I don’t know. Good question.
Great content.
Ants are everywhere inside the house, I think some are from my neighbor house since I live in condo complex. I see them outside, bathroom, kitchens different spots, I used commercial ones and borax with sugar they are gone for a week then come back again! 🤪
Aloha, thanks.
Thanks for stopping by!
Do you think that pineapple juice would work? It's very sugary
I think it would work just fine.
@@DIYHomesteadProjectsDIYHP10 thanks for the response. Unfortunately it did not work. Not one ant wanted to try it.
That's interesting, at least you gave it a try.
Why not just use Alkalai (chalk)?
Ants cannot survive an alkalai enviroment, draw a chalk line around your ant entrance or even your stored food.
just make sure whatever container you use, you want the ants to be able to get out and take the poison back home
Nice tip!
Thank you!
You're welcome, thanks for watching!
8 out 10 ants prefer Pepsi.. to apple juice.. same mixture but soda it's king at bringing in the masses
Great idea!
Absolutely. I had left out a mostly empty can of Baja Blast Mountain Dew two weeks ago, and in the morning we found a trail of ants leading from a window all the way across the room straight into it. No other ants anywhere else in the house all summer, and the entire colony found it overnight! That stuff must be like crack to them.
I removed the can, but they keep coming back now and scavenging on any trace of *anything* they can find, including Itty bitty bits of dog chews and kibble, so now I've got to get rid of the suckers.
Right now I've got no-escape traps full of Dew along that window so I can relocate them without killing em all, but that is not a long-term solution, unfortunately.
Can you use boracic acid to kill flies..?
I suppose you could but I've never tried it myself. It would be interesting to hear what you discover if you try it.
You ought to keep them. They're doing a fine job cleaning your carpet. What sort of trap do you use for the wasps? Nevermind...found the link to the video.
What do you do if you have protein (I don't know what else to call them) ants?
I would do the same
Add peanut butter
Will this work on FIRE ANTS here in the South?
"Bruce, here..." too.
Hi Bruce :)
will this work on fire ants ?
Yah boric acid traps work the best. I tried other plastic traps and they ignored those. Boric is the way to go.
Does it attract more ants even though it kills them?
Yes
Can I spray this solution around the exterior of the house? Will it work outside?
Sure, it will work anywhere as long as it doesn't get washed away. You really only need it in one location. When the ants find it they will all come to it and take it back to the nest and it will kill the entire colony.
They would share the solids like foods but liquid? I am septical. How the hell can they share liquid?
A little orthoboric acid roach powder placed in their trail will wipe out the whole nest. You don't even have to bait them, just find where they're coming in.
Orthoboric acid is the same as boric acid.
I have a different theory. Ants are useful outside, but pests inside the home. I believe killing off the nest leaves a natural vacuum, which will be filled by another nest next year, possibly with a worse type of ant (mine are almost microscopic and tickle, not bite).
So I found some natural peppermint spray that repels them. It kills some that it hits directly, but the smell keeps them away for a few days per spray. Thus, the niche is still filled by the ant nest, but they avoid going where I don't want them.
It also doesn't harm my parrots, who have free range of my house, esp. the kitchen counter where the ants want to forage.
Will it work if I use borax instead of boric acid?
I’m not sure I’ve never tried borax.
My container of borax says it is 100% boric acid, so they must be the same thing.
Iv used just plain cinnamon powder works on ant's
Interesting
The problem we have isn't the little black ants, but the big black ants known as carpenter ants.
I have cats is it harmful to them?
I don't know the answer to that. We have a dog and he doesn't bother it.
Will this work on my aunt?
Does she like apple juice?
How about one for flies.
I don't know any for flies. I'm going to have to look into that one. That's a good idea for a future video.
@@DIYHomesteadProjectsDIYHP10 it is my understanding that ants do not like sulfur in any form. Some of the local farmers put it in course bags for the cows to walk under and it gets on their back and discourages the Flies.
That's interesting Paul, thanks for the information.
I wonder if these small ants feed on dust mites? Does anyone know?
I use cornflour instead of boric
Works great
It works....
Yes it does :)
I spray them with vinegar