ANT PROBLEM NO MORE!

One of the best tips I found earlier this year was a method to get rid of ants. It came from Food.com.

Fortunately I have never really had much of a problem with ants.  In California, they came out of the cracks like crazy if you watered the concrete outside, but they rarely made for the house.  

After moving to Missouri, we did have the uninvited guests but it seemed like they were just always passing through. I do try to leave my kitchen clean of food crumbs and maybe that was why. I would get out the baby powder and sprinkle it at the point of entry into the house and that would stop them. I learned this trick in California when I was teaching school and we couldn't use anything toxic to get rid of them around the school.  That actually works!

But this spring, they returned uninvited again but decided to stay for a prolonged visit. I saw this tip on Pinterest and decided I would give it a try. I guess everyone else was trying it also, because everywhere I went trying to find boric acid, they were out. Finally I found and bought the last bottle at a K-Mart. I had to go to the pharmacy and they had it behind the counter.

The recipe only requires three things...

Ant Killer

1     cup sugar
3    Tablespoons of boric acid
3    cups warm water 

Directions:   

          Mix the boric acid and sugar well.

          Add the warm water slowly, constantly stirring so it won't be lumpy.

         Store in a jar or container with lid.

I know it isn't anything fancy, but when I mixed it up this old plastic container was all I could find. I didn't have a jar big enough. A quart jar would probably work really well and take up less room than this container does. Anyway this does the trick. (You can also cut the recipe in half and it will fit in a pint jar.)

 

To use the mixture, you need a cotton ball and the top of a medicine or vitamin bottle.






















When you have a problem and are ready to use it , put a cotton ball into the cap of a medicine or vitamin bottle. With a spoon, fill the cap to saturate the cotton.  It took quite a bit to me. I continued doing this til I could see the liquid around the edges. Place where you want it; make several if you need them in several places.  

NOTE: I only placed mine on the counter below the window near the kitchen sink. All I had to do was move it over to the wall. I also didn't have to worry about our cat, Miss Sara with it up there. I don't think I would have them in other places because of her.  

I also dripped a little around the base of the lid so the ants could find it better.

For some reason it took a couple of days for the ants to be attracted to it this first time. Other times that I have done it, the ants were attracted within hours. I kept making sure I had plenty of the liquid so if I couldn't see the liquid around the inside top of the cap, I would add another little bit. I don't know how many times I checked on it each day waiting to see the ants actually go to it. I watched the ants go around it til it about drove me crazy. Then on the second day I pushed the cap over against the wall so that when the ants came down the wall they would go right to it. My grandmother would have told me " a watch-pot never boils" but I couldn't help it.

Before I knew it, the ants started venturing up on the cotton ball and soon it  was covered with ants. I resisted the urge to wipe away the ants because the source said they would drink, and drink, and drink and then take it back to their nest and share it and die.  

I took this picture early on. Before it was over, there were three or four times this many on it.

Well, all I can say is that after 3 or 4 days, I had no more ants.  

They have been back once when some crumbs didn't get washed down the drain in the sink last week. I immediately got a cap and cotton ball out and saturated the cotton ball and placed it in the same place as before. A few went to in within hours, and the next morning they were all gone. I'm not sure why this time it worked quicker and they didn't cover it all up like before. Maybe word got out and they just all scrammed. I don't care, the good news is I haven't seen any more.