War on Ants

I declared war on ants yesterday.

For the third spring in a row, I’ve had a problem with ants showing up at the house – uninvited. And this year, it seems like they’re holding a national convention.

Yesterday it reached a point I can no longer tolerate.

So I did some research and decided on the borax and sugar remedy I found at diynatural.com:

“Borax will kill odorous house ants, and powdered sugar will attract them. Make a home-made bait by thoroughly mixing one part borax with three parts powdered sugar. Fill tiny containers (such as bottle caps) with this homemade bait and place them as close to the place where you suspect ants are entering your house. If you see trails of ants, place small containers of the mixture directly in their path. This prevents most of them from traveling all around your house if they have easy access to this sugary treat.

(Have pets or kids who might get into this powdery mixture? Try this instead: mix one cup warm water with ½ cup sugar and 3 tablespoons borax. Soak it up with cotton balls and place them in shallow dishes near ant trails.)”

So I went to Giant and bought a box of 20 Mule Team Borax for $4 or so – looks like a lifetime supply – along with a box of Domino sugar packets for another $4 or so. Then came home and began the war in four steps:

Mixed the two ingredients as instructed.
Dumped a couple piles of bait directly into the kitchen sink.
Dumped some bait inside beer caps – which I easily recovered from the trash – and placed them directly in the path of the ants in front of the refrigerator.
Sat back and watched.

The directions say:

“Resist the urge to kill all the ants you see. They will carry the bait back to the nest, unable to differentiate between the borax and sugar, and the borax particles will eventually kill the entire colony. The more ants that are allowed to find the bait and carry it back, the faster the colony will die off.”

It is difficult to watch regiment after regiment of ants invade a section of your home – like the kitchen sink – but at the same time it’s rewarding when you see the sons-of-bitches gobble up the bait.

Not as many showed up in the sink on Day #2 – so I’m hoping the bastards carried the bait back to their holes and passed the borax all around.