Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Killing Ants Naturally

At our work, we have a severe ant infestation, the very small black kind.  Let's just say, there will be no photos.  And it's puzzling.  Although the building is an old house with additions done to it, no one has lived there in years.  There is no food preparation, no food storage.  We bring in our lunches but haul everything out each night.  We are fairly careful with garbage.  What are they eating?

Husband has been diligently waging war on them with chemical products with little or no affect.  Whereever they live, it is scary and has to go. 

Some years back, when I was just a young woman, I had a similar infestation in a house I was living in.  My older neighbor told me a recipe and procedure that he recommended.  I tried it and it worked perfectly.  I going to be trying it again. 

1 part old fashioned powdered borax, 1 part powdered sugar, 1 part yeast.  Although there are no photos, I'm going to be graphic here.  If you are a little sensitive, look away now.

My neighbor said that each of these three ingredients has an important job.  The sugar is the attractant.  They want to carry it back to the nest as food.  The borax is soap.  It keeps the mixture together and sticks to their bodies.  The yeast is what kills them.  When they ingest it, the live yeast activates and explodes the ants. 

Hope I haven't alarmed anyone, but this is serious.

I'm going to try this recipe again over the next few days.  I'll let you know what happens.  

4 comments:

  1. Good luck. I'll be waiting to hear how your recipe works as we are also having some ant visitors.

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  2. I have used the equal parts borax and sugar before with success, have not heard about the yeast until now.

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  3. nice mixtures.. good luck on killing the ants. ;)

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  4. i will try your mixtures. thank you for sharing

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