apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I just killed all the ants this way in my house too. I used 1/2 borax and 1/2 superfine sugar and put little dishes of it behind my trash can and other heavily traveled ant pathways. The ants were gone in 3 days!

We had an ant problem when I was a kid. We poured boiling water on the ant hills we found, and we sprinkled flour on the doorsill - Mom swears they can't cross it, because they choke on the dust. Seemed to work!

oh thank you for this! We don't have any (yet) this year. But I've been scrubbing and hunting to make sure. I was told to put banana peels under my deck ... that didn't work. I also used baby powder, but I've been looking for something new to try without chemicals. This is perfect!

Sherry over at This Young House just posted about her solution with this. She used a combo of pepper and bay leaves. She said she had complete success with it.

Laura
http://www.grafxnerd.net

That is the funniest post-it ever.

Will borax affect cats or dogs? I don't have ants (knock wood!) in this place, but in case they come in in the future, I'd like an arsenal. My cats aren't allowed on the counters (or so I like to think), but they are curious.

Will borax hurt them? Just the name alone sounds deadly.

I'm not exactly sure what it is but maybe someone else does, someone once bought me ant chalk from Chinatown in NYC. It looks just like chalk and came in a clear bag so there was no markings on it. I drew a line right across an ant path and within a few hours I ad no more ants.

If you have cockroaches however, you mix 50-50 sugar and baking soda, poor it where they go. They walk through it and taste the sugar and eat it. The baking soda gets into their system, they go into the wall and the baking soda explodes their stomachs. Sometimes you can actually hear popping in your walls.

My friend had a severe problem with ants and spraying water down on the surrounding area and then pouring salt was the solution...

What great timing. I just got the keys to my new rental last night and noticed a couple ants in the kitchen. Not my favorite pest but it's better than mice or centipedes! Hopefully I'll be able to fight them off...

@Rev. Bee T - Borax is harmless to pets and children in small doses, but you wouldn't want them licking up a lot of it. Keep it away from food, and try to minimize your pets' exposure to it.

baby powder works great.

I've heard Cornmeal. They cannot digest it but it's safe for other dogs, cats & kids.

a friend of mine just said febreeze was supposed to be good for getting rid of ants too.

I, too, am plagued with Argentine ants. I've had them come into my house just to drink from the toilet or dish sponge. Yum.

It's important to point out that what works for Argentine ants may not work for other species, and vice versa. I tried cinnamon and within an hour the ants made new trails right through it. I don't like mint oil either, because minty smell dead ants is way too similar to mint chocolate chip ice cream. Cedar oil smells nice, but as a deterrent it doesn't last more than a couple days.

If I tried to caulk every minute gap in my house I'd need to buy caulk by the pallet. And then I'd live in a hermetically sealed environment. I've had ants walk up the side of my house, in through an attic vent, then down through a wall to the crawlspace under the floor, along a floor joist, and up through a tiny gap in the hardwood floor.

Unlike other species, there are no colony vs colony wars among Americanized Argentines. The colonies just blend together into supercolonies with dozens or even hundreds of queens. As a result, baited borax is unlikely to kill an entire colony.

I don't like pesticides but I use them sparingly to control the ants. I spray cyfluthrin around the crawlspace vents, where the ants are most likely to gain entrance. If a colony makes it into the crawlspace and sets up shop under the sill plate -- this happens once or twice a year -- I'll do a targeted spray there. It's better than spraying the entire perimeter of the house, but I still don't like doing it. I just don't see any other solution.

I swear by a mixture of mint leaves (and stems, if you'd like) and salt. Pound it together into a paste and along the ant trail. It will take about a day for the ants to go away (and you will have green salt on your counters), but it's easy to wipe away and is completely safe (so ok to use on kitchen cabinets). I used it a few months ago for a large ant trail for which I couldn't find the colony and no ants have come back.

I just have a few stray ants that just showed up in my kitchen yesterday. Not sure what to do. There aren't enough for ant trails, I just keep finding one here and there running around, and I have no idea where they are coming in. Maybe I'll track down some Borax and try putting that around somewhere. Where do you find Borax? That or I'll get some boiling water and pour it all around my house, haha

the ONLY thing i've ever found to work on ants is the store bought ant killers. tried every "natural" solution in the book, with only slight results and only lasting a few days. the massive ant infestation always returned. i broke down and bought the ant bait at walmart and within 2 days the entire ant trail was gone and they never came back! i don't have pets or kids so it was not a problem. i just had to sweep up the dead ants and that was the end of it! i'd say for the very, very small amount of chemicals in each of those white discs, it's better than trails of hundreds or thousands of ants marching through your home!

LOL. Yesterday I was so desperate 2 get rid of the ants in my kitchen that I was willing to try anything! I tried vinegar, bleach, windex, whatever I had on hand. Nothing had worked! As funny as it may sound, the febreze did the trick! There are still one or two wondering around, but the hoard of ants that there were is no longer... Thanks to the poster who suggested the febreze!! =)

Cornmeal is the BEST for ants.. Just put a little pile near where they are coming in or crawling around and they will not come back till it is gone. I believe they take it back to their nests and they cannot digest it so they all die. I even use it on my porch where I had red ants as well as large black ones. Just remember to wash it off after a week or so outside because it will start to stink when it spoils. The good thing is that it usually keeps the ants gone until a month or more after I remove it. Try it!