[www.eartheasy.com]

Collaboratory

i meant to add "that's not safe" since the article headline says it is.

Collaboratory

"A word of caution… While boric acid is relatively low in toxicity when it comes to humans - in fact, it's traditionally been used as an eye wash in a low concentration solution - you still shouldn't ingest it. As such, you should keep children and/or pets away from it."

ummm......

Collaboratory

My folks have found that best way with is with those pyrethrum spray cans (such as Robocan) that you attach to the wall and which release a timed spray every 5-8 minutes. Deters the flies and the ants don't show up.

They only have the one unit in the kitchen and that seems to be enough.

da5id_nz

Baby powder these days is all corn starch and no diatomaceous earth, which doesn't work to repel ants.

Also, 50/50 sugar and boric acid solution might be too strong. If the bait irritates the ants' digestive system, they will stop bringing it back to the nest. You want the ants to take the boric acid to the nest and feed it to all the other ants and kill the whole colony.

Graciela

Another trick that we use is to sprinkle cayenne powder across their path. They will not cross it. If ants have invaded your home, find the track, and sprinkle some of this inexpensive spice across the path to break it. You will need to go a distance to either side of it, as they will often try to go around the cayenne, but then again, this could be a good place to put the borax mixture :-)

techne1

sounds good i need it

Arsenal6

P.S. I don't work for them, but they worked for me.

giuseppe

I know it's not DIY or anything, but Terro ant baits (www.terro.com) worked for me.

They're not toxic to pets and this is the first product that worked exactly as advertised since we moved to the ant infestation capital of Los Angeles.

It is a little gross as you have to leave them out for up to 10 days and dead ants pile up sometimes, but once you make it through that, they are gone. I haven't seen an ant in months. It's amazing.

giuseppe

Just a side note: the ants must ingest the boric acid for it to kill them. Simply walking through it has no effect. The reason it works on cockroaches is because they groom themselves and ingest it that way.

Ortzinator

I recently found bleach to be effective. After trying paprika, cinnamon, and other things people had recommended on previous posts, these didn't work, so in desperation I tried a bleach and water spray. I'd love to try the boric acid + sugar mix, maybe with a lower concentration of boric acid or other toxin. For roaches I once used a mix of powdered sugar and baking soda - they scarf it up for the sugar and the soda supposedly kills them.

I think it's best to use homemade, eco-friendly solutions that don't work too quickly. I don't think insect pests deserve a quick death. I think they deserve to die slowly and suffer.

kentlee7

I've found pouring a pot of boiling water down the nest to do the trick.

Kali Mama

@Kali Mama:
Boiling water does do the trick, but make sure that unlike me you don't pour it on the nest in the grass in your back garden to kill ants. Surprisingly(!) it also killed the grass and left a 'bald patch' for a couple of weeks.

Nollie

I use boric acid and honey or peanut butter. Also, diatomaceous earth works well, for ants and roaches and other creepy crawlies. Its the stuff in pool filters. The tiny crystals get between their joints and cuts them up, and they dry out from the inside. Just sprinkle in their path.

Lazarus

My best tip if you have ants in the garden is to boil a kettle of water and pour the boiling water over the ants' HQ. The boiling water will kill of the eggs inside and thus reduce the ant population around your house. It's safe, non-toxic and effective.

SemTeK

Cornmeal

Merlinhoot

Will it harm my dogs/cats?

Lew

Check out my YouTube video to get a free iPhone!

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Lew

Lemon juice works better then anything else. Ants will not cross it. Mix the juice of 4-5 lemons and 16 oz. of water in a spray bottle and liberally coat any area that the ants appear. I have been spraying the entire foundation of my house for 5 years after this tip was passed along to me. I have had ZERO ants in my house ever since, after nearly ten years of ant infestations.

tim d

@giuseppe: Terro worked great for me too. We just had hundreds of ants in our kitchen, put some of those out along with the gel-ish stuff they make and spread that on the wall (they were living behind a cabinet), no more ants.

FearlessUser

I've had trouble with ants this year for the first time. I've found that windex words really well. I wipe the kitchen counters and floor with it.

kwbridge

@Collaboratory: Dilute solutions of boric acid are actually used as an eye wash, so... Compare this method to the use of pesticides, many of which are toxic if you just come into contact with them, no ingestion needed. There are all kinds of things in life that are considered "safe" to come into contact with so long as you don't eat or drink them.

fivecentnickel.com

Add another boiling water user to the list. I use it on the sidewalk and surrounding area of our building.

iheartbeer

What works probably depends on what kind of ants you have. We get them in the kitchen every April like clock work. They seem to (mostly) go away, or at least decrease, on their own a few weeks later.

Wiping my counters down with a sponge still-soapy from the dishes seems to give them a little more respect for my counters. Various kinds of hardware ant-baits have helped; this year I got some called "Enforcer" (gotta wonder what's in it....) and we haven't seen any since the day I put them out. That's so quick I have to wonder if it isn't just a coincidence, but I've seen no ants for at least six weeks.

MrJR

@giuseppe: Terro worked great for my parents growing up. I remember seeing Terro around for a day or two as a kid and no more ants the rest of the summer. Terro is good stuff.

FupDuckTV

I'm so happy this was posted. We don't have (noticeable) ants in the house, but they are infesting our wood shed and rail-road ties that skirt the driveway. I'm gonna try the boric acid mixtures and get some Terro.

heavylee-again

I'll have to try the Ceyanne trick. We've got ants juuust above our kitchen sink right now. I'm not sure which type but they look like sugar ants.

Does anyone have a good on-the-cheap solution for getting fire ants out of one's yard?

TanyaP

Great tips! Anyone have any clever ways to get rid of those annoying pantry moths? Extra challenge: Must be kid and dog safe.

slinky22

We had an ant problem for the better part of a year. I tried all the tricks, none of them worked. At least not permanently. Finally I got the idea to use a tube of clear silicone bathroom caulk to seal up the ant causeway tunnels (aka cracks and fissures in my house). Basically I just let the ants form a nice trail, then I followed it to a crack in the wall/floor/ceiling/counter/etc... and sealed it up. After about a week of this, ant problem solved!! I guess they just gave up because there is no way I sealed ALL the cracks!

jeffc666

Great, now how long until we have strains of boric acid resistant ants?

stands2reason

Nthing Terro. That stuff's like a WMD for ants.

exhilaration

1 part vinegar mixed with 1 part water. Place in spray bottle and spray anywhere that you see ants coming in, or crawling about. It probably takes a week or so (maybe less, our problem was surprisingly persistent), but eventually they will stop traveling wherever you are spraying.

john.stapes

Peanut butter + boric acid has always worked when we've had ant problems -- I start with a lump of PB about the size of a golf ball, put it in a small plastic dish, and add a few tablespoons of boric acid, one TB at a time, until the lump will absorb no more of the boric acid powder. This also dries out the PB a bit, so it is easy to grab chunks and place it in various places -- 4 - 5 places is best.

We have no pets, I've never had it burn my skin, nor been silly enough to blow it into my eyes. With those caveats, I've found boric acid to be very safe.

The ants will gorge themselves on this tasty treat and you'll have 50% fewer ants by 24 hours, 80% fewer by 48, and zero live ants in three days.

tc60045

I have had tremendous success with boric acid without the sugar. I make a dilute spray, about a heaping teaspoonful into a quart of water, and then spray in areas of my apartment where they seem to come out, around counter/wall edges, baseboards and window frames. Any excess on my counters I simply wipe off.

Once my cat came over to see what I was spraying, and before I could stop him, he had a taste. Now acids are, as a rule, very sour. (Citric acid, aka vitamin c, is what makes sour patch kids sour.) My little buddy immediately made a face and ran to his water dish to get the nasty out of his mouth. No ill effects and he never tried it again.

MrWashy

Sounds like Terro is "sweet food based product similar to pancake syrup combined with Borax"

From the Terro FAQ page ([www.terro.com]"

"I accidentally stepped on one of the ant traps. How toxic is this bait and will this exposure harm me? What if my cat or dog gets into the bait and eats some?"

"TERRO® Liquid Ant Bait is a sweet food based product similar to pancake
syrup combined with Borax. Borax is a mineral that is mined in the desert
in California and is a common active ingredient that is used in soap
products such as 20 Mule Team Borax.

The product kills ants but will not harm people or pets. If you spill some
on your skin there will be no reaction at all. Simply wash with warm water.

Pets occasionally find the Terro and eat it. Our advice when this happens
is to do nothing at all. The product is not toxic enough to cause a problem
and the pet will be just fine. "

Poster99

@Poster99: Yup, Terro is the same thing. I think it's only 5% - 15% Borax; certainly not 50. I had a pretty bad ant problem and tried the terro baits. One drawback is, of course, that they attract ants, and for a few days while they work you have even MORE ants. After about 5 days, however, I still seemed to have a pretty bad ant infestation, and now they had invaded my kitchen looking for the bait. I finally wanted my kitchen back so I took up the baits and sprayed.

I eventually had to call an exterminator, and they got rid of the ants much better than anything else did. If you have a large enough ant problem, Borax traps just aren't going to cut it.

Shadowman615

I'm with jeffc666. For ants in the house, the best thing to do if find how they are getting in and seal it. The first season is a bit of pain cause you probably have lots of little cracks. It might take a week or two for the ants to find them all. But then unless your house settles you won't have anymore ants in the house.

For ants outside that you want to eliminate, boiling water down the nest solves the problem and is safe for pets and kids.

Ryan Fisher

This also works on roaches... flour + sugar+ boric acid mixed with water with a bit of diced onion added to draw them out. I FREAKED when I saw a roach in my apartment, but a friend of mine suggested that I make "roach cookies" and they're all gone. ^_^

Jeneni

Terro is the shiznit. Here in Florida we have these giant destructive ants called Carpenter Ants (no relation to Karen. Richard, we're not too sure about).
Put some granules in the attic and around the foundation. Spray with the long thin nozzle around the baseboards. Remove all outlet covers and spray above around and the plug.
No ants. EVAR.

William Mize

I read on a can of Roach Powder that it was illegal to add sugar to attract the roaches to the powder. :)

I would just love to see them try to enforce that. Is there a Roach Powder Police? :)

DoggyStyles

I usually hide ant bait in peanut butter with a couple drops of syrup. My favorite bait is MaxForce Ant Bait Granular. The ants take the bait to the nest and kill the bunch. This takes a few days for it to work but it works every time. Cut up a straw into several pieces and put a little mixture inside each one. Then put the straw pieces in the suspected paths of ants. MaxForce by itself usually does the trick but the sweet peanut butter attracts the ants very quickly. I wouldn't do this if you have animals or small kids though to be safe.

Oh, peanut butter and syrup is a good bait for mouse traps also. Mice can't resist it.

Joe

becool

A word about boiling water as a "safe" method of killing ant nests.

Yes, it kills, but you are doing something very different with your pot of boiling water than you are used to in the kitchen - traveling a long distance, pouring it with the potential to splash yourself. Use something with a lid (like a tea kettle), pour close to the ground and watch for the splash!

/Mr. Safety

Justice

We used PAM (the spray cooking oil) and it worked like a charm, except it kinda stained the walls. don't use on porous surfaces that you care about.

Arvin Bautista

@TanyaP: Amdro works pretty well for red imported fire ants (Solenopsis invicta). There are other options that don't contain pesticides, but for simply killing them dead, Amdro works for me.

jswilson64

@slinky22: There are little pantry moth traps that you can buy and set out in infested areas. They are basically a cardboard tube with a pheromone bait and a lot of sticky stuff inside. If you put the traps up out of reach of the kidlets and pets there's no danger at all, and those things catch moths like nobody's business.

infmom

This is in no way "safe" and is a moderate poison, but works far better than anything I've ever tried (e.g., home center insecticides). I learned it from the "MoneyPit" home repair podcast.

The product is called "Termidor" (sp?) and you can buy it concentrated online (generally not available at retail stores). It main purported use is to keep termites from getting too close to a structure, but it works on ants too.

You spray an ant trail with the diluted solution, and because it's slow acting, they carry it back to the nest and spread it to the colony. When you come back the next day, they're gone, and are never coming back.

Since using it, we only need to maintenance the fringe of our yard occasionally for new ants moving in, but it's made a huge difference. It's toxic though, so don't spray it on or near edibles or critters that you want to keep healthy.

bitpusher

Again, the simplest way is to get one of those units you attach to the wall and gives a timed release of spray. You can get ones which are pyrethrum (plant) based. Keeps your kitchen fly and ant free.

da5id_nz

www.ted.com/talks/view/id/258

Conrad

According to Buddhists, it is not "safe" to intentionally kill living beings. But I guess you know something they don't.

mudroads

There's no one Best method, because it depends on what kind of ant you've got, and what season it is. Sometimes they're foraging for food to take back to the nest; sometimes they're just looking for water.

Here in Southern California, we've been taken over by Argentine ants. Terro and other borax/sugar baits work pretty well. If they lose interest in Terro, mix in a little chicken broth. When they're interested in meat or grease they can smell it through walls and will come looking for it.

Unfortunately, Terro alone won't solve an Argentine ant infestation because their colonies have multiple queens. They're relatively new to California, and likely descendants from one queen, so unlike most native ant species, neighboring colonies cooperate, rather than compete. One colony might have dozens of queens, hundreds of entrances and exits, and ramble on for hundreds of square feet. So you probably will never kill the entire colony with bait.

Spraying the nest itself is sometimes the only option. Cedar oil works well, smells nice, is safe to people and pets, but it doesn't last long. Mint oil works well too, but you won't like Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream after you associate the smell of mint with the sight of thousands of dead black ants. Trust me. I know this.

Pyrethrin is the most commonly used insecticide, but even though it's derived from chrysanthemums, that doesn't mean it's totally safe. It makes my throat scratchy, so while I'd use it on a nest, I wouldn't want it sprayed into the air of my kitchen every seven minutes. That's also why I won't hire an exterminator to soak my house in it prophylactically.

Diatomaceous Earth can work, but not all DE is created equal. I've used aquarium grade DE sucessfully, but when I tried cheaper pool grade DE, I don't think it did anything. Because it is so fine, DE will blow away in a light breeze, and more importantly, you really don't want to breathe it. It's about as kind to your lung tissue as it is to ant tissue.

If I were building a house, though, I'd probably want to dump DE in the stud bays all along the sill plate. It'd last forever.

mxjohnson

@mxjohnson: said -

Pyrethrin is the most commonly used insecticide, but even though it's derived from chrysanthemums, that doesn't mean it's totally safe. It makes my throat scratchy, so while I'd use it on a nest, I wouldn't want it sprayed into the air of my kitchen every seven minutes.

Hey, I'm the first one to complain of chemicals and smells and the like but my folks have this Ecomist thing and you don't even know it's there - really!
The spray is so fine you don't even smell it, and my mom definately doesn't like chemical things.

I don't sell the stuff or anything, but just saying it's pretty good. Lots of restaurants use it around our area as well.

da5id_nz

SPLENDA!

The packet version, not the boxed version.
Spread about 20 or so packets around your house, then follow up if it rains within a week with another application.

Worked perfectly for me.... except for the fact that I refuse to use Splenda anymore.

zeropointe

OK - I've seen many wonderful recommendations on how to get rid of ants. Are there similar home recipes for fly bait? I believe there is a triggering mechanism on my back door that beams every fly in the neighborhood into my kitchen whenever the door is opened. I have become a fairly accurate swatter, but I would prefer they ingest poison and suffer a bit more slowly.

ElvisFrisbee

Here's a safe, eco-friendly way to get rid of ants at the mound. Go to your local grocery store and pick up a bag of grits (not the instant variety, but the "quick" grits), sprinkle around the mound, and wait. The ants will take the grits back into the mound, feed, and die. The action of the grits when they contact liquid, is to swell, so when the ants eat them, their digestive juices cause the grits to swell in their abdomens killing them. This is not scientific, but it does seem to work,as I have had entire colonies gone virtually overnight.

IrishJim68

Will any of these work on my mother-in-law?

hrflyer2000

Just an FYI, Terro bait traps are a sugar syrup and boric acid solution. So this home remedy is simply an attempt to mimic the results that Terro has been achieving for years. The listed mixture does seem way too strong (I seem to remember it being something like a 10% solution). The recipe I have written down is 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup water, and 2 teaspoons borax simmered n a pan to create a syrup. Of course, Terro is pretty damn cheap if you don't get the premade traps.

IsaacCaba?ero

Here's another idea: get a new roommate who doesn't leave dirty dishes on every available surface. Wah wah wah wahhhh.

cueorchestra

pantry moths? are they those things that fly around in bunches over the sink. we get them things in veggies from the farmers market sometimes. we put a litte wine or vinegar in a bar glass, put saran wrap over the top and poke holes in the tight saran wrap. after a day or two them buggers get in the glass under the plastic and die, i hope they got drunk on the wine first.

waicool

Terro is basically a commercial version of the compound described in this article. The active ingredient in Terro is borax. This is mixed with a syrupy compound that attracts the ants. The borax is toxic to the ants but acts slowly, allowing the ants to take the Terro back to the nest where the queen and other ants will eat it.

We have three young children and hence lots of ant attracting food particles in our home. (It only takes a little to attract the ants!) We have used Terro for several years now, to great effect. Once in a while, we have had to use a more traditional contact poison such as Ortho or Raid when we were visited by what I think were Crazy Ants, but Terro almost always works for us.

clamke

50:50?
That's 1:1.
Sorry, I felt that needed to be said.

On the topic: I have the peanut butter kind, thanks for the tip.

corbs132

As a pest control technician, boric acid and sugar does work. As for the comment about bringing it back to their nest. Ants do not eat the boric acid nor do they bring it back to their nests. What you are thinking of is a granular bait. Boric acid is a residual poison and not a bait. Pyrethrum spray is a great residual for the cracks and crevices. The idea that ant's won't cross cayenne powder or cinnamon is only a half myth. They can cross it but not as often, and most often will find another crack or crevice into your home. One of the quickest way to kill a line of ants is ammonia, Windex with ammonia will work perfectly fine. A great idea for preventative treatment would be sealing up any exterior cracks and crevices. Often times ants will find ways into your home around gutters and water pipes. So I would make sure when you are doing yard work to walk around the perimeter of your home and examine it closely. If you do treat the outside of your home with pesticide, make sure you do it right. Spray roughly about 3-4 feet off the ground and about 2-3 feet out from the base of your home. This will take care of most pests (ants, spiders, wood roaches [not german roaches], earwigs, etc.).

Ants are interested in one main thing. Water. Ants cannot eat solid food. Between the thorax and the abdomen is an extremely small passage which cannot allow food to pass...only water. As such, they must carry the solid food back to their nests to masticated by the larvae which in turn feeds the now liquefied food back to the workers which spread it to the rest of the colony. This is how granular bait works. Bait is a small process, but it also has a great positive...it's thorough. So if you know where the nest is, best idea is to bait around the mound (not on top) with the granular bait (and it is best if you DO NOT KICK OR RUPTURE THE MOUND, this excites the mound and activates the soldiers. The worker ants will not collect the bait if the soldier ants are activated.) If you are treating with a liquid residual around the outside of your home, I would recommend changing out chemicals every 3 months. This keeps the pests from becoming resistant to the chemicals you are using. As I said, ants are mainly interested in water, that's why the top two places you will find ants are kitchens and bathrooms. At some point, I would recommend going under your home (if you have a crawlspace) and examine all water pipes for leaks. This could be the main problem and if it is, you can solve your pest problem and money by repairing pipes and not using an ounce of chemical. Which saves you money on your water bill, money from different kinds of pesticide, and is safe for the environment.

As for the best granular baits on the market. These days, it's a hit or miss. Some people have said Amdro and Sevendust are still decent, but I have heard other people have better luck with a more commercial brand from the local co-op stores. When it comes to liquid residual, anything with Bifentrin, Permethrin, or Pyrethrum. The safest of those three is by far Pyrethrum as it made of mostly crushed Chrysanthemums from Africa, it also has some synthetic insecticide in it as well. On the downside, it's residual is not as strong as Bifenthrin or Permethrin.

Another idea is to change what kind of flower bedding you are using around your home. Most people use bark. This is great for plants and is quite cheap, but it attracts ants, spiders, and wood roaches. The bark holds in lots of moisture for plant life, but on the bad side, all insects need water. The best bedding is river rock or pebbles. Even lava rocks. The difference is this, the spaces between the rocks allow water to flow down to the roots of the plants, but because it's nature...ants have a harder time building a nest in river rock. This reduces the amount of ants, which in turn will reduce the number of spiders...and since bark is no longer used, the number of wood roaches will almost disappear.

Matthew B.
Pest Control Technician
Southern Pest Control
Decatur, AL

matthewtbuchman

In the early 70's I had to stay in a mud floor hut in Pokhara Nepal filled with ants. I just put some honey in a class jar, apropos all of them climbed in and couldn't escape the sticky substance. Ismo

OrtonMork

Different ants require different approaches.

In general you need to find out first where they live (root of tree, below ground, frame of your house, etc), mark the area surrounding it, identify what type of ants then find the most effective way to get rid of it.

Such a hassle in the beginning, but gets rid of the whole lot and you don't need to keep on applying the stuff to keep them from coming back.

jaspersysevilla

@waicool: No, those are "fruit flies" and the vinegar solution definitely works on them. Pantry moths like to lay eggs inside of bags of flour, rice, grains, nuts, etc. When they hatch, they like to fly around your kitchen, land on the ceiling, fly in front of the TV during your favorite show, etc. This, of course, compels you to chase them around and clap them to death. Really annoying.

slinky22

I'm always late to the part, but at least everything I had to say has pretty much been covered.

I recently left a small home in Miami, FL that was built on top of a sand heap infested with ants. We had ants of at least 3 vastly different varieties while living there.
Including the aforementioned Argentine ants. God, those are a nightmare. We also had medium sized black ants that care not for sugar, but love meat. I assume the fatty part is what interests them, having read the above. I always thought it was the protein. Finally, great big ants with eggs the size (and shape) of reguar white rice. I couldn't eat rice for a couple weeks after taking care of one infestation.

Solutions:
Terro rules. Ants dying all over the place. Buy a box of Borax from the laundry aisle, though, and mix it yourself. WAY cheaper and far more versatile.
Vinegar and water are good for contact killing, but screw the battle. Use Borax to win the WAR.

Now the one thing I didn't see covered anywhere.
Borax Toxicity.

It's basically the same as table salt, from what I read. (Google it, see the Yahoo Answers post, decide for yourself if you believe it)
I'll tell you I eat salt, but I don't make a point to ingest borax. Read the wiki page, especially under the toxicity heading, and you'll see that some poeple do. Fair. I will wash my clothes in it. And I will cheerfully sprinkle it around the house, even with a beloved 15 year-old cat prowling the area.

The best ant solution we've found so far, though, is moving the hell out of Miami. :D Colorado has vastly fewer infestations, be they of the roach, ant, gator, or human varieties.

I do miss the geckos, though.

tcabeen