Ant Bait

With Spring here the ants I tried to deter from my home last year have returned with vengeance.

I tried vinegar,  peppermint oil, and cayenne pepper.  All of which had a temporary positive effect.  The ants disappeared only while the smell was there and returned once it was cleaned up.  I heard baking soda would keep them in one spot.  Not true.  I attempted to contain them in the bathroom; the ants crawled over it.

Baby powder seemed to work better for this.


I tried to get rid of them without killing them, and then resorted to soapy water for the one I could see,but when I found one on my baby's blanket the mama bear in me came out and I knew I needed to take more drastic measures.

I had heard baking soda mix equally with powdered sugar worked.  I had also heard 1 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon borax, and 1/2 cup water mixed into a sticky syrup worked well.  The scientist in me decided to experiment which one would work best.  My  two questions: which one attracted the ants first and which one killed them the best.

Here are my two dishes set just outside an ant hole- in a corner behind the toilet

Within five minutes an ant found the borax and sugar. (There are three-sorry the pictures are blurry)

Within an hour the ants were feasting.

Within a day all the ones at the borax were dead (oops made the mixture too strong) and the baking soda had been deserted.

Made up the borax syrup again, actually measuring ingredients this time.  The ants showed little interest.

My husband suggested I use peanut butter instead (protein and sugar, plus a strong smell).  I put a tablespoon borax with about 1/2 cup sugar and mixed well.  I placed the bait outside an ant hole in the bathroom. (Yes they dug tunnels right into the walls!)  Within seconds the ants had found it and within 5 minutes it looked like this.

And it got worse.

I did this at night because (1) ants are more active at night (2) people are less likely to be going to the bathroom (3) I didn't have to see the masses of ant that will congregate at a bait like this.  Think of it as an extinction burst.

By morning the peanut butter was almost gone but the ants were still out. I offered more food to my little pets and let them feast away.  I heard it can take 24-48 hours for the ants to die and up to a week or two for the whole colony to die.  It is suggested you leave out the bait until after the ants have left (just to catch stragglers I suppose)  Also, while the ants feast leave them undisturbed.  You want them to take the food, I mean poison, back to their queen without fear.

I will give an update in a couple of weeks whether this really works or if I have just cause the ants to get a winters worth of food storage in one night.


UPDATE: The ants had most of that gone by morning, so I gave them more.  It has been about 48 hours; I still have ants but a lot less.  We want that to be zero and will more to other methods by the end of the week.


UPDATE:  The ants in that corner are gone- took about three or four days.  Still have ants on the other wall.  Not sure if it's a different colony (It's a basement they are at least 4 feet under ground!)  These traps have not worked too well.  Store bought stuff is next.

UPDATE: Bought the store bought stuff and not one single ant found the traps.  Actually, very few ants even wander our walls at all anymore.  I guess the homemade stuff did work, if not just temporarily.  It took about 3 weeks...

And then we moved.