I hate ants – at least the little brown ones that come visiting around this time of each year looking for anything sweet. Unless you are Bubble Boy, I know you have the same hatred for these poor little guys, but hey, you gotta hate something, right?

I asked a really good pest control guy in Temecula (and parts surrounding) (I’m not putting his name in here until he can read and approve of the content)  to kill the little guys for me.

He sprayed the outside of the house, then “when they come back” gave me a little plastic commercial thing that had something in it that he said the ants take and bring back to their nests and eventually takes out the Queen and her whole court. He assured me it was relatively safe if one of my pets happened find it and use it for a chew toy, as there wasn’t anything in it but a 5% (I think it was 5%, could’ve been more or less but a very small percentage) of Boric Acid, and it would take a lot of that to harm a dog, kid or whatever – but he strongly emphasized to try keep it away from kids and pets as best as possible just to be on the safe side.

The idea is to put enough Boric Acid in the mix to kill the nest, but not enough to kill the ants before they can get it back home and do the trick. Other than that there’s something sweet in it to attract the ants, and that’s all. He also told me I could probably find a recipie on the internet, and make some up myself – what a guy!

So I researched it on the web and here’s the link recipe I found that I use (with my notations in italics):

Make Your Own Ant Bait @ http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf683102.tip.html

Dissolve 1 tsp. boric acid and 6 tblsp. sugar in 1 cup water (I microwave a coffee cup full of water, then mix in the other stuff. I also did some research, and found that 20 Mule Team Borax could take the place of Boric Acid. According the the manufacturer, it’s over 99% Boric Acid. You can find it at the grocery store or home improvement centers. It works good for a lot of other things too!).

Soak some cotton balls in solution. Make bait dispensers from margarine (or anything else you can find with a safe top on it, I’ve even used discarded medicine containers as they have a child-proof top and can be easily located in safer places. Mark them with a Sharpie – “Ant Bait!”) containers by punching holes in container lids (I use a fork, small nail or whatever). Put cotton balls inside margarine containers and cover with lids so bait won’t dry out. (I have also used berry containers with success). Place containers where you see ants. Ants may increase in number initially, but will disappear within days after worker ants carry boric acid back to nest. For long term control, reduce boric acid from 1 tsp. to 1/2 tsp. (Be patient. Remember, the idea is to give the ants time to make some trips back to the nest and kill off everything, and this may take a few days).

Well, that’s it. Works well for me, let me know how it works for you!

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