Personally I do not like spraying bug sprays in my apartment, especially since these cost a lot of money and are smelly. In the past I did try the little sticky ant traps, but these did nothing for me. During the summer months I seem to get more ants, and this is one of the joys of living in a back apartment with lots of trees in a park like setting. We even have neighbors across the way who have palm trees, large bushes, and many birds that visit, and sing through out the day or night.
This apartment has always had more bugs and ants than any other apartment I have lived in, which I attribute to living in this shady area where they thrive, but my irritation is having to eradicate ants because I have never enjoyed gazing upon them. I simply do not like chemical sprays, so I have had to think of more natural ways to get rid of these nuisances. After doing some research online I learned borax can be a natural deterrent for ants, so I decided to try this.
My first attempt with borax did not go so well because I mixed the borax with a bit of sugar and jelly, and just left it in a lid for them to eat. A few ants swam in it and perished, but the rest just marched around it. After that the ants went away for a couple of months, but then they reappeared a couple of days ago.
I was annoyed once again to see my nemesises marching along, and this time they were marching in a long column along the wall and down to the counter. I decided to do something to try and get rid of them by this time by creating a paste made out of borax, powdered sugar, and a little bit of water.
First I head the tiny portion of water in the microwave, and then I added it to the borax and the powder sugar. I placed the plate near where the ant trail destination, and then I spread some of the paste on the wall and on the counter where the ants were traveling. The ants greedily lapped up the sugary borax paste, and took it back to their nest. Some even expired before they could climb back up the wall.
The ants were gone much more quickly then during other times when I had to clean an entire area with glass cleaner, which is also an effective deterrent if you are not into spraying ant spray. However glass cleaner required more aggressive and wiping of an entire area, whereas the borax paste took care of the ants within a few hours.
The borax method is not recommended if you have pets or kids because they might eat the substance not knowing any better, but this method works well for me, and I can also use the borax to whiten my laundry without the horrible smell of bleach. If you go to YouTube you can find more recommendations about how to also use borax in your garden to deter ants. Personally, I do not care if ants are outside, but I do not want them in the kitchen.
Thanks for sharing this method of getting rid of ants, Sweetbearies. I can’t use it, because I do have pets and kids, but it sounds as if it might work for other people.
When I was living in Taiwan I had to deal with concrete ants in my 9th floor apartment building. They were tiny, hard to see ants that lived in the concrete that the building was made of and tended to swarm on the dining room table, no matter how clean it was. However, I found that if I left a small film of dishsoap on the table ( as in washing the table, but not washing all the soap completely off), this took care of the problem. I’m sure the ants were still in the walls, but they no longer bothered us.
I have tried cleaning counters and walls with glass cleaner, which works okay temporarily, but in the long run it has to be reapplied too often. The borax seems to be working better than other methods, so I will keep trying this. Borax is only dangerous if people or pets eat it, so with dogs or cats it is not a good idea as an ant repellent. It is amazing as a non-chlorine bleach alternative, and I discovered this is one of the ingredients in most of the powdered non-chlorine bleaches, so I have saved money just using it by itself, or with some baking soda. I just thought I had to warn about pets and children because I did not want someone saying I was saying borax was 100% safe, because its not if you accidentally ingest it, but the same is true with laundry detergent and household cleaners of any kind.