Getting Rid Of Ants

Posted on by Forest in General, Saving Money & Finances

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You may be thinking it’s a little early to be writing about Getting Rid of Ants but Spring is coming in USA and I have started to see the little buggers here in Cairo again.

If they didn’t get into the food I probably would leave the ants be but as they do get into anything and everything, especially if sweet they need to be dealt with. Luckily the don’t make me sqeemish and I actually enjoy watching them for a while before I go on the path of killing them .

I have actually been meaning to write this post for about 8months. One day last summer I was sitting around and I started to hear a little noise in the wall nearby. I got up to look at the wall and a bit of grout between the tiles fell to the floor followed by a never ending trail of ants. I knew nothing about getting rid of ants at the time so I hit the internet! I needed something fast and many posts and sites recommended the use of a boric acid mixture. Luckily for me I owned boric acid from an instance when we moved into our apartment. Put it this way, I had to learn How To Get Rid Of Roaches, fast!!

Boric acid is an easy to find, fairly non toxic powder than can be found in hard ware stores, online via amazon and ebay (see Where to Buy Boric Acid) and it’s very very cheap, which is extremely important to me!

Ok so back to the dilemma of getting rid of ants! Ants were pouring through my wall. I had found several boric acid ideas on the web and for some reason and because of my prior experience with the roaches I decided to go my own route and guess at what might work for this huge ant problem.

I had heard you should not interupts the ants trail with poison or things to break them in two as they may form two any tribes and soon enough give you extra nests to deal with.

So the boric acid is used as a bait. The ants climb in the paste (method coming soon) and take it back to the next where it slowly kills the ants and hopefully eventually the queen. This is why it’s a bait rather than an instant kill poison.

Now onto this anti-ant paste! I got a big tablespoon of boric acid, the same amount of sugar and then slowly drip by drip added in water to make a thick paste. Think about the consistency of ketchup.

I then put this paste into an upturned jar lid and put it smack bang in the middle of the ant trail…. Sadly the ants just walked round it!! Getting rid of the ants was not going to be so easy….. or was it! I quickly realized the problem was the ants did not want to climb up there so I quickly made some sugar baited ramps from a couple of strips of thin card. Just minutes later and the ants were happily collecting the sugary boric acid paste to take back to their beloved Queen!

At this point as much as it would be tempting to poison and break the chain you have to let them keep going. These ants went on for hours and hours but then I started to notice a slow down. It took around two days all in all for them to completely stop but when they stopped they were gone for quite a while.

We had a few other small outbreaks towards the end of the summer but i just pulled the paste out again and voila, the ants would go, again!

Getting rid of ants does not have to be that hard!

This is my method and I hope it works for you. If not then there are always tons of other methods online includung using Apple Cider Vinegar, Pepper and Bay Leaves.

If you have a serious infestation then you may need to get professional help so be careful… Things like carpenter ants can eat right through the wooden structure of your home!!

Let me know what you think or if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Forest.