How to Get Rid of Ants With Boric Acid

Boric acid can successfully kill ants better than some exterminators can. The reason for this is that often there are additional ants in nests that are only killed when the nest is found and fumigated. Because of this, boric acid is highly effective when mixed with table sugar because the ants take the toxic boric acid back to the nest along with the table sugar and the nested ants are killed as well. It is a good way to avoid the use of chemicals for killing ants, especially if you have pets and small children in the house.

Things You'll Need

• Boric acid
• Table sugar
• Two-liter bottle or gallon milk jug
• Water

Instructions

1. Mix equal parts of boric acid with table sugar. You can just eyeball it because it doesn't have to be exact. Boric acid can be found at most drug stores or retailers. The boric acid is the active ingredient and the sugar is used as the attractant.

2. Put the mixture in a milk jug or two-liter bottle and drizzle some water into it to make a slurry-type mixture.

3. Lay down the mixture on the foraging trail of ants. Ants will typically follow an exact trail in and out of the building. This is because of the hierarchy of the insects, where the front-line ants mark a trail and the soldiers go in search of food to take back to the nest. This habit of ants is important to this method of extermination.

4. Re-apply once the mixture becomes hard and stiff and the ants seem to lose interest. The fresh sugar will stimulate the survivors to repeat the procedure.

5. Practice patience and allow plenty of time for the ants to go back and forth along the boric acid/sugar trail. The more time they have to take it back to the nest to feed their young the more ants you will kill.

Tips & Warnings

• It might take a couple days for the ants to appear. They also are more active at night. Resist the temptation to squash the ants because you want them to take the mixture back to the nest. Sweep up crumbs and keep your house clean to avoid ant invasions.

• Boric acid is a low-level toxin, but you still need to keep pets and children from ingesting the mixture. It may not work on certain ants because some like fats and grease, so you may need to substitute peanut butter for the sugar if you don't get results.

References

• Extermination advice

Resources

• Other methods