How to Kill Ants With Borax

A close-up of an ant's head

Once ants start infesting your house, they can be very hard to get rid of. Ants come in from outside and get into your kitchen, bathroom or other rooms where food or water might be. Any food left in the sink, on countertops or on floors will soon be crawling with ants and no matter how often you squish them or wipe them away, they keep coming back. Although borax is toxic to people and animals, it is an effective ant killer and it is less harmful to the environment than commercial ant poisons.

Things You'll Need

• 1 cup borax
• 3 cups sugar
• Glass bowl
• Spoon
• 4 small, shallow jars with lids
• Water
• Peanut butter
• Small nail
• Hammer
• Powdered sugar

Instructions

1. Mix the borax and sugar in the glass bowl with the spoon. Divide it into quarters and put it in the small jars.

2. Put a little water into each jar and mix it with the sugar and borax solution. Use enough water to make a very thick paste, but not enough to dissolve the sugar completely.

3. Add a small amount of peanut butter to each jar and mix it into the syrup.

4. Close the jars and use the hammer and nail to make a few small holes in the lids. The peanut butter and sugar will lure the ants to the traps, and the borax will kill them when they eat it.

5. Mix ¼ cup of powdered sugar with a tablespoon of borax to sprinkle near the areas where the ants come into your house. This solution has less borax so it won't kill the ants right away. Instead, they will take the sugar back to their nest where the borax will kill the other ants and the queen.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not use borax where children or animals can eat it. Borax is toxic.

References

• Sugar Ant Hotel
• Natural Ant Killer