Guest Author - Kathy Clark

It’s that time of year again when little six-legged creatures begin to move inside and feast on the goodies stored in our pantries or on the crumbs we mindlessly leave behind on a countertop or stove. Finding that endless trail of little workers hauling away bits and pieces of our food strikes fear in us all. We know that once they’ve found our stash, they will return time and time again.

Insecticides work well provided every possible surface is sprayed. However, emptying cabinets, spraying, waiting for the spray to dry and then being concerned about cross-contamination is more work than most of us want to do.

One morning on my favorite talk radio program, the host gave a recipe for ridding our homes of ants. Having an ongoing ant problem in the home I’d recently purchased, I decided I’d give the home remedy a try. Unfortunately, I could not remember the exact measurements, but I did remember the ingredients and the process of mixing. I went home and mixed up my lethal concoction and set it out for the ants. It was frightening to watch millions of them feed and not be able to kill them. I had to retain my faith in the host on the radio.

To my surprise, within less than a week, the ants were gone. It’s been almost 2 years now since I set out the bait and although ants appear in small numbers during the spring, I simply mix up a fresh batch and the new ants feed and go away. The following recipe has the ingredients, however I’m only guessing on the amounts, as I don’t know how much of each I use, I just guess.

INGREDIENTS:

Peanut Butter
Syrup or Honey
Warm Water
Borax
Caps to bottles or small squares of foil the size of bottle caps

Place a couple tablespoons of peanut butter in a bowl. Stir in about a tablespoon of syrup.

Dissolve about a tablespoon of Borax in about the same amount of warm water. Stir until most of the Borax is dissolved.

Add the water and Borax mixture a little at a time to the Peanut Butter mixture. The consistency isn’t important, all that is important is to get enough Borax into the mixture that it kills the ants.

Spoon the mixture into bottle caps and set where ants are seen. Tuck them into corners of cupboards, behind canisters on the counter and even on windowsills.

When you see the ants feeding, DO NOT DISTURB them! You want them to eat it and carry it back to the Queen. Your results should be as mine was, no more ants.