You can use Borax Powder to kill ants. Having a significant population of ants in the house can be troublesome. They can spoil our food and other belongings.
How to Use Borax Powder to Kill Ants? You can use borax to kill ants by mixing it with sugar powder, maple syrup, honey, corn syrup, and bacon grease. In addition, you can spray the borax mixed chemical all over your home to get rid of ants permanently.
How does borax kill ants?
Borax is a boron-containing compound. Sodium borate is another name of this compound. It is widely used in industries to produce many products. It is mainly used for cleaning purposes.
Borax is also used as a preservative in the food industry and also used as a pesticide. In short words, borax has a vast application in our daily life. We can also use it in our houses to kill ants.
What happens when ants eat Borax?
Borax is poisonous to ants. It works as a slow and silent poison. Its primary action is on the digestive system of ants.
When they eat the borax, it goes to their gastrointestinal tract and disturbs the digestion of food. This poor digestion then leads ants starved to death.
They are unable to eat anything start to die. Another thing that happens to them is their exoskeleton. It is an abrasive chemical and can damage the exoskeleton of ants.
Methods to Use Borax Powder to Kill Ants
Using borax to kill ants is somehow a slow process, so you have to be patient. The ants will eat it, and the borax act slowly to kill them.
The ants eat food and inform the other community about food, and then all other ants come to have the food. This behavior of ants is helpful for us because one will cause the death of others.
As the ant eat the borax and then inform others or take the food for them, this will cause the death of the whole community. This entire process will take two to three days.
Keep in mind that ant does not eat raw powder, so you have to set a trap for them. Most ants feed on liquids. You have to set up a trap for ants by mixing borax with some sweet food. Then the ants will get attracted to the trap.
It cannot be used alone, so you have to do something to get the attraction of ants. We will make different recipes of borax with some ants’ favorite food.
Prepare borax and sugar syrup
Sugar is the favorite food of ants, and they fall prey easily to the sugar trap. You can prepare this recipe within no time.
Firstly you should have all the ingredients in front of you. The ingredients include sugar borax, water, and syrup.
Sugar is already present in your kitchen cabinet, but it should be finely crushed. You should not use granulated sugar. Use tap water to make this recipe.
After collecting all the ingredients, it’s time to measure the ingredients:
- The borax and sugar should be used with 1:3 ratios.
- Take all the ingredients in proper proportion. If the borax is in excess, then the ant will die immediately. Then it will be difficult to trap the whole community.
- Stir all the ingredients with a spatula until both powders are completely dissolved in water.
- Now add any sweet syrup in it if you have any. Maple syrup will work excellent. If you want to skip the syrup, then it’s your choice.
Your borax and sugar syrup recipe is ready, now put it in some suitable container and place the trap in its position. Place the traps on multiple positions so that ants from all the crannies come outside.
Mix with sugar powder
This recipe is very simple and can be made within few minutes. Borax and powdered sugar can also use to kill the ants in your home. Icing sugar is the powdered sugar that is used to make this recipe.
You can purchase icing sugar from the market, and if you do not have a budget, just prepare it in your home.
- Take a bowl of granulated sugar and grind it in the grinder. Grind it carefully until granulated sugar is turned into powdered sugar.
- Collect all the ingredients and then measure them.
- Take one tablespoon of borax and three tablespoons of sugar.
- Put both ingredients in a bowl and mix both these ingredients with a wooden spatula.
- When you have completed mixing the ingredients, then pass it through a sieve.
- Remove any lump which is present in the mixture.
To prepare this recipe to be careful about your safety and when handling the borax powder, always wear gloves.
When you are mixing both powders, keep little distance from this mixture. The dust of powder can get entry into your eyes or nose. Never touch your eyes with hands if they are contaminated with borax.
When you have finished preparing the recipe, then wash your hands with soap so that all the poison can be removed from your hands.
Mix borax and peanut butter
Peanut butter is a protein food, and ants also need proteins in their nutritional requirements. Peanut butter, due to its sugary taste and aroma, is a big attraction for ants.
House ants fall prey to this trap easily. This recipe is only for both protein and sugar ants. The ingredients required in the recipe are icing sugar, borax water, peanut butter, and cotton balls. Bowl and stirrer are the tools needed for this process.
- Collect all the ingredients in front of you.
- Measure all the ingredients accurately. You can weigh the ingredients or just take any graduated flask. If you lack the tools to measure the ingredients, then use a tablespoon as a standard.
- Take one tablespoon of icing sugar and three tablespoons of sugar.
- Put both ingredients in a bowl and add half a cup of water in it.
- Mix both ingredients in water.
- Use a stirrer to dissolve the sugar and borax. Hot water can easily dissolve both ingredients.
- Now take a piece of bread and dip it in the solution of borax and soak the bread for one minute.
- After that, take it out and spread one tablespoon of peanut butter on it. You can use cotton balls to spread the peanut butter on it.
- Dip the cotton ball in the borax solution then spread peanut butter on it.
- Use small pieces of bread or cotton ball.
You can use these pieces in multiple areas. The advantage of this recipe is that you can place it in containers or waxed paper.
Use borax and honey
Honey is also a sweetening agent, and ants are easily attracted. It can be directly applied to any base or wax paper to trap the ants.
Just put the honey-coated paper on the targeted site to trap the ants. Just sprinkle some borax on honey-coated paper and place it in your kitchen.
To prepare this recipe, take half a cup of water and add one tablespoon borax in it and mix them well. Now add two tablespoons of honey and mix it in this solution.
Borax and honey recipe is ready now. Ants are attracted to the cup of water, you can use this to kill ants.
Mix with corn syrup
Borax and corn syrup also works effectively against ants. This recipe is also prepared in the same pattern. First, you will `measure all the ingredients. Take one tablespoon of borax and three tablespoons of sugar and mix both ingredients.
Now add water; the quantity of water depends upon your choice, if you want to make a paste, then add some water.
If you’re going to make a solution, then add half a cup of water; after this, add corn syrup in it. Mix all of them by continuous stirring. You can mount your paste on wax paper. Use a container to add the borax and corn syrup solution. You can use this method to get rid of ants under floorboards.
Use borax with maple syrup
Maple syrup is a combination of different sugars. It contains syrup from the xylem of maple trees. It contains water and sweet sugar and is sweeter than simple sugar, which we use in our kitchen.
Its combination with borax works effectively to kill ants. The sweet flavor of maple syrup and aroma can trap the whole community of ants easily, especially the queen ants. Maple syrup is easily available in the market.
To prepare this recipe, you need borax maple syrup and water. Borax and maple syrup is used 1:5 ratio.
The paste can be mounted on wax paper. You can also make a solution or liquid trap by adding one-fourth cup of water in it. Warm water should be added to dissolve all the ingredients. You can use this method to get rid of flying carpenter ants.
Mix with bacon grease
Bacon grease is an excellent ingredient to make a sticky ant bait to trap household ants. Bacon grease is the fats found in bacon.
Take a small piece of bacon grease. If you want to place the bacon grease trap on multiple places, then cut many pieces of bacon grease. Take a bowl and add two tablespoons of borax in it.
Then add warm water to dissolve the borax in this water. Then dip all the pieces of bacon grease in it.
Soak them in this solution until all the solution is absorbed in sections. Then lace all the borax-loaded bacon grease pieces at your target sites.
You can be simple and quick by directly spreading borax on bacon grease. This will immediately kill the ants, but it has a disadvantage.
This will make you unable to target the whole community. Only a few ants that will eat the grease will die at the spot. The ants will not send a message to the community as a whole.
Where should you put borax ant traps?
This is the most important step towards killing the ants from any place. Placing the trap consists of some simple steps. Following are these steps you can follow to place the trap at a proper place:
Preparing a suitable container
First of all, select a proper container in which you will place your ant killing recipe. Ants are active and tiny creatures; they can get entry into any object quickly. They do not need much space to get entry inside any bottle or jar.
You can take any container depending upon the nature of the ant killer recipe you are going to use.
If it is a sugary solution, then take a jar, plastic container, or any bottle; now, when you have selected a container, then make some holes in it.
These holes will help the ants to get entry into the container. You can make a hole with any type of pointed objects like a knife or sharp pencil.
When you are making holes, be careful of the position of holes. They should be in the upper area of the container. Do not punch holes in the bottom of the container because the liquid will leak out.
If you are preparing a trap for indoor ants, then make holes in the lid of the container.
If you are using a sweet jelly paste or peanut butter, then mount these recipes on wax paper or any simple paper. Cotton balls also serve this purpose. A large piece of straw is also used for mounting the trap on it.
Locate the community of ants
This is the most crucial step in placing the traps. You should observe the exact location of the ants community keenly. If you are trying to locate it indoor, then it must be in your kitchen bathrooms and laundry.
These are the places which the ants hunt for Kitchen has a lot of food and bathroom, and laundry has moisture. Look for the corners of the kitchen cabinets and windows. The ants come out from a hole in the walls. The whole community resides inside this hole.
Place it at targeted sites
When you are placing the trap inside the house, then keep it in the area populated with ants. Place the trap at multiple sites. This will help in the fast and complete eradication of ants from the house.
Place the traps at all the sites where you usually see the ants. The ants should find the food or trap after some time. Place the trap at some distance from the exact location.
Now observe if ants come to and pick the food. Do not kill the ants right there with some other tool or poison. Let them take the food to the community. This will be more beneficial.
Placing the ant trap outside the house
When you are fed up with the ants outside of your house like on your doors lawn and gardens, then place the trap outside. Setting the trap outside the home is similar to as we place it inside the house, but there are some differences:
The first thing that you should care about is the safety of another pest from this trap. Borax is poisonous, and it can cause severe damage if engulfed by someone accidentally. Place it at safe places where other animals or your children cannot reach.
When you are using sugar and borax solution in a container, then do not make a hole in the lids of the box. Any storm or rain can damage your solution.
Replace the ant killer trap every two to three days. Ants are attracted to fresh food. Discontinue or eliminate other food sources; this will divert the attention of ants. When you are placing traps when you do not see any reduction in several ants, then try some other type of food.
All ants are not attracted to all types of food. Trying different food recipes will make a difference. One advantage of placing the trap outside the house is the temperature of the environment.
You can place the trap on a hard surface other than the grass. High moisture will make the ants undesirable to go for it.
You should be patient about the eradication of ants outside the house, especially in the windows and doors. You just keep changing the food trap until the whole colony dies.
