A simple and inexpensive solution (recipe) to get rid of ants in the garden and home based on borax. The solution is tried and tested and eliminates ants! Read how to prepare, instructions for use and the result.
Recipes with borax to get rid of ants
With these recipes we will make a “food” that contains borax and will be tempting for ants. The ants will taste the food, love it and carry it to their nest. The borax will do the rest.
Recipe #1 Vorakas & Nuts – Preparation Instructions
Preparing the food, bait with borax and walnuts or other nuts, is very easy.
Grind the nuts in a mortar and pestle, or in a blender. (The aim is to make very small pieces. So small that an ant can carry them to its ant nest).
- In a bowl, add 1 part Borax powder, 4 parts granulated sugar, the ground walnuts.
- Stir the mixture.
- Then add water. So much so that the mixture becomes a thick liquid.
- Stir well.
It is ready to use.
Recipe #2 Borax in Cotton – Preparation Instructions
The preparation of the food, borax bait in cotton, is also very easy.
- In a bowl, add 1 part Borax powder, 4 parts granulated sugar.
- Stir the mixture.
- Then add water. So much so that the mixture becomes a slightly thick liquid.
- Stir well.
- Take pieces of cotton and soak them well in the mixture.
The cotton balls, with the sugar and borax are ready to use.
The advantages of this recipe are two: a) You can easily move the borax-soaked cotton, b) When it dries due to evaporation from water, you can add water and use it again.
Instructions for use
What we want is to put the mixture on the places where ants pass through in the garden or house.
The instructions I give you are tried and tested and have helped me get rid of aggressive and destructive ants in various places in the garden. Ants that were destroying my plants.
You can use a spoon to put it in various places in the ants’ path or outside their ant nest.
You can also smear it on small branches to place in the ants’ passage.
At first, the ants’ reaction will be sluggish.
After a while one or two will try the food with sugar, borax and nuts.
As time goes on, more and more ants will “learn” that this delicacy exists, and in a few hours you will see hundreds of ants trying the “food”, and carrying pieces of the nuts back to their nest.
The goal has been achieved! The ants have taken the bait!
Alternatively, you can place the mixture in a container that is easily accessible to the ants. Place the container near the ant nest.
Where can I get borax and how much does it cost?
Borax can be found in pharmacies.
If they don’t have it readily available, you can ask them to order it and they will bring it to you.
The package of one kilo of borax you see in the picture was only 3.5 Euros. And with 1 kilo of borax I can make an awful lot of “food/bait”.
How fast can I get rid of ants with borax?
Borax does not work immediately.
You will need to wait a few days to see results.
Gradually you will see fewer and fewer ants, until eventually… you will never see them again.
The ultimate goal is to get the borax to the ant queen. When that happens and the queen dies, the ant nest in question ceases to exist.
Why do I use nuts with the borax?
I added nuts to recipe #1 with the borax, thinking that the ants should have something they can easily carry to their nest.
Walnuts broken into very small pieces and coated with borax and sugar are the perfect bait for an ant.
It can easily be carried inside the ant nest.
When I didn’t put the broken nuts in the recipe, the ants would locally taste the sugar mixture and when they were smeared with the sugar they would just run away. They only transferred to the ant nest as much borax as they had absorbed themselves.
But now they can also carry the borax food back to the nest and speed up the process.
Can I use other nuts?
Yes, of course!
You can use almonds broken into very small pieces as well.
You can use sesame seeds.
What else do I need to know?
In the summer the borax mixture dries out relatively quickly. This is because the water evaporates.
That’s why it needs to be renewed regularly. E.g. every 24 hours until the ants have disappeared.
If you don’t, the food becomes so hard that eventually the ants can’t taste it or squeeze out pieces and carry it back to their nest.
Keep the mixture out of the reach of children.
Wash utensils very well after use.
Keep the borax away from children and adult children.
How borax affects ants
To understand how borax (Borax) kills ants, we must first understand the social structure of ants.
Ants live in colonies. Each colony is made up of castes. That is, ants that have different roles in the colony.
There is the queen who lays the eggs and keeps the colony alive.
There are the workers who collect food (these are the ants we see running left and right or forming long tails). They come out of the colony.
There are the warriors who protect the workers and the queen. They stand out because they are larger in size than the workers and usually have a large head with strong claws. They come out of the colony.
Borax is toxic to ants.
When they eat it, it disrupts the function of their digestive system, eventually leading to death.
But they don’t die immediately (like if we used insecticide spray). It would take several days.
Note: The insecticide will only kill ants that have come in contact with it. The borax will wipe out the entire colony. That’s the huge difference between them!
Borax (borax), acts slowly enough that the worker and warrior ants that have consumed it will carry it inside the colony and infect many more ants that were not directly exposed to it.
Eventually, the borax contamination reaches the queen. She stops laying eggs. The colony stops reproducing and the ants disappear.
But the ants don’t eat just borax. So we mix it with sugar and water to make a tempting bait. The one we showed you in the article.
Tags: ANTS • ANTS IN THE GARDEN • ANTS PREVENTION • ANTS PROBLEM • BORAX • DIY • GET RID OF ANTS • RECIPE • SOLUTIONS FOR ANTS
