Ant Repellant

Does anyone have the formula for the ant killer using boric acid? I know it is water, boric acid and sugar but I don't remember the amounts.
Thanks...Peg

“ANTS IN YOUR PANTS” AND OTHER
NON-RECOMMENDED DANCE MOVES
Controlling Sugar Ants, Argentine Ants, and Other Annoying Little Ants in Your House


http://www.grinningplanet.com/2004/04-27/ant-control-ant-killer-article.htm

scroll down to ...... THE SECRET WEAPON FOR KILLING ANTS
for the recipe you are looking for.

This message was edited May 5, 2005 10:02 AM

Thanks..Scooterbug..This is the one I have been looking for. Tried it last year and it worked for me.
Peg

Do you have ants in your house? or on your plants? I ask because if it's the house, I've always sprinkled cinnamon (and old timey remedy). When the ants ingest it, they can't digest it and it kills them.

If you are talking outside, I don't know what to tell you :) But, if you have Peonies and have ants, leave them alone. Your flowers need the ants to help them open up. A lot of people spray their Peonies and wonder why they don't have blooms. Ants are natural for them. :) But you probably already knew that (one of the few things I do know about flowers ha, ha)...

The ants are mainly in the kitchen. There aren't a lot of them yet. I want to get rid of them before they bring in their friends. I'll also try the cinnamon around the door and on the countertop. Thanks
Peg

Gee would the cinnamon work on palmetto bugs too? It's been nice temp wise here so I've been leaving the sliding glass door open for the dogs. Finally getting around to raking more leaves so the critters have moved in..yuck,but at least they're not little roaches!

Ginger, I have an awful story about palmetto bugs, if you want to hear it one day. :) :o Don't know if cinnamon will work on them.

Can boric acid harm pets? I wouldn't want my cat or dog to get sick if they ingested it.

re: is boric acid safe for pets
Boric acid and sodium borate (borax) is potentially toxic to people and pets. However serious poisonings in humans have been reported very rarely from a single acute ingestion. Serious toxicity is more likely with repeated exposure to raw or abraded skin or from repeated ingestions. I am not aware of any reports of toxicity in the avian species from exposure to boric acid or borax.

Boric acid/borax used to be widely used in dusting powders and in a borax and honey preparation that was given to teething infants on their soothers. These preparations are no longer recommended for use in children.

A single large ingestion of boric acid/borax can cause gastrointestinal tract irritation. Clinical manifestations of chronic toxicity in humans include red and peeling skin, seizures and kidney failure.

In rats, the oral LD 50 of boric acid is 2.68 - 4.08 g/kg and for borax it is 4.5 - 4.98 g/kg which indicates a relatively low order of acute toxicity.

Boric acid or borax can be mixed with sugar as an ant trap. To minimize the risk of toxicity from repeated small ingestions by pets, the containers should be placed in an inaccessible place.

Boric acid/borax is not volatile and will not cause toxicity from being in the same room as birds, other pets or children. It is considered one of the safer insecticides.

Thank you
That is very informative

Bring on the story,MistyMeadows. I used to use powder laundry soap until one night I opened the door to the laundry room....there were a bazillion palmetto bugs in the open box! Got rid of it and switched to liquid.

My first husband, myself, and my son (I was pregnant with my second child) all went to South Carolina to visit some friends. Well, we live in NC and so I knew something about "small" cockroaches in the house...(military base). When we got to their house in SC, I was exhausted from the ride and my legs were swollen, so I had to sit for quite a while and keep my legs up. All of a sudden I saw this bug scurry across the floor. Biggest darn bug I'd ever seen. My friend said, "Oh that's just a Palmetto bug and they won't bother you!" So I wrote it off, what can one bug really hurt anyhow.

Well that night we went to bed (all of us in one bed) and I tossed and turned, kept waking up. I could hear this noise and see that the tree branch was scratching on the screen. I said it sounded more than that to my husband. He finally turned on the light to reassure me there was nothing I need to worry about! When he did, there must have been 300 (no more like a bazillion) Palmetto bugs all over the bed, the floor, the walls. I started to scream and he said, "this is someone else's house, we can't be rude!" He shut off the light and I clung to my son all night long with the blankets right up over my head and tucked all around me. To this day, I still get the shivers remembering that and I hadn't heard of Palmetto bugs in a long time....There was a whole in the screen and evidentally there was a Palmetto tree right outside the window that these critters live in, thus their name?!

The real kicker? We had to stay another night there! I must be a good houseguest because I never even told her. They were all gone by morning.

Yuck, yuck, yuck.

EEWWW!! I'm afraid I would have ran, screaming from the house, got in my car, and left my husband there to be the polite houseguest. I have a phobia about large bugs, and I can't help it. I've never seen a palmetto bug, but if we get several days in a row of rain, we start seeing what my mom always called waterbugs. Is this the same bug? My brothers, and even my dad sometimes, would tease me by pretending they were going to put them on me. They weren't trying to be mean (well, maybe my brothers were) just trying to get me over my fear. Well, I'm hear to tell ya that my fear is worse because of it. It had escalated into a phobia. If I turn on a light, and see one scurry across the room, I just let out this blood curdling scream. My husband just comes in there and says "where is he?" lol Not "What happened?" but "Where is he?" lol He always knows my bug sighting scream.

I have used that sugar water against sugar ants. It is wonderful to use Confectioners Sugar...and sometimes the ants are fussy and you have to play with the ratio. I put it in bit yogurt container lids, they all come up to drink like a cowboy movie and then the next day.... Hello? No ants.

Cockirochies (eeeeech...I hate them) are best controlled, IMHO, with boric acid. A paste made with Sweetened Condensed Milk and Boric Acid, smeared under the counters and along the drawer slides does em in. Boric acid powder lines every shelf and every drawer. Palmetto Bugs, Water Bugs...Cockroches...same grief.

Carol

Palmetto bugs fly. When we lived in Bermuda, in the 60s, we were at a beach party at night. Bonfire and so forth. My DW was laughing at something when a large Palmetto bug flew into her mouth and crawled down her throat.. Throwing up did not dislodge the bug. We went to no more night time beach parties. She finally recovered from the incident, but smashes any she sees, no matter where, with a shoe.
We went to the World Fair in New Orleans, courtesy of my boss, and were dining in one of the very expensive restaurants when a large Palmetto bug crawled up the wall right next to her. Shoe off, loud SMASH. Silent room. Slow return to normal.
trois

Trois, I am ROFL. I can just image the other guests at the restaurant looking at you guys. ha, ha.

You got it. I am not easily embarrased. I laughed. Many shocked faces.

I left the ant killer stuff out for about 36 hours then removed because we were having guest. So far I haven't seen anymore ants. If I do I'll mix them up another little treat.
Peg

What did you end up doing?

I mixed 1 cup of sugar with 1/2 cup of water then added 1 T. Boric Acid. Put in saucer where the ants were seen. I did this at night before I went to bed. The next morning ants were all over the counter in that area and all over the saucer. I left it there as long as possible(36 hours) then wiped everything down and discarded the saucer. So far they haven't returned.
Peg

Yippee. Peg 1, Ants 0.

Cool -- This is just what I was looking for (and even a few funny stories to boot, Kathy and Trois!). I have an idea for making ant bait containers. I have some of the small Gladware containers - the little 4oz jobbies. I will poke a few ant-sized holes in their sides, put in the sugar water/boric acid, then snap on their lids. I'm not sure if all the ants I see at home are the sugar-loving ones, but we'll see.

I wish we had ants other than fire ants. I have found that used cooking oil just ruins their mounds and they don't usually recover or move. It's a better solution than poison I think. No killed plants or other critters.

Ginger_H

about palmetto bugs and leaving the patio door open:

I learned living in Florida if you put a small fine line of boric acid across the doorway the palmettos won't cross in and if they do they lose their ability to move so it is short lived.