Homemade Ant Bait - Low Toxicity & Effective

Ants are fascinating creatures, until they invade your home. If you use toxic ant poisons, you may be trading off one problem for another. Even some of the “green” ant killing options may not be as harmless as advertised.

The good news is that there are safer options to rid your home of ants.

How To Defend Your Home Against Ants:

1. Ants make their way into your home through small cracks and crevices in the foundation and around windows or doorframes. Look for where the ants are coming in and going out and seal those entry and exit points with chalking.

2. Keep your kitchen and food preparation areas clean. Once ants find a food source, they tell all their friends.

3. Take out the garbage frequently.

4. Wipe up food spills and crumbs.

5. Keep tree limbs and shrubs pruned away from your home and roof to take away easy access points for ants.

6. Remove debris from your home, patio or deck.

7. Ants are repelled by peppermint and mint essential oils. Try planting mint plants around the outside of your home. You can also use mint oil to wipe down the areas where you see the ants.

Cayenne pepper, lemon water and cinnamon will disrupt their sense of smell, so they won't be able to follow the ant trails.

Coffee grounds is another scent that they don’t like. Placing coffee grounds in areas around your home where they are entering will help to keep them from entering. Bay leaves, apple cider vinegar and whole cloves have also proven to be helpful ant deterrents.

Borax Ant Trap:

Borax is a versatile cleaning supply made from a naturally occurring mineral that is nontoxic to humans.

The ingredients for this homemade ant trap should all be fairly easy to obtain. The recipe is from The Healthy Home Economist:

Ingredients

• Sugar or aspartame
• Borax
• Paper towel or cotton balls
• Water
• Saucepan

Directions

• Warm 1 cup of water slightly in a saucepan; mix in one-half cup of sugar and 3 tablespoons of borax.
• Soak the mixture into the cotton balls or paper towels.
• Place these in shallow dishes near where you’ve seen the ants.
• Do NOT kill the ants you do see. The objective is for the ants to eat from the cotton ball or paper towel and carry the product back to the nest where the borax will disrupt the entire colony.

While the original recipe calls for sugar, it is important to note that the addition of aspartame may also help rid you home of an ant problem.

Read More