[Sca-cooks] ants

Britt tierna.britt at gmail.com
Thu Oct 25 05:24:49 PDT 2007


I live on an anthill.  Literally.  They're in front of the house, in
back of the house, and beneath the house. It'll be a four-figure bill
to have professionals come through and eradicate them, with no
guarantees (everyone's adamant about that - $2,000 and the best I can
get is a promise of a re-spray in 6 months).

I was desperate and it was 4am and I had nine cats in the house and a
trail wandering from beside the chimney to the cat food bowl (these
are grease-eaters) and a box of 20 Mule Team borax.  So I buried the
entry hole in borax and went to bed.  I haven't had an ant on that
level of the house since. They had to track through the borax to get
in and out, carried it to the nest, and that bit either expired or
gave up.  A few months later, from by the downstairs shower to the
litterbox.  Same treatment, same results.  Boric acid is ideal, borax
is another substance entirely but inexpensive and accessible and
effective.

Mind you I know it's not permanent and someday I'll have to do
something drastic, but for the last three years the ants have been
outside and the rest of us inside and that suits me fine.  Just bury
their entrance in a small heap of borax.  It took about half a cup
each time and I just left it there for a couple of weeks (actually
there's still a lump by the shower).  The cats don't have any interest
in it and ignore it and unless they consumed mass quantities the vet
says it's not a hazard.  And the ants stopped trekking through it to
get in.

And yes, bleach your counters, though honestly (everyone go ewww at
once, 1...2...3...) ants aren't as dirty as some things that end up
there.  I can handle the colonists, houseflies make me shudder.

- Teceangl


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