Yes -- Borax got rid of the ants!
Here's how to use Borax to get rid of ants when those little tiny ones get into your home! It's so easy, and so much more affordable in the long run than buying commercial ant baits.
Note: This post is a blast from the pretty far past. Originally published in 2013, using Borax to kill ants is still relevant today -- because these darn ants, they are back every year.
When I ran a Borax giveaway a while back, several of you asked if using Borax really did get rid of the ants. Survey says: Yes! I haven't seen one in my kitchen since putting out this homemade ant-killing Borax recipe a couple of times. It works at least as well as, if not better than, the little ant bait things -- and is so much more affordable in the long run than investing in baits over and over again.
It's easy to use Borax to get rid of ants, and picking up Borax is a better long term investment, since you can also use it for other purposes.
Use Borax to get rid of ants
Is it just me, or do you see a new annoying batch of tiny ants in your house every spring, too? I always get a bunch of little ants coming into my kitchen under one of the cabinets that backs up against an outside wall. I originally saw a suggestion online to sprinkle a line of Borax and sugar along where the ants are coming in, but didn’t want to leave that out because of our cats.
So instead, I used this effective ant-killing Borax recipe from The Happy Housewife:
- Mix ½ C sugar, 1 ½ tablespoon Borax, and 1.5 C warm water.
- Soak some cotton balls in the mixture, and put them out near the mess of ants.
- The sugar attracts the ants, and they'll take the Borax with it back to their home.
- Eating the Borax kills the ants!
If you have small children or pets, be sure to keep them away from Borax -- and always wash your hands after using.
Note: Thanks to several commenters who add that: If your ants don't seem to be attracted to sugar, try mixing in some peanut butter instead. They may have a savory tooth rather than a sweet tooth! Just like people, insects are all different... 🙂
Some ants do love sugar...
BOY do these particular ants like this mixture. In the initial Boraxian experiment, I locked the cats in the bedroom for a few hours and set several soaked cotton balls in a line along the edge of the cabinet where the ants were coming in. I let the ants go to town, picked up the cotton balls, wiped up the floor, then let the cats out. Then, I repeated the experiment for a second round of about an hour later in the evening (seeing many fewer ants on this second go-round). By morning? No new ants in sight.
Tip: Try mixing in peanut butter for a more savory ant-attracting formula, if your batch of ants doesn't seem to care for the sugar.
The Borax Effect lasts for some time. When the ants inevitably return, though, it's super easy to whip up another little batch.
Have you tried Borax to get rid of ants in your home? Comment here and let us know how it worked for you!
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Came home from dinner out to find that small ants had invaded our kitchen. Initially, I blamed my husband for not cleaning up remnants of snacks that were left where they fell. Then I sprinkled Borax on the ants and around the floor, especially near the walls, corners and in front of the sliding glass that leads to outside deck. Am I supposed to just leave the Borax there on the floor? If so, for how long? I just poured the Borax dry onto the floor. Is that correct? The ants seem to be walking on top of it with no effect. I did this 2 hours ago. Should I leave it there overnight? I did not add sugar, as I was afraid to make the problem worse. I did not wet the Borax. Is that still effective? Should I clean up and reapply tomorrow? I'd like to not use ant spray
From what I read here and other places, the trick is to put the Borax in a sugar paste. I mix about a Tbsp of Borax, Tbsp of sugar, and a few drops of water into a thick paste. Spread it on some pieces of cardboard (or something else the ants can easily climb on and put it in the trail. The ants will completely swarm the trap for a couple hours and then disappear. I think sugar & water are crucial. In my experience, it works really well & sometimes use the outdoor stakes in conjunction with it (some of those are made with Borax sol'n, too).
OK I tried the cotton ball mixture. I will post if it works! I have tried so many other remedy & no luck! I can't even water my plants cause the crawl all over my legs. Even my hands. Lucky the are not inside my house,just outside every where. Wish me luck!
Last night I had a parade of small ants in the camper......got out the borax, cotton balls and sugar.....this morning...nothing
Thanks for this I tried it with the sugar and they just went around it, I must have savory ants! So I used peanut butter and borax (2 spoonful's peanut butter to 1 of borax) smeared it in an old container with holes in the top for the safety of pets. Ants are now swarming it only 20 minutes later. Hopefully this will work!!
Please let us know how it worked, Janelle. Thanks!
It definitely works, and works great. I put cotton soaked borax (in little condiment cups with lids, and made holes for the ants to crawl in and out) one with sugar, one with peanut butter and one with honey, and my ants liked the honey mixture the best. Be careful not to use too strong a concentration of borax and sweetener. I found that if the borax is close to a 50/50 mix the ants start to leave it alone. So use less than 50% borax. The stronger the concentration, the faster it works but if they don't eat it, it won't work at all. I'm going to be trying a 25% borax mix to see how that works. I use a little hot water to blend the mix well and spread out the cotton ball in the condiment cup so the ants have more surface area to eat the mix.
Good Luck, God Bless!
Yeah, I think 20-25% borax is the perfect ratio so they love their lunch and are still physically able to feed the nest and spread the borax death.
It does make me a bit sad to think about ants succumbing to death via a gigantic inescapable fart stuck exploding within. Not a pleasant way to leave this life but... they are crawling all over my honey jar and invaded my baking cabinet! Please forgive me ants, RIP.
So glad that my guilt does not live alone! People have laughed at me for caring about the tortuous way that I have to kill these highly intelligent and compassionate creatures (they will welcome and care for any insect that smells like an ant even from outside their colony and they raise aphids for food without killing them). But when their hoards invade my territory the kinder methods haven't provided a lasting solution that will attack the Queen. Diatomaceous Earth kills quickly on contact as does Off Insect Repellent but when ants die the Queen just sends more. Peppermint and Lemongrass oils in a diffuser confuses their sense of smell which hides the trails but eventually they will find a way in somewhere else so I have been using a 3/1 mixture of powdered sugar to Borax. I have read that this will kill the larvae but adult ants can only consume liquids so I will use both. A least I only eat grass fed beef since Corn has the same effect on cattle as Borax does on ants because the cows stay out of my house!
Ants are just like super well-designed roomba vacuums....that self-repair and replicate like crazy. If you think of them like tiny machines (which they are), your conscience can rest easy. anything less intelligent than a fish is just a meat robot.
Correct. For some reason some ants are drawn to protein like food (peanut butter) while others go for sweet foods like sugar. Go figure? ? Peanut butter with borex should work though.
This is because ants forage for different things at different times depending upon the needs of the colony. Ever notice that sometimes ants will completely ignore water and other times they'll get into damn near every liquid available thats left out? Its because of that need for variety. Proteins, oils, sugar, water, ect. the need naturally changes. Its usually not hard to figure out what that have in their cross hairs when they're ransacking your home for goodies but the borax mixtures definitely work and are incredibly effective. Its not a cleanliness issue either although keeping the place hospital clean seriously helps but realistically, who the hell has time to clean 24-7? A cup of coffee with some sweetened creamer innocently left on a counter when you're rushing out the door for work or whatever can quickly turn into a stomach churning eyeful when you catch them looting your coffee cup several hrs later. lol
Thank you! I am doing this right now!
I made a mix of 2 tsp of 20 mule team borax to 1/4 cup og peanut butter. Heated up the peanut butter in the microwave til it liquified, mixed in the borax, 24 hours later there are a lot less ants. So far so good.
I just put the borax on the bed itself and within the next day or so there dead
I had the same problem. I tired the same exact recipe and no more carpenter and small red ants in 24 hours!!! Amazing recipe and dirt cheap.
One month ago I had major plumbing work done....I normally see a few ants here and there every spring/summer...I would put out ant traps and after few days or so no ants till next spring.....Not this year!! Two weeks or so after plumbing work was done, my house was INVAIDED by hundreds of the tiny black ants and tiny black flying ants! I sprayed ortho home defense.....three days later floor was covered in ants again...I found the borax solution online, mixed it up, put it in water bottle lids about every foot or so against they walls around my kitchen inside...I also did this outside around the whole house....within an hour of doing this the ants were swarming the bottle cap lids!!! DO NOT KILL THE ANTS!! The only way this will work to kill them and the colony, is to let them take it back to the nest for the rest of the colony (including the queen) to eat....For three days I would put out fresh bait (borax, sugar, water) each day I would see less and less ants. Its been about a week or so since I began my battle and have not seen even one ant!! Fingers crossed this has worked to keep my home ant free and has hopefully killed any colonies inside and outside my home. Thanks all for the tips! THANK YOU BORAX!!
I came home after being out of town for a week and my roommates and I have little black worker ants all over our kitchen cabinets. I took everything out and bleached it and it looks like they're coming from the crevice above the cabinets. I'm going to try putting the mixture in one of the cabinets and on the counter/floor. Fingers crossed! I'll post if it works or not!
9/9/2014: Just did this exact method last night. Scenario: 2nd story condo, ants appear to be coming from within the walls (not front door or windows), attracted to sugar and food, random "searching" ants found in closets, bathrooms, a few in the bed. Ants in the bed was the final straw - what was their purpose there? We have a well maintained property and made sure all foods in the cupboard were sealed. Raid Ant Traps did NOT work. They didn't care to go in them nor were they attracted to the bait inside. Finally, we tried Borax/Sugar method. I placed 6 little water bottle caps with Borax/Sugar-drenched-cottonballs in different areas of the house. THIS IS IMPORTANT: You have to be patient. The 4-5 "searching" ants immediately were drawn to the Borax/Sugar caps and within 10 minutes, each Borax/Sugar caps had 40-50 ants surrounding it with random trails forming around the house. DO NOT DISTURB THE TRAILS. I felt my skin crawl watching these ants feast on the soluble (hint: they will climb in and they are NOT drowning in the borax/sugar cottonball and liquid). Went to bed at 1030 pm, woke up at 630 am and OMG the trails of ants were gone... disappeared. In fact 3 of the 6 Borax/sugar caps had maybe 3-4 ants around them. This is what we've learned so far: 1) There is more than 1 colony based on the different trails and where we placed the Borax/Sugar caps. We learned that each colony will not share and you need to provide a Borax/sugar cap JUST for them. 2) BE patient. I'm saying this again. I saw trails forming that started from one end of the house to the other, but each trail was responsible for its own colony. Lastly, we set out new fresh Borax/Sugar caps this morning to make sure any remaining "searching" ants gets its fill -- remember, the little eggs/babies have yet to hatch. They too need to eat the solution AFTER they've hatched or you'll get a brand new colony ready to "search". After experiencing this, I have to educate everyone. I saw hundreds of ants and I never thought they'd leave. Trust that the ants are genetically programmed to do their duty which is to find food, eat it, and BRING IT BACK to the colony to share. GOOD LUCK Y'ALL! Hallelujah to Borax.
Wow that was a really analytical and helpful post. Thanks 🙂
I did this and yes, I see a swarm of ants.
I have a room in the basement and dunno where the ants are coming from but they swarm my carpet and bathroom; especially the sink and shower. And they swarm my toothpaste and soap.... Its GROSS.
My bro in law is an exterminator and he put ant bait traps and some sort of gel- this was last November of 2015. Its SEPTEMBER 2016 and they're STILL a problem.
The bait traps stained the carpet and I saw an army of ants swarming it tonight and freaked out!! My carpet is moving!! Should I wash the carpet?
I'm so annoyed!!
Thanks for that post! Very thorough. I was wonder if I did it right and your post helped.
@SoCalJayhawk, OMG I did this yesterday and I had never seen so many ants swarming around the lid filled with borax solution. It made my skin crawl but I just closed the closet door and let it go. This morning I looked in and the lid and the area around it was totally clean!! I mean there wasn't even a bit of stickiness on the lid! I thought my husband had cleaned the lid and put it back empty! I asked and of course he had not!! So I put some more borax solution in and will wait to see if there are more! So weird - even the dead ants around and in the lid were gone! It literally looked like someone had cleaned the area!