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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I just recently found out about this borax trick to rid my home of ants. I have used everything from sprays to granules under my house to stop them invading. I just went an got a box of borax just to come home an find out I was out of sugar lol I did have powdered nesquik so I made the recipe the same, but just substituted the nesquik for sugar. The trail of ants went right for it. So heres hoping it works! Thanks for the tip! Can't wait to see if it works! ?
My little ants didn't want the Terro. I mixed up peanut butter and borax 2:1, first melting the PB and then adding the Borax. I keep the mixture in a covered bowl and set out little papers with the mixture. The ants love it, but well over a week later there are still 50 or so ants swarming my baits. I've put out many fresh baits and they love it. But they aren't going away. I'm at my wits end.
We were overrun with ants this spring, so I mixed up all of the borax varieties and used Terro. At first they wouldn't touch the Terro, then they went crazy over it. We just kept putting it and the borax varieties out for weeks until no more ants arrived and have not seen an ant since. We even put it outside in covered containers. We have lived here over 45 yrs., and have never been invaded by ants like this year. We had all different kinds too! Be persistent with whatever they like to eat and don't kill any of them so they can take it back to the nest and hopefully it will work for you.
Thank you so much. We have them coming into our kitchen windowsill though a crack at the mitred corner of trim. I think they must have a nest in the wall. Our kitchen is high up from the ground. They are also coming into our living room from underneath the baseboard. So I've got lots of baits out. I will keep at it. I'm so shocked at how they just keep coming.
Update: I continued putting out peanut butter and borax. Every time the numbers declined I thought great, it’s killing them off. Let me put out more bait to prove they are gone. Every time I put out more bait they would swarm it in huge numbers. Finally I just stopped putting out bait and they went away. As long as I put out bait they kept coming. It was insane.
When ants invaded my worm farm & started stealing the worm eggs I mixed borax in honey, smeared it on little squares of thin cardboard, placed several along their trail, & later noticed the ants abandoned the worm farm for the bait. They really went for it; there were so many they scoured the honey/borax trays clean! Worms survived. Ants disappeared & never came back.
I used this method 3 years ago . The ants were every where even was coming out of power points . was near new house 2 years old After many bottles of ant rid & ant rid bates even email the company that makes it she sent me 6 bottles of it yes the ants were eating it but just coming back for more did not work . So read this trick on face book . Thought worth a try . Well the thing is since then I have not seen an ant in the house .
My experience with the ants last year was so bizarre. I had to use borax and peanut butter which attracted them in droves. After putting out the baits for weeks I noticed that as the bait was eaten the ants were dwindling. So I would put out more baits to test if they were really dead. But more ants just kept coming. As long as I put out bait I got new (lots) of ants. Finally after about 5-6 weeks I completely stopped refilling the baits and the ants stopped coming. I don’t know if it was killing them or not. Maybe it was attracting one new colony after another. I still need to seal the crack around my windowsill.
What would I use instead of the sugar? My ants are grease ants. And, they hibernate during the winter!!!
Mixed up a batch and put drops on a piece of parchment paper...less mess and easy for the ants to get to.
It does work but only on the little ants. The big monster one's like the traps - so I have both.
I used your cotton ball sugar & borax recipe about 3 weeks ago and those pesky little black ants on my kitchen counter were gone in just a couple of hours. It DOES work! Thank you!