Natural remedy for ants in the home, kitchen, lawn, or garden

Living in the Sequoia National Forest, we have had times of year in which we’ve woken up and found the kitchen completely taken over by ants. One tiny speck of strawberry left on the island was a magnet to a veritable legion of little black insects. Our family room, too, was ridiculous, especially during Alastair’s toddler years in which the proverbial strawberry would get left under a cushion or under the couch.

I would find an ant army leading where? I would lift the couch back to find a peach from dessert two days before and bread crumbs. Two things are crazy: (1) What ants actually find attractive and (2) where toddlers manage to get crumbs.

In all of this madness, we’ve tried this ant solution in a number of ways and the cheapest and most-straight forward has worked well for us. If it doesn’t work for you, I have a number of other ideas for you. The other ideas work too but they require more maintenance.

The boys of Fresh Bites Daily, the Half Pint Hacks, offer you a Borax/powdered sugar solution.

If their solution doesn’t work, here are some other options:

• Using a 50/50 solution is a lot of Borax. If ants have not swarmed it in a day or two, increase the ratio of powdered sugar.
• Add water to your sugar/Borax mixture to form a paste. Replace the paste daily because it will form a crust and ants will not be able to take it back to their nest.
• Use honey instead of powdered sugar. With this method, you’ll also need to watch for it crusting on top and refill it more regularly.

The dry mixture is by far the easiest solution.

After having used this for a couple of years in some ant-infested areas, we have noticed a definite decline in our ant attacks. It works.