We all get them – those little, annoying sugar ants. Years ago, when we were first in the Holler, I would mix boric acid with sweetener and put it out for the little buggers. The first year, that worked. However, it slowly stopped working. We battled and battled the little buggers and I even had an extermination for them, which worked for a bit. But always, the little devils would return.
Then a friend let me in on a secret – her husband preferred to use Terro Ant Bait on their ants at home. This was big news since her husband was an exterminator. So I ordered some and tried them. And they worked GREAT.
It is now my habit to keep some of these little traps on hand so that I can put them out every time I see ants.
A note: this is not an all-or-nothing solution: They work the best out of anything I have tried. But they take a week or two, you need to put them in the line of ants so the bait gets found, and you need to practice good weed control around your house, as well as kitchen cleanliness. If you leave food for ants, more ants will come.
However, as a gentle household solution to the sugar ant problem, I prefer Terro Ant Bait over making my own.
Did I mention what these are made from sweetener and boric acid? Yup – the bait works by attracting the ants so they take it back to the nest and feed it to the queen and then it kills them. Boric acid is one of the gentler approaches to bug control from an environmental standpoint.
Links to Terro Ant Bait are from my Amazon Affiliate account.