Domestic red ants were brought to us on ships with fabrics and sweets from India in 1940. It was believed that red ants were Egyptian migrants, mistakenly calling them pharaohs. People call house ants ship ants, which is quite consistent with the history of resettlement.
↑ Why ants appear in the house
Ants are insects that live according to a clear hierarchical pattern. Their families are numerous, they are controlled by the queen ant, which hatches the larvae of new insects.
When you find an ant trail, count the number of ants moving along it and multiply the number by 10. And this will be the approximate number of inhabitants of the anthill.
The worst thing is that there may be two or three such anthills near the apartment. But in a garden plot it’s difficult to even guess the number of nests with ants.
House creeps multiply quickly because they live in warm rooms. In just one month, their initial number increases by hundreds!
Precautionary measures
Sometimes boric acid can harm not only ants, but also pets and even humans.
With this in mind, do not use your tableware to prepare poisoned baits - in this case, it is better to specifically purchase disposable plastic utensils and use them.
In addition, when you decide to prepare bait according to any of the described recipes, before doing so, put rubber or cellophane gloves on your hands, and after preparing and decomposing the baits, be sure to wash your hands with soap.
Are there pets or a small child in the house? Then place all baits exclusively in places where they cannot reach.
While the poison is in effect, it is important to ensure that insects do not crawl on food if it cannot be washed before eating.
Don't forget to rinse dishes before using them, because ants can crawl on them.
Use boric acid powder carefully: it should not get on food, and after finishing work, wash the used equipment and surfaces on which the bait was prepared.
↑ Sabotage of red ants
Unlike black ants, red ants are united. One colony can have up to 3-5 nests. If one of the anthills is endangered or destroyed, then this nest will soon be populated by relatives and quickly restored.
At home or in an apartment, these are the insects’ favorite places:
- building foundation;
- behind the wallpaper;
- in the pantry;
- behind the stove;
- in a warehouse;
- behind the electric heater.
R
The red species of ants is active throughout the year. As the weather cools, they require moist, warm conditions and darkness. That is why they move to home buildings for the winter.
Inside the living quarters the following are used as food:
- food products;
- home water supply system;
- garbage;
- electricity supply;
- leather items;
- natural fabrics;
- paper and wood.
People living in a house or apartment, including animals, often become victims of red ant bites.
It is very difficult to get rid of insects, as they can quickly adapt to unfavorable living conditions.
How to prevent infection again?
No one is immune from the appearance of impudent ants in the house, but if you follow certain rules and conditions, you may never see them or prevent re-infestation.
What is needed for this?
- Firstly, you probably guess that ants come to your house in search of food, and therefore you must always wipe off crumbs from the table, stains from cooked food (especially sweet ones) and throw out garbage in a timely manner.
- You should also not leave unwashed dishes in the sink for a long time, because they contain leftovers from your lunch or dinner.
- Don’t forget that pets also have the right to cleanliness, and if you try to keep your furry pet’s bowl clean, you will protect your home from insects. Uneaten food, porridge, etc. – all these gifts from your cat or dog will appeal to the ants.
- And be sure to store food in closed cabinets, boxes and bags (especially sweets). And if you notice the first signs of the appearance of ants, immediately take measures to exterminate them.
↑ How boric acid affects ants
This drug is produced in the form of a powder or solution and can be purchased in pharmacies. Despite its low price, boric acid is an excellent insect intoxicator. The drug itself is odorless and dissolves well in hot water.
Boric acid has a contact-intestinal effect on ants. The substance can destroy insects even if it gets on its cover. The acid components penetrate the ant's body through the chitinous shell. And then they corrode the walls of the insect’s organs.
And once in the stomach, the substance causes severe intoxication, dehydration and paralysis.
Crystals of boric acid, which can be hidden in the bait, can destroy an entire colony when they are brought into the anthill by prey insects. There is a high probability of infection of the entire family if the poisoned ant dies in the nest and is eaten.
Causes sterilization of both male and female ants and even a minimal amount of the drug leads to the destruction of the colony.
How to use the powder
The easiest way to use a powdered product against household pests. It is used like this: a significant amount of boric acid powder is scattered near places where ants accumulate, as well as in the corners of the apartment, near baseboards, washbasins, near ventilation ducts (since it is through them that insects most often enter the apartment).
In order to increase the chances of the entire colony being affected by acid, it is recommended to mix this product with sugar, which pests will readily eat. How to dilute such poison? You will need to grind the sugar in a mortar into a fine powder, then mix it with the acid.
When using this product, the fight against ants goes like this: the insects eat part of the scattered powder, and also carry some of it on their paws into their colony. After one pest dies, its relatives eat the remaining poison and also die. Thanks to this, even a fairly large colony of pests can be destroyed in just a few days.
Important: this method is best used if you do not know where exactly the ant colony is located in the room. It allows you to treat the entire apartment, as well as prevent pests from neighboring homes from entering the house. Complete destruction of pests takes two weeks.
↑ Is boron powder dangerous for people?
This is the question that owners of houses and apartments ask themselves when they find ants crawling in their homes.
Boric acid is not classified as a toxic substance and is recommended for use in residential areas to kill pests.
But when treating problem areas in the house, you must take precautions.
If even a minimal amount of the drug enters the child’s body, an allergy will occur. Here, caring for their inquisitive children falls on the shoulders of parents. The amount of acid used to prepare bait is small, so there is no harm to the body.
Important! Animals and small children should not have access to the drug and prepared baits.
But when working with the substance, you must wear rubber gloves. Prepared baits should be placed on disposable dishes, which should then be thrown away. After all work, hands should be washed with running water and soap.
Residential extermination
In an apartment or house, ants spoil food, settle in the trash can and are capable of transmitting various diseases. You need to give a poisoned piece of food to a worker ant, who will carry it to the queen - the queen of the colony. Dichlorvos, various sprays, fumigators and other chemicals are useless, since they kill the ants that are in the house, but do not spread the infection into their home.
Boric acid, entering the body of an ant, causes poisoning, causing the ant to die
The repellents used with mint, pepper, wormwood, geranium, cloves, parsley, garlic and onions do not work. The location of the colony was chosen due to its inaccessibility. This could be a kitchen cabinet and a compartment for bed linen, a photo album, a computer mouse and an iron.
Expensive repellers will not bring a positive effect. For years, proven borax will destroy all insects in a living space.
↑ Advantages of boron powder in baits
Boric acid as a remedy for ants in the garden and apartment shows itself on the positive side. The advantages of the drug include:
- Low price. The cost of one dose is approximately 50 rubles; you can purchase the product at any pharmacy.
- There are many ways to use it; boric acid is used both in its pure form to kill ants, and as an additive to baits.
- Excellent result. Almost everyone who used boron powder as a poison for pests noted excellent effectiveness and complete elimination of ant colonies.
- Performance. As soon as the poison penetrates the organ systems, irreversible poisoning and paralysis begin.
- Boric acid is suitable for use in a house, apartment, country house or garden plot.
- The use of a substance against ants in the garden destroys colonies. But for plants, boric acid acts as a fertilizer.
Useful tips
- Baits are placed only where pets and children do not have access to them.
- “Dishes” for domestic ants should be laid out in disposable plates or on thick sheets of paper.
- It is easier to avoid the appearance of ants in the house than to deal with them later. Therefore, if there is a problem with the appearance of “tenants”, then you cannot leave crumbs on the table and the remains of any food; you must remove garbage from the trash can more often.
- Having noticed at least one ant, you urgently need to start destroying them. It is easier to remove a small number of insects than to fight an entire colony.
Indoors, bait must be placed under a gas or electric stove, under cabinets and baseboards, and under the refrigerator. To get the best effect, remove food and block the ants' access to water.
Reasons for the appearance of ants in the apartment
Ants are quite hardworking living creatures that are useful, but when they appear in a person’s home, ants become harmful creatures. In nature, ants can be found everywhere, and in fairly dirty places, such as trash cans, various landfills, etc. Moving into human housing, they carry pathogens of various ailments on their paws. When they appear in an apartment, they can be found in various bulk food products, which does not bring much joy to the residents.
Ants are attracted to a person’s home by a number of factors, such as:
- The presence of bread crumbs, spilled tea, compote, jam or honey on the dining table.
- Storing bulk food products in accessible form.
- The apartment is warm and humid.
- Free access to water.
- The ants wait out the winter in the apartment.
Good to know! Determining the place where the ants' nest is located is not at all difficult. As a rule, a living path of ants stretches from food to the nest, carrying food to the nest for their relatives. The task is also simplified because these insects are diurnal and rest at night.
↑ Recipe for baits for ant colonies based on boric acid
The simplest way to use boric acid is to scatter the powder in places where ants appear. For example, in cracks under baseboards or under bedside tables. Pests will definitely visit these places in search of food, and will carry the poison on their bodies and legs to the ant nest.
Aromatic special baits are also prepared. These methods of killing insects are good because the contents of the baits are transferred directly to nests in an apartment or house, which are usually located in places inaccessible to people.
↑ Bait with egg
The aroma of the yolk will quickly attract ants. For bait you will need:
- 10 g boric acid;
- 2 boiled yolks (chicken eggs).
The ingredients are mixed and small balls are formed from the resulting mixture. Place the poisoned treat in places where ants appear.
The colony will die within 15-30 days.
There is no need to increase the amount of powder in the recipe. When there is a large amount of boron powder in the bait, the ant will die on the spot and will not bring prey to the nest. And it will take you a long time to destroy the insect colony.
↑ “Treat” with sugar
Everyone knows that ants love sweets, so you can use sugar or powdered sugar to create bait.
Mix 2-3 tablespoons of sugar (heaped) with 10 g of boric acid. Place them on plates or on paper and place them in insect habitats. The ants will definitely try the “treat” and die.
↑ “Dish” with minced meat
Meat attracts pests, so it is often used in making baits.
To prepare a meat “dish”, minced beef, pork or chicken is suitable. For two sachets of the drug, use 100 grams of minced meat.
The components must be mixed well so that the powder dissolves in the meat juice. Make small balls from minced meat and place them in places where insects gather.
↑ Potato bait
For potato ball traps you will need:
- 2 boiled potatoes (medium);
- 2 boiled yolks;
- 1 tbsp. l. Sahara;
- 1 tbsp. l. butter (melt);
- 1 packet of boric acid (10 g).
Combine all ingredients and mix well. Roll balls from the “dish” and place them in places where ants are found.
↑ Liquid bait
Liquid baits are prepared using sugar syrup.
The syrup is prepared as follows: 2 tsp. sugar is dissolved in 200 ml of warm water. A packet of boron powder is added to the syrup and the components are mixed well.
The liquid is poured into disposable plates and placed in places where ants collect.
If there is access to insect nests, then prepare a more aggressive bait, replacing warm water with boiling water. After mixing the ingredients, the hot syrup is immediately poured into the nest.
↑ Yeast trap
The proposed method is one of the oldest methods of pest extermination. Before preparing the bait, prepare small containers for the yeast mixture, for example, collect caps from plastic bottles.
Ingredients for one serving of the mixture:
- 1 tbsp. l. dry yeast;
- 4 tbsp. l. granulated sugar;
- 1 sachet of boric acid;
- 2 tbsp. l. water at room temperature.
Yeast is dissolved in water, granulated sugar and boric acid are added to the dough. Stir well and pour the poison into the lids. Baits are placed in areas where pest insects are located.
↑ Glycerin “treat”
Boric acid powder is highly soluble in glycerin.
A liquid poison is prepared on a glycerin basis and sprayed from a spray bottle where the ants live.
Dissolve 10 grams in 250 ml of warm water. boric acid. Two tablespoons of glycerin are added to the composition. Use the resulting solution to treat all surfaces in the kitchen, hiding kitchen utensils and food in advance.
You can make balls from boric acid and glycerin as bait. For this you need the following components:
- 2 tbsp. l. granulated sugar;
- 1 tsp. liquid honey;
- 2 g boric acid;
- 1 tbsp. l. water.
The formed balls are laid out at all locations where the ants are located.
↑ Honey bait
They lure ants with any sugar-containing products, for example, jam or honey.
Their smell quickly attracts pests. A little jam is poured into a small bottle or jar and left on the floor near where the insects reside. The neck, surface of the jar or bottle, and ant trails are treated with boric acid.
The smell of sweets will definitely attract ants in search of food. Along the poisoned path, the powder will fall on the legs of insects, which will cause their death.
↑ Alcohol trap
Ants also do not refuse alcoholic drinks, so beer serves as an excellent trap. Drink bottles are sprinkled with powder and placed in areas where insects are located.
To get rid of insects in your garden or vegetable garden, you can:
- Pour one tablespoon of yeast into 4 tbsp. l. water (warm).
- Add one tablespoon of sweet jam and 1 tbsp to the dough. l. boric acid.
- Mix the ingredients well, distribute them into containers and place them in places where ants gather.
What you need to know about garden ants
The ants themselves in the garden are beneficial, by the way. But many species of ants feed on honeydew, which is secreted by aphids that feed on plants. Ants protect aphids from other predators, such as ladybugs, to provide a reliable food source. Increased aphid activity in your garden, especially when they have bodyguards, can have disastrous consequences for plant life, as aphids can move unhindered through your garden, sucking all the juices out of your plants.
Before you turn into Rambo and unleash righteous fury on the unsuspecting ants in your garden, ask yourself these questions:
- Are they in an isolated area of my garden?
- Are they a threat to me or my family?
- Are they threatening my home?
There is no need to fight just for the sake of fighting. Now that the moralizing is taken care of, let's get down to business. A fairly simple and effective way to get rid of ants is to spread baits with boric acid. Boric acid can be found at your pharmacy as an ingredient in some medications, including eye drops. You can also find boric acid powder in the fertilizer section of large garden centers. We will be happy to tell you how to make an effective remedy against garden ants from boric acid powder.
↑ Ant traps made from boron powder for a summer cottage
Harmless-looking small ants in your garden should not cause trouble. But, in addition to benefits, they also cause a lot of trouble. Ants, for example, attract huge swarms of aphids. And these pests destroy both plants and crops in the beds and garden.
Before starting to destroy insects in the garden, determine the location of the anthill.
There is no need to worry that boric acid will negatively affect plants: on the contrary, it enhances the development of green spaces and serves as a fertilizing agent.
↑ Corn bait
Cornmeal is harmful to ants in itself. When eating a corn treat, the insects' digestive tract swells and they die.
For effectiveness, you can add boric acid to the flour.
For 100 grams of corn flour, take a bag of powder and mix.
The dry mixture is scattered along the ant paths, not forgetting to scatter it around the anthill. The procedure is performed as often as possible. At least 4 times a week.
↑ Potato and yolk trap
And even though the ants always have something to snack on in the garden, they never refuse a treat.
They prepare such a fragrant bait. Boiled 2 medium potatoes are mixed with two yolks. Add 2 tbsp to this mixture. l. granulated sugar and two bags of boric acid. Mix everything well with a fork.
Make small balls from the mixture and place them where the ants crawl.
Lures need to be updated every week. After 2-3 weeks there will be much fewer insects.
↑ Bait with ash
To make a poisonous mixture you will need wood ash. It can be purchased at grocery stores or hardware stores. And if you are preparing barbecue at the dacha, then it is enough to collect the remains after burning branches and firewood.
For the trap, take 1 kg of wood ash and three bags of boric acid (10 grams each). Mix the ingredients and sprinkle the mixture over the anthill. The effect is enhanced when it rains after the procedure, then the poison penetrates the nest.
↑ Sweet treat for ants
And yet, sugar baits remain the most effective in killing ants, because they love sweets very much. To prepare dry poison you will need:
- powdered sugar;
- rice flour;
- soda;
- boric acid.
All components are taken in equal quantities. Combine, mix and scatter near and on the anthill. The composition is harmful to insects not only due to intoxication and paralysis from boric acid. Also, rice flour swells greatly in the ant’s digestive system and leads to death.
Powdered sugar acts as bait; its grains are so small that they are easily carried by insects into nests.
Despite the fact that the pharmaceutical drug is safe for people, safety rules are followed when using it. It is important not to handle baits without gloves. All containers for preparing mixtures must be either disposable, glass, or ceramic. After manipulation, the containers are thoroughly washed.
When using boron powder in the garden, the remains of the traps are buried deep in the ground.
In order for the destruction of uninvited “tenants” to be successful, it is advisable to update the bait once every three days. Otherwise, they will lose their “aroma” and attractiveness to ants.
It is worth noting that insects cannot be quickly destroyed using boric acid. At a minimum, the war with ants will take two to three weeks.
Why are ants bad?
Many people are perplexed - what is wrong with ants, what harm can they cause to a person if they do not attack him. But it's not that simple. If these insects occupy the house, you can say goodbye to your supplies of sugar, honey, jam, flour and cereals. They will eat some, drag something back to their nest, and in return leave a lot of excrement and corpses (ants often stick and drown in sweet liquids).
In the food reserves that ants store for their brood, pathogenic bacteria and fungi often develop. And these insects also run all over the house, including the toilet and garbage can. From there they can bring infections or parasite eggs into the kitchen. Pets are also unlikely to be happy with their new roommates, especially since ants bite, which is painful and fraught with an allergic reaction.
If ants have entered an apartment, they can be found almost everywhere
Ants in the garden behave no better: their vast homes can be found in any garden bed, in a flower garden and under trees. This harms plants and their roots. The fruits of soft, sweet berries, such as strawberries and wild strawberries, are also at risk: ants like their juice.
Ants are ready to go to great lengths to eat sweet strawberries.
Some species of garden ants breed aphids. And it spoils plants and is nutritious food for other insect pests.
Ants breed aphids, which harm plants.
An effective insect repellent
To get rid of unexpected guests as quickly as possible, you need to choose the most effective method of exterminating these insects, ensuring the safety of family members. Chemicals are handled with extreme caution.
The desire to exclude the possibility of poisoning becomes a priority, and therefore folk recipes are studied first. One of the main ingredients for preparing “treats” for an army of crawling predators is rightfully boric acid.
Boric acid is a transparent, odorless and tasteless powder . It is an antiseptic and is sold in pharmacies as a disinfectant in the form of a solution or powder.
The relative safety of boric acid for humans makes it attractive for use in pest control. Availability and low price increase the rating of the product for those who are interested in spending money on a table for those you want to get rid of.
ATTENTION! Being a recommended antiseptic, boric acid has a number of side effects, which are mentioned in the instructions for use. Carefully study the consequences of taking and using the drug before using it.
How does boric acid work? This substance attacks ants from three sides:
It affects the nervous system, disrupting its functioning. As a result, causing paralysis of the entire body.- Destroys the chitinous shell, which performs the function of a skeleton (that’s why experts call it: ecoskeleton). Without such a foundation, the remaining parts of the body die.
- Sterilizes individuals, depriving them of the ability to reproduce.
Very important is the fact that the drug affects the entire hierarchical chain of the insect caste:
- females;
- males;
- working individuals.
It is difficult to find the location of the nest in an apartment ; it may be a cavity in a concrete partition or ceiling. It may seem that in the garden or at the dacha, this is easier to do, since it is quite easy to detect an anthill. But an anthill is also a nest; it is known that the depth at which the colony is located is several meters. And in a country house it will not be possible to mechanically get to the uterus and its guardians.
This problem is easily solved with boric acid. It is known that food obtained by representatives of a huge family of ants is delivered to the nest by individual individuals. There the distribution takes place between all family members. Thus, by offering the ants the right poison, the problem of access to the queen and her defenders can be solved.
In order to make a decision on choosing a drug to kill ants, you do not need to find out which order or family they belong to, where they came from and what they eat.
The described means are equally effective on all types of ants:
- black;
- redheads;
- indoor;
- gardening
The effect of the active substance spreads throughout the colony the faster the greater the number of individuals who have received their portion of the drug.
