Sugar Ant Hotel

The ants go marching one by one into this homemade sugar ant hotel. We make three to six of them every ant season—a family tradition—and place a few in the kitchen, and wherever else ants like to frequent. These ant-trap hotels completely rid our house of these common spring and summer pests, but I also have a nontoxic ant spray up my sleeve, which I share, here, too.

Sugar Ant Hotel

1 cup borax
1 cup sugar
water
4 shallow glass jars with screw tops (small jar of marinated artichoke heart jars are ideal)
4 loose wads of toilet paper

In a bowl, mix the borax and sugar. Place a loose wad of toilet paper into each of four different screw-top jars. Pour a quarter of the sugar and borax mixture into each of the four jars, over the toilet paper. Fill each jar with water to one inch of the top. Screw the lids on the jars, and with a hammer and nail, make four to eight holes in the lid. Place the jars in areas where you have ants (but keep away from pets and children).

This ant trap will catch the workers but not the queen. A more comprehensive solution is to blend 1/4 cup of confectioner’s sugar and one tablespoon of borax and sprinkle it in ant traffic areas. There is not enough borax with this method to kill the worker ants immediately, so they take it back to the nest, ultimately eradicating it. (If the worker ants do die at the powder, cut back on the borax.)

Caution: Keep borax products away from pets and other animals.

Citrus Solvent Spray
Place 1/4 cup of citrus solvent (such as Citra Solve) in a spray bottle, and add 2 cups of water. Spray in areas where there are ants. This works!

There are also a number of herbs such as mint and pennyroyal, and spices such as cayenne pepper, that repel ants.

Read more: Pets, Pests

By Annie B. Bond

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Ram R.

2:16AM PDT on Mar 14, 2013

Thanks

March 14
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Mary Beth M.

11:03AM PDT on Mar 13, 2013

We did try the borax/sugar mixture one year when we had ants in the kitchen. It eventually did work, but I will admit, there was a mixture of horror and fascination watching the continuous trail of ants from the baseboard to the kitchen counter(!) and back down, and then having to wait it out. The hardest part was not being able to intervene (kill the little buggers) and keeping all cats, dogs or kids away from them in the meantime. Somewhere I read that cinnamon sticks are a natural repellant, so I put those in all the kitchen drawers and cabinets, just in case a few stragglers got other ideas.

March 13
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Stephanie R.

8:25AM PDT on Mar 13, 2013

Thanks for sharing :)

Sue M.

3:28AM PST on Mar 7, 2013

thanks!

March 7
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Tim C.

9:15AM PST on Mar 6, 2013

March 6
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Care m.

8:05AM PST on Mar 6, 2013

Donna H.

7:22AM PST on Nov 22, 2012

Thanks for the tips.

November 22
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rene d.

12:50AM PST on Nov 19, 2012

thanks for posting

November 19
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devon l.

1:02AM PST on Nov 18, 2012

Useful article...thanks so much

November 18
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Tara T.

9:29PM PST on Nov 11, 2012

Great idea! We use a natural remedy to prevent ants especially since most of our work is on Fire Island but this is great to get rid of them. One great repellent is a peppermint oil mixture.
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