When the first talk of Borax started showing up a few weeks back, I decided to give it a
try. For some reason this spring I've got carpenter ant nests showing up all over my yard.
They're probably all coming over from the neighbors as I don't use insecticide on my lawn.
I've tried several different methods so far. I poured very hot water with liquid dish soap in
it all over the mound, I poured water with Borax in it and I also just sprinkled the Borax
powder over the hill.
 
All three methods seem to work at getting most of the ants but after a few days I notice
new holes around the perimeter of the old mounds. Out of about 12 ant hills, I think only
one was totally destroyed. We have been getting alot of rain lately which my help the
"special treat" to get farther into the soil.
 
The other experience I had was with the small "sugar" ants (for lack of a better word) in
the kitchen. I put out plastic milk lids with 50% Borax and 50% honey and had a hoard of
ants indulge themselves. After about four days, the ants stopped showing up. I picked up
the lids and thought it was finished. About three days later, one of the kids (it couldn't
have been me) had missed the garbage and dropped something sweet on the floor. The
ants were back. Of coarse they weren't wearing colors so I don't know if they were from the
same colony.
 
I too would like to hear from others on ratio's and methods used. One other note, I had
put down pieces of asphalt rolled roofing in front of each hive to keep the grass from
growing but found out this spring that it also was suppling a nice roof for ants. I took
them all out and within a couple of hours the ants in front of one hive had moved two
mounds of eggs to the top of the inner cover and were trying to set up home. I'll go back
to dodging the bees when I cut the grass next to the hives.
 
I hope I'm not stretching out this thread too far. Maybe we need an ANT-L to start up!
 
-Barry
 
 
--
Barry Birkey
West Chicago, IL.  USA
[log in to unmask]