The use of boric acid against ants in the house and apartment

1. How does boric acid work on ants?
2. Boric acid from ants in the apartment, recipe and instructions for use Sweet poison for ants from boric acid
3. Boric acid with ant eggs
4. Glycerin with boric acid
5. Dangerous minced meat balls
6. Boric acid with honey

Among the effective means that help in the fight against ants and other insects, such as cockroaches, you can find boric acid. But it is important to know how to use it correctly, otherwise you will waste your time and energy. In general, boric acid works quite effectively against ants. .

How does the substance affect ants?

To begin with, it should be noted that boric acid is available in the form of a powder or solution and is sold in pharmacies. The drug is inexpensive, but copes well with insect intoxication. The substance has no odor and dissolves well in water.

The acid has a contact-intestinal effect on ants. It is capable of destroying an insect, even if it simply ends up on its cover and does not enter the digestive tract. The components of the substance are able to penetrate the body through the chitinous shell and corrode the walls of the pest’s organs. If it enters the stomach, the product causes severe intoxication, dehydration and paralysis of the body. No matter how boric acid gets into the ant's organ systems, it will die over time.

A few crystals of the substance hidden in a fragrant bait can infect an entire colony if they enter their lair as a tasty-smelling trophy brought by a prey ant. Also, the possibility of infection of the colony appears if the poisoned individual dies and is eaten by relatives.

Even a minimal amount of boric acid entering the body can cause sterilization of both the female and the male ant, which will ultimately lead to the destruction of the genus.

How to get ants out of your house forever at home quickly

First, let's find out how to understand that there are ants. Most often, this is immediately obvious - but if you catch them at the moment of “moving”, then it will be much easier to remove the insects.

To do this, you need to pay attention to indoor flowers. If they have aphids on them, this is a bad sign. Ants specifically breed aphids so that they can then feed on their sweet juices.

When you first detect aphids, it is better to use one of the traditional methods of combating red pests.

First, let's look at the principle of action that must be followed in order to get rid of ants once and for all:

1. Find the nest from which the queen rules. This is usually easy to do along the route the ants take.
2. Place baits with poison along the route to deprive them of water. The lack of water in itself is destructive for small pests, and the poison, which, along with food, is carried to the “kingdom” to the queen, will quickly destroy the entire flock. It is precisely because of the desire to drink that ants like to settle near leaking washing machines, and if it is in the kitchen, then there is also something to snack on.
3. Find the cracks through which the ants entered the apartment. To fix this, for example, using a sealant or a special toxic pencil - they just need to draw a circle around the crack; the ants will not be able to cross the line.
4. Carefully monitor the cleanliness of the apartment to prevent such a neighborhood from happening again.

Is boric acid dangerous for humans?

The main question that owners of apartments infested with ants ask is how boric acid affects humans. The substance is not classified as a poison and is recommended for use in residential areas to kill insects. However, when treating problem areas in your home, take precautions.

A small amount of the product, even if it enters a child’s body, can only cause an allergic reaction. If a large amount of the substance enters the body, poisoning may occur. Considering that very little acid is used to fight insects, harm to the body is excluded.

Prevention

Just because there are no ants in your house or you have successfully dealt with them, this does not mean that they will not try to come back again. Moreover, they can always get into the apartment from your neighbors, who may not fight insects at all.

To prevent the appearance of these annoying insects, always keep your kitchen perfectly clean - do not allow crumbs to appear on the tables, wipe the floors daily with a damp cloth, clean the tiles and pots from traces of grease, and do not leave a filled trash can for tomorrow. If there is food left in your pets' bowl, change it after it has sat untouched for one day. Firstly, your pet is unlikely to touch yesterday’s food, and secondly, this is an ideal complementary food for ants - tasty and easily accessible.

If you like to feed animals from the table, throwing food directly on the floor, after eating, wipe the area with a rag to get rid of crumbs and greasy marks that remain on the floor surface.

All jars in the kitchen in which you store cereals, sugar, and spices must be tightly closed. Always keep your home clean.

Advantages of using boric acid

As a poison against ants, boric acid shows itself in the best possible way. The advantages of the product include:

• Low cost. For one dose of boric acid powder or solution you will spend about 50 rubles, and you can buy the substance at any pharmacy.
• Variety of applications. Boric acid can be used not only in its pure form to kill ants, but also as bait. This way the effectiveness of the product increases significantly.
• High quality result. Almost everyone who has used boric acid as a poison for ants notes the excellent effectiveness of the product and the complete destruction of colonies.
• Fast action. Once the poison enters the organ systems, irreversible intoxication and paralysis occur.
• Suitable for use both in an apartment or house, and on a personal plot.
• When used in the garden, it has a positive effect on plant growth, acting as a top dressing.

Removing ants from fruit trees

Ants not only move from tree to tree themselves, but also carry aphids with them. It is important to make sure that they cannot climb the branches. For this purpose, various protective rings and catching belts are used. In essence, this is a simple mechanical trap for the entire season.

— Make hard funnels from plastic bottles, thick paper or coarse fleecy fabric at a height of 30-50 cm from the ground. A piece of thick rubber, padding polyester, or even glass wool will do;

— Coat the tree trunks with a sticky resinous solution. It is prepared from pine resin, rosin and petroleum jelly in a ratio of 50:6:7.5. This all needs to be mixed and boiled until a homogeneous non-hardening mass is obtained;

- Place rags well soaked in kerosene under each fruit tree;

- Take unnecessary thick fabric, rags or old pieces of wool, soak them in carbolic acid and wrap them around tree trunks;

- Scatter baits of flour, sugar and boric acid. They are destructive to all pests, and the remains will become an additional boron fertilizer for the soil.

Photo: pixabay.com

Secrets of proper use of boric acid

The basic rule is the correct placement of the poison with boric acid. Place clean powder or prepared baits in places where ants appear so that they come into contact with the substance. Ants usually crawl around the apartment in search of water or food, so they most often appear in the kitchen or bathroom.

When treating a room, be sure to place baits under baseboards, cabinets, stove and refrigerator. For best results, be sure to remove food and block insects' access to water.

To prevent the reappearance of ants, try to always keep your apartment clean, remove all food from public access, and throw out garbage on time.

Ways to get rid of ants in a house or apartment

Any housewife, after some time in the vicinity of ants, falls into a fighting rage: insects spoil food and do not distinguish between the kitchen table and the trash can. While shuttling between them, uninvited guests can carry various diseases. What to do if ants have settled in your home?

The main task when fighting these insects is to give the poisoned bait to the worker ant so that he will carry it to the queen - the queen of the colony. Sprays and fumigators are powerless in this case; they destroy only those ants that are located directly in your house or apartment. The colony may be tens of meters away from you.

The most effective way to get rid of ants is to destroy their queen using toxic substances

You can try to scare the ants with the smells of mint, pepper, cloves, garlic and onions, and wormwood. However, cunning insects are very reluctant to leave their homes, so repelling may not work.

Ants are very original in choosing a place for a colony - it could be baking foil in the kitchen, a closet with bed linen in the bedroom, an old photo album or video cassette, even a computer mouse and iron!

Ultrasonic repellers are completely useless here, and calling professional exterminators will cost you money. How to get rid of parasites without special expenses? A proven remedy - boric acid - will come to the rescue.

Ant baits based on boric acid: effective methods

The easiest way to use boric acid is to simply sprinkle the powder in areas where ants appear, for example, under cabinets or baseboards in the kitchen. Insects will definitely appear in these places in search of food, and will bring poison on their legs and body to the nest.

To make the pest feast on the poison, make special aromatic baits. A lot of different products that every housewife has in the refrigerator are suitable for their preparation. Such options for exterminating ants are good because the bait will be transferred directly to the nests, which are most often located in places inaccessible to humans.

Recipe with egg (with yolk)

The smell of egg yolk is great for attracting ants. To prepare the bait you will need 1 packet of boric acid and 2 boiled egg yolks.

Mix the ingredients and form small balls from the resulting mixture. Place poisonous treats in ant habitats and wait for the results. Usually, using yolk balls, the entire ant colony will die within 2-4 weeks.

Do not exceed the amount of powder used in the recipe. If there is too much boric acid in the bait, the mining ant will not carry the ball to the nest, but will die on the spot. As a result, the relatives living in the nest will not feast on the poisoned “delicacy” and the colony will be exterminated longer.

Recipe with sugar

As you know, ants love sweets, so granulated sugar or powdered sugar is perfect for preparing bait. Mix a few tablespoons of sugar with a packet of boric acid and sprinkle it in the ants' habitats. The insects will definitely try the “delicacy” and will soon die.

Recipe with minced meat

Meat and its juice are excellent at attracting insects, so they are often used as an ant-attracting substance. Minced chicken, pork or beef is suitable for making bait. You will need 100 g of meat delicacy and 2 bags of boric acid. Mix the ingredients thoroughly until the acid dissolves in the meat juices and roll into small balls. The smaller the lumps, the better. Foraging ants will bring them to the nest, thereby poisoning other relatives.

Potato recipe

To make potato balls you will need:

• several boiled potatoes;
• 2 boiled egg yolks;
• 1 tbsp. spoon of sugar;
• 1 sachet of boric acid;
• 1 tbsp. spoon of melted butter.

As in previous bait options, combine the components and mix. Roll the resulting mixture into balls and place them on the ant paths.

How to make liquid bait

Liquid baits are usually prepared using sugar syrup.

You can pour the liquid into small containers or apply it to the floor surface directly in the ants' habitats. Simply dilute 10 g of boric acid powder and 2 teaspoons of sugar in one glass of warm water and treat the surface.

If you have access to the pest's nests, you can prepare a more aggressive remedy by replacing warm water with boiling water. After mixing the ingredients, immediately pour the hot syrup into the nest and wait for the result.

Yeast mixture recipe

This method is considered one of the oldest. Before making, prepare small containers for bait, for example, plastic bottle caps. You will also need 1 tbsp. spoon of yeast, 4 tbsp. spoons of sugar and a little water.

Dissolve the yeast in water, and then add sugar and 1 packet of boric acid to the resulting dough. Pour the aromatic poison into containers and place them in the ants’ habitats.

Bait recipe with glycerin

Boric acid is highly soluble in glycerin. Based on it, you can make a liquid poison and spray it from a spray bottle in the habitats of ants.

Dissolve a packet of boric acid in a glass of water and add 2 tbsp. spoons of glycerin. Use the resulting mixture to treat all surfaces in the kitchen, after removing all food and kitchen utensils.

You can also make bait balls from glycerin and boric acid. To do this, prepare a soft mass by mixing:

• 2 tbsp. spoons of glycerin;
• 2 tbsp. spoons of sugar;
• 1 teaspoon honey;
• 1/3 teaspoon of boric acid;
• 1 tbsp. spoon of water.

Place the finished balls in all possible habitats of ants.

Recipe with honey, jam

Any sugar-containing products, such as honey or jam, are often used as bait. Their smell attracts insects well.

Pour some jam into a small bottle or jar and leave it on the floor. Treat the surface and neck of the bottle, as well as ant paths, with a solution of boric acid. Ants will definitely be attracted by the smell of sweets and will go in search of food. Along the poisoned road to the aromatic delicacy, boric acid will fall on the legs and bodies of insects, which will lead to their death.

Harm from red ants

1. First of all, these insects spread infection and bacteria throughout apartments . Since ants are omnivores, they can simultaneously feed on leftover food from the table and garbage from the trash can, as a result, like cockroaches, they spread dangerous germs and bacteria throughout your apartment and into the apartments of your neighbors, into which they sneak through cracks and along the chimneys.
2. If the family has pets, ants can accumulate in the animal’s fur and bite it, and there is a high risk of infecting your pet with a virus that can be transmitted to humans.
3. There are cases when ants attack small children.
4. Ants that have settled in the country contribute to the growth of aphids, which suck the juices from garden plants: flowers and vegetables.

Due to their heat-loving nature, ants prefer to settle in dark, warm places - in cracks in the foundation, under wallpaper, in boxes, in deep cracks between walls, in the space between the wall and tiles, parquet. The number of individuals in a family ranges from several thousand, but there are cases when their number exceeds 300 thousand.

The average ant family has 100-200 fruit-bearing females, which settle in flocks throughout the apartment; there is a continuous connection between the nests, and if living conditions in one of them worsen, the entire family migrates to its neighbors. For this reason, it is very difficult to fight domestic ants - treatment is necessary for the entire apartment.

Baits based on boric acid for use in the garden

It would seem that seemingly harmless ants that appear on a personal plot should not cause much trouble. However, insects can attract huge swarms of aphids, which damage garden and vegetable plants.

Before you start fighting ants in the garden, locate the anthills. This way you will know for sure where to place the bait. Do not worry that boric acid will negatively affect garden crops; on the contrary, the effect of the substance enhances plant growth and performs an additional function as a fertilizer.

Corn mixture

Cornmeal itself is already destructive for the ant. Attracted by the aroma of the corn delicacy, ants eat the product, which greatly swells in the digestive tract and causes fatal injuries.

To enhance the effect, you can add a little boric acid to the product. Prepare the required volume of poisoned mixture at the rate of 100 g of corn flour per 10 g of powder, and scatter along the ant paths and around the anthill. Please note that the procedure should be performed as often as possible, at least once every 2 days. Otherwise, the product will not work due to high humidity and the influence of various physical phenomena.

Potato-egg bait

Although there is always something to eat in the garden, ants are still attracted to additional aromatic foods.

Boil a few potatoes and 2 hard-boiled eggs. Mash the boiled potatoes and yolks with a fork and mix. Also add 2 tbsp to the mixture. spoons of sugar and 20 g of boric acid powder. Make balls and place them around the ant nests. Renew the bait about once a week. After 14-20 days you will notice that there are fewer insects in the garden.

Wood ash mixture

To make bait you will need wood ash. You can buy it ready-made at a hardware store or simply take the remains of burnt firewood after cooking a barbecue or from the oven.

For 1 kg of ash you will need 3 ten-gram bags of powder. Mix the ingredients and sprinkle directly onto the anthill. The effect will be enhanced if there is light rain after the procedure, and the poison will penetrate deep into the nest.

Sweet, effective bait

One of the most effective means in the fight against ants are sugar baits, since insects are very greedy for sweets. To prepare dry poison you will need:

• powdered sugar;
• soda;
• rice flour;
• boric acid powder.

Combine the ingredients in equal proportions and scatter on the anthill. The product is destructive to ants not only because of its toxic effect, but also due to the rice flour, which greatly swells in the insect’s digestive system and causes irreparable damage. Powdered sugar acts as bait, the grains of which are very small and are easily carried by foraging ants into their nests.

Chemistry to protect your peace of mind

Attention! When using chemical compounds to fight ants, be very careful if there are animals and small children in the house. Protect the bait well so that none of your household is harmed.

There are a huge variety of products on store shelves that can be used to control household pests. If you don’t want to bother with preparing poisonous baits yourself, you can try using one of the listed products.

1. The effective poison “Rubit” is produced in the form of a syringe, the contents of which must be smeared in the places where the working individuals move. The sweet composition of natural honey, chocolate and, of course, the poison itself will not leave the ants a chance.
2. The “Absolut” preparation needs to be coated throughout the apartment along the baseboards, the joint between the wall and the ceiling, and doorways.
3. Anti-Colorado beetle remedies help in the fight against ants . Dilute any such product in water in a high concentration and spray it in all corners, along the baseboards on the floor and on the ceiling. When the solution dries, it will be completely invisible and safe for humans and animals, but it will work flawlessly on ants and other insects. After a year and a half, the procedure must be repeated.
4. Special ultrasonic repellers are good at fighting not only rodents, but also annoying insects.
5. Aerosols and plastic washers such as “Fumitox” or “Raptor”. The way plastic washers work is that a sweet bait containing a poisonous substance is placed inside. After eating the poison, the ant returns to the nest, where it infects its relatives.

Safety rules when using boric acid

Although boric acid is considered safe for humans, be sure to follow safety precautions when using it.

• Do not come into contact with the substance without gloves.
• Protect the respiratory tract with a cotton-gauze bandage.
• For mixing, choose either unnecessary dishes that you can simply throw away, or glass or ceramic ones that are not affected by chemical reactions. After all manipulations, wash the used container thoroughly.
• If you place baits on napkins, paper or plastic covers, discard them after use.
• When using boric acid in the garden, bury the remaining poison deep into the soil.
• If children or pets live in the house, choose inaccessible places to place baits. If a pet or even a child eats one ball of poisoned bait, most likely nothing bad will happen. With systematic use of the substance, severe poisoning of the body is possible.

Minced meat trap

Boric acid balls with minced meat are also very effective against such pests. They are prepared simply: take 2 tablespoons of minced meat, mix with 6 grams of acid, roll into balls and place near places where insects accumulate or on ant paths. The principle of action of this poison is the same as that of other baits.

Important: do not use this recipe if you have pets that eat meat. They can eat the bait before the ants.

User reviews on the results of using the product

Everyone who has tested the effect of boric acid on ants in action leaves mostly positive reviews. Many note that the product copes with the destruction of insects not only in apartments, but also in personal plots. Most housewives are very pleased with the result, noting that the complete destruction of the entire colony is carried out in about 30 days.

Rarely, but still there are negative reviews, which are based on the fact that ants do not touch treats mixed with boric acid. Perhaps in this case the recipe is violated and the poison content in the bait is simply exceeded, which leads to a negative result.

Boric acid has proven to be an effective means of killing ants. You can use the substance either in its pure form, scattering it in places where ants gather, or preparing aromatic baits for further transportation by the poison-delivering ants to the nest. The product works both in apartments or houses, and outdoors, for example, in a garden or vegetable garden.

Fighting ants

So what should you do if these insects have settled in your home?

The ants that move around the home and come into our field of vision are only 10% of the entire family, the so-called working individuals; they leave their nests in search of food for their relatives, who make up the bulk of the family. But the main task of all ants is to serve the heart of the nest - the females, who produce new offspring every day and never go outside.

Knowing this feature of ant life, you can draw up an action plan to combat harmful insects.

But what you definitely can’t do is look for the nest on your own, because it is securely and deeply hidden from our eyes. But knowing that working individuals carry food for their family, and most importantly, for the female, you can scatter poison in places where they are most concentrated, along the paths along which they move, and wait until the working individuals themselves bring poison to their family.

A few additional tips

How to poison ants with boric acid quickly and effectively? To do this, you need to follow some rules for working with this poison. They provide:

• The use of disposable utensils for preparing baits, regardless of whether you use liquid boric acid or powder.
• Restricting access of children and animals to baits. Even though they cannot cause serious harm to their health, they are quite capable of causing allergies or food poisoning.
• Use of personal protective equipment when preparing bait. It is recommended to work with acid using thick rubber gloves. If you are allergic, you should also use a medical mask.
• Consistent use of such tools. Those who want to know how to remove brown insects should use bait based on this product for at least two to three weeks. Otherwise, they simply will not give the desired effect.

If you follow these recommendations, boric acid will get rid of red ants in your apartment pretty quickly. The main thing is not to stop using this product ahead of time and make sure that pests from neighbors do not enter the house.

Security measures

Any substance with boron, although weak, is poisonous. When using it, you must observe the following precautions:

• store in a place inaccessible to children;
• do not use where the bait can be swallowed by animals;
• If powder gets into your eyes, rinse them with cold water;
• Make sure that the drug does not come into contact with food.

Poisoning in humans can only occur with targeted use of the drug: systematically little by little or one-time in a large dose.

Attention! Boric acid has a cumulative effect: with prolonged ingestion, it can cause poisoning.

Symptoms depend on how the acid enters the body.

If it comes into contact with the skin, the substance can cause eczema, detachment of the epidermis and complete or partial hair loss. In case of poisoning through the gastrointestinal tract, the symptoms are varied:

• nausea;
• pain in the stomach;
• vomit;
• tachycardia;
• drop in blood pressure;
• convulsions;
• psychomotor agitation;
• anemia;
• disruption of brain function;
• others.

There is no specific treatment. Washing the stomach and mucous membranes with a 4% solution of baking soda is indicated.