The Straddle Creek Soap Box

Our house was built against a limestone bluff. When I say “built against”, I  mean our house looks like it’s holding the bluff in place. If you know anything about limestone, you know that it’s porous and soft, as rock goes. And as we’ve discovered, it’s an ant’s dream.

Essentially, our house is situated on one big, giant ant hill.

While I love spring and wouldn’t degrade it for anything, I will say I could do without the ants. Warm weather hits and invariably, the ants come marching. Nothing personal against ants per se, but they belong outside, not in.

I went with pictures of our bluff rather than pictures of ants. Much more pleasant.

As you might knowledgeably and accurately guess, i.e. natural soap shop, I don’t like ant poisons. Sadly though, I must admit to having employed some sprays in years past to get rid of ants in our house. More recently, I upgraded to commercial ant traps. Still not my favorite.

Finally, last year, a friend of mine alerted me to a homemade, cheap, natural ant trap. It’s awesome.

It’s borax, peanut butter, and sugar. It works for grease ants and sugar ants. If you use too much borax, the ants die before getting the bait back to their nests. If you don’t use enough, it doesn’t work and you’ve created an ant all-you-can-eat buffet. I use the proportions and design I found here. His directions are great, so I won’t be cyberly redundant; click the link and you’ll get all the practical details. Stay here, and you’ll get all my fantastic wit and literary skills. Best yet, click the link, do your ant trap thing, and then come back here for all my postings.

Moving on, I should issue a couple warnings. One, borax is toxic. Don’t leave the traps where children or pets might get ahold of them. Two, for a couple days, you’ll see ant trails as your trap does its job. But those ants are single-minded (poor little guys). They’ll be working hard on the trap and leave your pantry alone. And very soon, you’ll see them no more. Enjoy your ant-free home!