A couple years ago when we went through the first Spring in our new house, I found a trail of ants in the kitchen. I googled how to get rid of them and each recommendation started with something like this:
Step 1: Remove all crumbs from the floor and counter tops.
Step 2: Be sure all food containers are tightly sealed.
That was all it took for me to decide it made more sense to reach some kind of peace accord with the ants where we would just decide to give each other some space and live in harmony. There was no way with six kids we were ever going to have a perfectly crumb-free house. In my best moments, I tried to reframe it as a positive. “Isn’t it great that I’m serving fresh foods to my children and we eat together as a family at the dinner table? I bet people who don’t cook and never eat together don’t have ants. . . ” This is also known as my “Fruit Fly Speech.”
Living crumb-free wasn’t realistic and living in harmony with the ants also seemed pretty disgusting, so I kept looking for a better way. That’s when I started playing around with a Borax, sugar, water recipe. It was a housekeeping game changer for me, so what has been my private secret (because who wants to admit they have ants??), is now going public.
Here’s what you need:
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 T. Borax
1/2 cup sugar
Just combine all the ingredients until the sugar and Borax are dissolved, soak a cotton ball in it, and put it where the ants are. I like to barely boil the water before adding the other ingredients so things dissolve easily, but don’t put it down for the ants until it’s not boiling hot. The ants will flock to it (because SUGAR) and then unknowingly take the Borax home with them where it will kill off the colony.
It usually just takes a cotton ball or two to get the job done, so I store the rest of the mixture in a mason jar and use it throughout the spring and summer if ants reappear. A word of warning: because there’s sugar in the mixture, the jar can get sticky if you spill on it.
I would want to be careful about leaving a cotton ball where a little one could get a hold of it. This isn’t a perfectly safe solution, but there are ways you can minimize the risk. I tell my kids that it’s poison and I’ve had success putting it out after the kids have gone to bed. The ants are typically gone in the morning. I put one out this morning and the majority of the ants had disappeared in about three hours, while my kids were playing in the yard.
While the cotton ball is doing its job, I do a thorough cleaning of the area around where the ants are hanging out. This morning I used an envirocloth to wipe down the floor and walls of my kitchen. The envirocloth is magical at removing smooshed jelly from the floor and spaghetti sauce from the walls. I also used the envirocloth to wipe down the chairs while the floor was drying. It’s good to get any extra ant bait taken care of while they’re actively poisoning themselves and by using just an envirocloth and water, I avoid any unnecessary chemicals and fumes. Turns out it’s possible to have a clean floor without making your house smell like vinegar (in my granola days) or faux pine tree (in my sterilizing days).
I have kids that love the National Geographic experience of watching a swarm of ants eat themselves to their doom. I once overheard one of my kids telling a friend, “My mom makes the best ant poison.” That isn’t exactly what I dream of being remembered for, but ant infestations are gross, so if my kids are proud that I’m the vanquisher of our ant enemies, I’ll take it.
What’s your housekeeping secret?