by Jessi Wohlwend
Ants are the worst! Whether they’re in your garden or finding their way into your home after a big rain, they’re a huge pest! And those store bought ant traps only kill the worker ants who actually find their way to the trap. Luckily there’s a really simple way to get rid of ants (including the larvae and queen!) with borax and sugar!
We had so many ants find their way into our house after the crazy rain storms we had in spring; they were everywhere! We put down bait traps but it only seemed to kill the ants that actually ate the bait; they didn’t take it back to the queen because, sure enough, the next day/week/month we had more ants finding their way into the house!
And in my garden there were so many ants all over my chamomile plants that they drove away all the ladybugs I released to help with the aphid infestation! But after I put out this borax solution, all the ants disappeared from the garden and I was able to release ladybugs who ate all the aphids. Win-win! And, even better, we haven’t seen a single ant in the house since!
How To Get Rid Of Ants With Borax And Sugar
You only need a few things: (affiliate links below)
- borax or boric acid
- honey or maple syrup
- powdered sugar
First, let’s talk about the difference between borax and boric acid. In the most basic terms, borax is a mineral that is mined from the ground, and it turns into boric acid with further processing (usually exposure to an acid such as hydrochloric or sulfuric acid). The borax you can buy in stores is usually 20 Mule Team Borax, which is labeled for use in laundry. It’s actually only 99.5% borax (the mineral), but that’s close enough! So for the purposes of this tutorial, I mean 20 Mule Team Borax when I say borax.
Both borax and boric acid are toxic if ingested. I don’t want to spark an argument over just “how toxic” they are; you can do your own research and form your own opinions. But in my opinion, when the labels say “Toxic if ingested, keep out of reach of pets and children”, it means it’s toxic enough that I don’t mess around with it!
In terms of using borax and boric acid as a pesticide, boric acid is labeled for use as a pesticide, while borax is labeled for use in laundry. But because of the high concentration of borax (the mineral) in borax (the product), it seems to work just as well as boric acid when used in this sugar mixture.
So, all of that to say, for the purposes of this tutorial, you can use either boric acid or borax to kill ants! And, whichever one you use, remember to keep it away from children and pets, and be cautious as it might cause irritation on your skin or mucous membranes if touched or inhaled!
What do ants eat?
It may seem like ants eat anything and everything, but that’s not true! Adult ants only eat liquids; they can’t digest solid foods. Larvae, on the other hand, can process solid foods into liquid form, and the queen feeds on that liquid. So to fully kill an entire colony of ants you need bait that is both liquid and solid so that the worker ants eat the liquids, and bring the solids back to the nest for the larvae and queen.
Directions:
For both the liquid and solid ant baits, you want to mix the borax or boric acid into the sugary bait in a 1 to 3 ratio.
I used maple syrup for the liquid bait, but honey would work just as well. Microwave the syrup (I used ¾ C) for a few seconds until warm. Then mix in your borax or boric acid (I used ¼ C). Stir until combined.
For the solid ant bait, mix the borax or boric acid in with powdered sugar (again I used ¾ C sugar and ¼ C of borax or boric acid). Stir well to make sure it’s completely mixed.
For ants in the kitchen, bathroom, or anywhere else in your home:
Go outside and find a trail of ants. Using a spoon, drop a big glob of the liquid mixture right onto the trail of ants. Even if the trail of ants goes up a wall, just drip some liquid down the wall on top of the ants. This ensures the ants can find the bait; if you drop it even just a few inches away, they might walk right past it on their way into your house! (See how the liquid on the white trim has ants all over it, but the liquid a few inches away on the wood fence post has no ants? The ant trail went up the white trim, not the wood post, so they didn’t even notice the bait on the wood!)
If you find an ant trail on the ground or any other horizontal surface, sprinkle some of the solid mixture a few inches away from the liquid glob. Alternating liquids and solids every few inches, drop each kind of bait onto the trail of ants two or three times.
Then find another trail of ants and repeat the process! Just make sure your globs of liquid are pretty big; otherwise they’ll evaporate too quickly before the ants can drink it all.
Within 20 minutes you should see tons of ants flocking to your liquids! Don’t worry if you don’t see a bunch of ants on the solid bait; they will carry pieces of it back to the nest for the larvae. After about three days the ants should be gone!
For ants in the garden:
If you have ants in your garden, do NOT drop the ant bait directly onto the soil! Borax and boric acid can act as herbicides and may harm your plants! Put the mixtures on tupperware lids and set those in your garden instead. As long as you’re careful when you water your plants, and you pick up the lids/bait before it rains, the ants can get to the bait but it won’t soak into the soil and harm your plants!
I’m so thrilled with how well this worked for the ants in our home and garden! It definitely works better than the store bought bait traps that we tried. How do you deal with ants in your home?
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Ondine says
can you explain why powdered sugar vs granulated sugar is recommended?
Jessi Wohlwend says
Powdered sugar is smaller, so it’s easier for ants to eat. The granulated sugar will work too, but the little pieces are big compared to an ant and it’s harder for them to eat it.
Lee says
f pancake syrup in a small olive container from salad bar with 3 slits enough for ants to get inI use boric acid bought at pharmacy 1 teaspoon to 3 teaspoons of sugar or boric acid 1teaspoon to 3 teaspoons o
Carol says
We have a brick letter box out the front and there must be a green ant nest under it. I put the borax (without anything else) around the base and down into the holes they use. 12 hours later (overnight) I saw just ONE ant (where previously there would have been 50). I will hose the leftover into the ground where the nest is so the birds don’t get it.
Warren says
will this work on carpenter ants?
Jessi Wohlwend says
Yep, borax is effective on pretty much every type of ant!
peter says
For the SOLID bait, the borax that i have is in granulated form (not powder). And you mentioned it to mix it with powdered sugar. Will it work? i have a feeling the borax will stand out from the powdered sugar and the ants might not touch it (the borax)
Jessi Wohlwend says
Hmm, you may need to grind it down a little with a mortar and pestle, or in a spice grinder or blender (or even just by hand with the back of a spoon.) It needs to be small enough that the ants can carry it back to the nest, but it’s ok if it’s not the exact same size as the powdered sugar.
Terri says
Will this same dry formula work for roaches, or do you suggest a different ratio? I have used the liquid as you described and it absolutely works on ants – thank you so much for your information and clear instructions!
Jessi Wohlwend says
Glad it worked for the ants! For roaches, the dry mix may still work, but it works a little differently. Borax will basically dehydrate the exoskeleton of the roach, so it just has to come into contact with the powder. The sugar in the mix might work as an attractant, but you can just also sprinkle borax if you have a place you know where they’re coming from. If they walk across the borax it will work; they don’t have to eat it.
Andre says
Hi, will this work for cutting ants?
Must the borax be ingested to kill the ants or will simply making contact do?
Thanks for your response.
Jessi Wohlwend says
It should! Borax actually works both ways: it dehydrates the ants either from making contact or being ingested. But we want them to want to eat it so they carry it back to the nest so that it reaches the queen and the rest of the ants in the nest.
Judy says
I saw your post here over a year ago and tried both methods in my bathroom where the ants were. Within minutes I had tons of ants! It was easy then to follow the trail. What a distance they traveled! For a couple days there were so many! Within about three days I didn’t see a single ant. It has been over a year and none have returned. This year I have them in my kitchen. I’m definitely going to use the same method again because it actually does work. Thank you so much!
Darlene Tuccillo says
I put the borax and sugar water mixture out and it worked great. But they seem to be all gone except I won’t see any for a long time and then randomly see one alone. I have had the bait out for 4 days now…is it attracting new ants?…should I just get rid of the baits now?
Jessi Wohlwend says
You can just get rid of the bait now, after a few days they don’t really come back to the same spot. If you see another ant trail or huge clump of them somewhere you can put another new set of bait down, but it’s probably done after four days.
m taylor says
Do you know does the powdered sugar borax mixture attract bees? I am trying to ants around my beehive but don’t want the bees to be poisoned.
Jessi Wohlwend says
Ah yeah, be careful around your beehive; borax is dangerous for bees just like it is for ants. In theory bees are more attracted to fragrant flowers that have evolved to be attractive to bees, but they could happen upon the sugar mixture if they are out foraging and there aren’t a ton of flowers around. You could try putting the mixture inside of a small plastic container with a lid, turn the container upside down, and cut a few small holes in the container so that ants can get in to the mixture but the bees can’t.
Michelle Marang says
Does it have to be powdered sugar? I have regular sugar. I have two HUGE fireant hills in the backyard. What do you suggest? Liquid and solid along the trails and near hill? Thx!
Jessi Wohlwend says
Regular sugar will work fine, it just doesn’t dissolve as quickly. You can put the liquid and solid bait anywhere you see a bunch of ants; I always put mine down right next to a big line of ants so I know they see it. It takes a while for the ants to take the bait back to the nest etc. but as long as they are finding the bait it will eventually work to get rid of them!
Sheryl says
The first time I tried borax I had ants in the kitchen and I tracked them coming up from under the kitchen sink. I put the bait down, within hours there were 10 times as many ants coming and going. Within a day and a half they were all gone and I haven’t had them back since. I’ve used it in my vegetable garden in a plastic container with holes, such as the ones strawberries and blueberries come in, set in the shade so it doesn’t dry out quickly. Seems to work well on regular ants
However, two weeks ago I started trying it around a fire ant mound in my vegetable garden. They weren’t coming near it. I had bait stations from the area of the mound up to four feet away, all the way around it. I thought perhaps it was too strong do I did the mixture with a lower borax ratio… still no interest. Last I tried the dry Borax with powdered sugar, no success. Today I got angry since it’s been over two weeks and I opened the top of the mound and dumped gallons of boiling hot water with vinegar in and around it. I’m sure it didn’t kill everything so they will be popped back up somewhere sometime soon. But these ants seriously had nothing to do with any form of mixture of borax, regardless of the ratio of sugar to borax, liquid or dry.
I’ll probably continue to use it for other ants in the garden. But this happens again I might need to try something other than sweet. Such as peanut butter. Since ants will eat meat and other insects, I wonder if I were to soak meat in borax sugar water, if the meat would soak up enough of the liquid to be effective.
Jessi Wohlwend says
Yep that’s what I would try! Fire ants are generally more attracted to proteins or greases, so putting the mixture in with some meat or bacon grease might work better than sugar for that type of ant. Glad it worked for the regular ants though!
Lynn says
For ants that aren’t attracted to sugary baits (like fire ants), you could also try mixing the borax with a little tuna fish, and put it in a narrow-mouthed glass container like a glass soda bottle so that pets/wildlife don’t get to it and it doesn’t wash into the soil. I would jam it (quickly & carefully) with the opening sideways, right down on the fire ant hill. Carpenter ants are nocturnal; look for their trails at night, going out of rotting tree trunks or (hopefully not) damper places in your house.
Janet says
Diatomaceous earth (DE) kills ants. I buy food grade DE from Amazon, along with a “puffer” to distribute it. The only potential hazard with DE is that you should not to breathe it when it is airborne – it is tiny particles of silica. Perhaps wearing a disposable face mask would prevent any hazards. (Though the hazard may not be too serious – being out in a dust storm would be analogous, I would think. But I’m not certain. Diatomaceous earth may be finer and more problemmatic than “regular” dust.) We use DE both inside and outside. We apply it one day, and the ants are gone the next day. Pets don’t have a desire to eat it because it doesn’t have an appealing smell. But they COULD eat it and it would be OK – people eat it for health purposes.
After a day or two we sweep up the excess. Presumably there is some DE that remains hidden at the interface of the wall and the floor, or in the concrete seams where we typically apply it outside. The remaining DE continues to work as a deterrent for the ants.
My understanding is that the tiny particles of silica are sharp. When ants and other insects walk through it, it cuts their exoskeleton and they die. It’s good to get it directly on the ants. But putting some along their trail or in the places where they come out works also. Presumably the ants have to go back down at the same place they came out, so they have to walk through it. Other ants coming out that same place will be killed also.
DE does not work after getting wet. It must be in dry powder form to work.
Very interesting post and replies. Thank you!
Jessi Wohlwend says
Diatomaceous earth works great to kill insects! (Exactly because of what you said, the particles are extremely sharp and they cut through the exoskeleton.) But for that same reason it can dangerous if it gets into your lungs. You’d have to breathe quite a lot of it to really do serious damage so if you wear a mask you’re fine, but at least for indoors we have two kitties, a puppy, and a curious toddler running around and I’d just prefer not to expose them to that. The only reason I chose this method instead of DE for our outdoor ant problem is that since it is food-based, the worker ants take it back to the nest; the queen is exposed as well even though she never leaves the nest, so it works really great to get rid of the entire colony!
Joanne says
I put the borax solution in yogurt or cottage cheese containers. I cut 3 or 4 holes in the walls of the container, near the bottom, but high enough that I can put the solution in. Put the lid on the container, and put the container where the ants are. It keeps dogs and rain out.
Jessi Wohlwend says
Smart! That’s a great idea!
Curious says
Is it normal for the ants to stay in the bait for a while?
I had put one under my sink in a small plastic cap. A mixture of borax and syrup. It looks like they’ve been there for two days now and I’m seeing that the bait is diminishing. I also added some dry bait (sugar and borax) next to it and that is still around. I feel that the ants have dissipated from the counters but just wondering if they’re just hanging out under the counter instead.
Jessi Wohlwend says
Yeah it’s totally normal for them to hang out in/around the bait for 2-3 days. I can always tell when my husband has put down the bait because all of the sudden every single ant in the entire house seems to flock to the one spot where the bait is! After a few days they should all disappear though.
Jess says
*then
Jess says
I read somewhere that you can use cornmeal for a savory type of mixture instead of powdered sugar. It did recommend to process the cornmeal down into a finer sugar like consistency ten mix with borax.
Vee says
Hi Jessi, do you know if I can use this method on ants in my edible plants pot ? I will put the bait outside, but the ants are in the soil in my big pot where all the herbs are. I am not sure if this will affect my plant/us, as we consume the leaves. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks
Jessi Wohlwend says
Hi Vee! You can definitely use this to kill ants near edible plants, but you need to be a bit careful, because borax is also used for killing weeds, and it can kill your garden and plants.
What you should do is put the borax/sugar mixture on a small plate or tupperware lid, and place that on the soil. You want it to be close enough to where the ants are that they will find it and eat it, but you don’t want any of the borax actually getting in the soil. And be careful when you water the plants too! Remove the plate of borax before watering, just to make sure none of the borax gets into the soil.
I have done this in my raised garden bed outside and it has worked great! It should work just fine in your pot as well, as long as you can get the borax mixture near the ants without actually getting any in the soil itself. Good luck with it!
Jen says
Check the weather for rain and remove the borax or you may kill your garden. Also, look around your yard for things that attract ants in the first place and remove them. I had wood for a fire pit stored on my deck for a couple of years in one of those metal and cloth holders. Just a small bundle of wood. I had exterminators come out (just found your blog) and they didn’t mention that was something ants liked. It wasn’t until we power washed the deck and moved the wood that I found the huge ant nest! I never saw ants around the area. Also, just recently I found ants in my garage. I had bags of soil conditioner left over from last year in my garden cart. The ants were nesting between the bags! The soil conditioner is now located on my driveway until I can use this season.
Kellee Rose says
Does the work on Carpenter ants?
Jessi Wohlwend says
We don’t have carpenter ants here, so I’m not sure. But it can’t hurt to try!
No more Fluff says
Tried this this afternoon and it honestly doesn’t work.
Jessi Wohlwend says
Usually it takes a day or two before the ants are interested in the bait, and then up to a week before the colony is gone. If you just put the bait out this afternoon, give it a little while before you give up!
Becky says
These ants are driving me MAD!!!! I have tried all the different recipes Ive found on web. I started off with syrup and borax, then powdered sugar and borax and finally I just did peanut butter and borax. I had only seen a few and now there are hundreds just getting a free meal! They seem to be multiplying! Its been about a week since I started with borax, and i seem to be doing a 1:2 ratio so I’m sure its not the strength. Please any advice. Thanks!! Oh BTW I’ve only found them inside and am treating inside along exterior walls. They are so tiny and Im scared to dig around outside looking for them. I truly have a bug phobia.
Jessi Wohlwend says
It does take a little while for the borax to work. At first the ants will definitely just multiply because they tell all their ant friends that there’s delicious food, and they all come in to eat it. It really depends how far away the colony is and how big it is, but you should start to see fewer ants soon! Just make sure you’re putting down a liquid and a solid version of the bait; the adults and the baby ants eat different foods so you want to make sure to get the borax to both of them.
Nan says
Using a stronger formula may be counter-productive. You want the worker ant to live long enough to take the bait back to the colony and share the food with all the others who do not forage. If your stronger formula kills the worker before he can complete the “sharing” process, you can’t kill the colony, and you can’t stop reproduction.
Susan W says
An alternative natural ant killer is baking soda. Mix it with icing sugar, not regular sugar. 1 part to 1 part. The ants love it and the baking soda is toxic to them. The reason for the icing sugar is that it blends well. With regular sugar, the ants can separate out the sugar from the soda.
Jeanne says
I made the syrup version, globbed it along the trails outside, and they seem to treat it more as an obstacle to go around, than an attractant. These are tiny black ants. Any ideas?
Jessi Wohlwend says
Hmm, weird. I’ve actually noticed something similar with different types of ants. The ants we had a few years ago really loved the sugary bait, but there seems to be new kind of ant this year that doesn’t care for the sugar; they prefer savory things. Maybe try putting the borax in peanut butter or something else like that that isn’t so sweet and see if those ants are more attracted to that kind of food.
Zella Harvey says
This sounds like a good idea to get rid of ants.
Jasmine says
I just started seeing tiny black ants in my bedroom. It happen when I left my coffee on the dresser. After I remove it and wiped down I don’t see them anymore until this morning when my husband left his powerade drink on the dresser. I don’t see the trail of the ants. Can I put the bait in the bathroom instead of the bedroom? Also with the garden can I place the bait all around the yard or only places that I see ants trail?
Jessi Wohlwend says
The bait works best if you place it near a trail of ants, because then you’re sure they’ll find the bait. The ants tend to forage in the same places, which is why they end up in trails like that. If you put the bait out somewhere where there aren’t a ton of ants, they may not find it.
Moira says
I have ants coming into my kitchen, but i think the nest is right outside underneath our patio. Our patio is where the pavers are on sand, someone told me that is an ant magnet. Anyway, is it ok to put the wet and dry versions right on the pavers where the ants are? It won’t hurt the pavers, right?
Jessi Wohlwend says
Yep, just put it right on the pavers! It definitely won’t hurt them.
Kara says
Does this work on red ants, too?
Jessi Wohlwend says
I haven’t had red ants in my yard and house so I can’t say for sure, but if they are attracted to sweet foods like most ants are, the borax will kill any type of pest as long as the ants ingest it!
Anne says
This really works! I had little black ants in my kitchen–in the sugar, in the honey pot, everywhere! The would not eat purchased ant bait. We could not find the trail outside; could not find the nest. I used the liquid form of this and put it on cotton balls placed in 2 or 3 places on my counter. I put the cotton balls on a jar lid for easy removal. Soon after I put out the cotton balls, they came! After 2 or 3 days I never saw another ant! This was about 4 months ago and they have never returned.
Jessi Wohlwend says
So glad to hear it worked so well for you!
Lola says
Sweet & Low kills the ants too! So I would use sweet and low instead of powdered sugar. Give em a double whammy!
Jessi Wohlwend says
Great idea!
aina sakina says
Hi! I am so glad I found this post.. Thank you so much for sharing.. In my house (I am from Malaysia), they go to our plain drinking water too! Ants drives me crazy!! Since I am living in an apartment, can I use your tips inside our home? Is it safe? I have a 15mth old baby..
Jessi Wohlwend says
Borax is harmful to humans and pets if they eat it, but it’s not harmful just to be in the same room with it. If you can put it somewhere where the baby can’t get at it for 3-4 days, then it’s perfectly safe to put it indoors! I would just put the mixture in a small dish so that you can easily clean it up later, and if you have any pets, make sure to put it somewhere they can’t reach it as well!
Renee says
I have 2 dogs and fire ants. Any suggestions for a pet safe solution?
Jessi Wohlwend says
Hmm, the only pet safe solutions I’ve tried (those little bait traps) didn’t work so well for us in our home. Is it possible for you to keep the dogs inside for a few days after you set out the borax mixture? If you set it outside on flat tupperware lids, it only takes 2-3 days for the ants to eat it, then you can pick up the lids and let the dogs back out. Or if there’s another way to keep them away from wherever you set the bait out, like if it’s on the other side of a fence or something, that could work. I wish I had a better answer for you!
Renee says
Thank you, I will try keeping them out. I can close the area off, I will make sure I can before I set out the trap.
Jessi Wohlwend says
Good luck with it Renee!
Kelly Edwards says
I used this in my yard, dog yard and the house. The ones I used in the dog yard I set a large wired dog crate up and set the borax mixtures in that and set it over the ant trails. TAADDAA!! the dogs can’t get to it and the ants can.. It works unless you have mischief dogs.. same in the house to keep the cats safe. I used the smallest cat crate I had and put the mixtures in there and closed it up and put it on and even helped the ants in the crate with a tiny bit of JUST sugar mixture. Works great!!
Jessi Wohlwend says
Super smart! I’ll have to try that because we have ants in the house again after all the rain last week!
Corinne from Florida says
You might try putting it in a clean, dry squeezable mayonnaise jar, laid on it’s side with the top open across an ant tail or near a colony. Maybe you could also put a bucket or something over it with something heavy on top. Ants are small enough to get in and out (for the other ones out foraging to get to the nest) but it should discourage your dogs for a couple of days. That’s what I’ve been planning to do anyway; I have the same problem and also have horses to deal with as well. The ants get in their food and I don’t like spraying with more toxic chemicals. I have used borax in both forms for years but if you don’t use it as a bait they just come back. Also there are some types of ants that go for protein so maybe the mayo smell might attract them as well. Also, I bought some borax (the chemical) at a dollar store (always the cheapest place to get it) but the nozzle keeps getting clogged up when you try to “puff” it, so I am planning on using a Parmesan cheese container (the kind that has the holes on one side of the lid) to make it easier to sprinkle it around where animals can’t get to it.
Corinne from Florida says
That’s ant “trail” not “tail”–although if you get it on their tail end I’m sure that would work too!
Jessi Wohlwend says
Smart idea about the parmesan cheese shaker!
Lynn says
Try one of those ketchup or mustard refillable containers with the long conical tip for squeezing into crevices
Bonnie says
Give dogs milk if they eat the cotton ball. It really won’t hurt the animals.
Do not induce vomiting.
Found it on Borax box.
Ann says
Try using those clam shell containers like what you get from the grocery store that strawberries / berries come in. They have holes in the sides so the ants can get in but pets (or birds) can`t.
Courtenay @ The Creek Line House says
One of my favorite tricks ever for sure! I’ve used a similar recipe in my living room and was so amazed at how quickly all those ants were gone!
Gwen says
What a great way to deal with those suckers! I’ll have to try it out!
Rachel Rockwell says
Gotta love Borax! It’s great for so many things. I need to try this recipe next time the ants come marching in!
Julie V. says
Thanks for the liquid vs solid information.
When I did liquid bait, I put it on pieces of plastic wrap to make it easier to clean up. I have since taken to using dry bait at a resurgence of ants, but now will try using both since I now know better 🙂
Jessi Wohlwend says
Good luck with it Julie!
Zella Harvey says
what was the measurements for the ingredients again?
Jessi Wohlwend says
It’s a 1:3 ratio of borax to sugar (for both liquid and solid). So 1 part borax and three parts syrup or sugar or honey; it doesn’t matter what measurement you use as long as it’s consistent, like 1 teaspoon borax and 3 teaspoons syrup, or 1 cup borax and 3 cups syrup. But I used 1/4 cup borax and 3/4 cup syrup and it was plenty to do indoors and outdoors; you probably don’t need more than that!
Lisa says
can I use corn syrup?
Jessi Wohlwend says
I haven’t tried it but it should work. Anything sweet should attract them.
Patty says
What is your dry bate
keri @ shaken together says
So glad I found this post, Jessi – the ant hills in Florida need their own address!
Ace says
We are currently having a bit of an ant problem, what with the changing seasons and all that. This is a really helpful article for our situation! Thank you very much