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Homemade Ant Killer That Won't Harm Domestic Animals
Homemade Ant Killer That Won't Harm Domestic Animals. Ants are typically unwelcome guests in the home and out on the lawn. Unfortunately, they are common all across the country and they exist in large numbers. Countless ant killing pesticides are on the market, and if you have domestic animals and pets, you are concerned with the safety of these...
Ants are typically unwelcome guests in the home and out on the lawn. Unfortunately, they are common all across the country and they exist in large numbers. Countless ant killing pesticides are on the market, and if you have domestic animals and pets, you are concerned with the safety of these products. You can, however, kill ants using homemade remedies that will be safe to use around your animals.
Sprays
Mix an ant-killing solution using common household items that will kill ants on contact and repel then from the areas they frequent in your home.
Fill an empty spray bottle half full with apple cider vinegar and fill it the rest of the way with water. Shake the bottle well and spray areas where you commonly see ants. The smell of the solution will mask their trail and confuse the ants, and direct contact with the mixture can kill them.
Mix a small squirt of dish washing liquid with water in a spray bottle to mask the trail and kill ants on contact as well, according to the Tipnut website.
Borax Bait
The idea behind ant bait is to get one or more of the ants to live long enough to take the poison back the colony to share the poison. Accomplish this feat by making borax bait, according to the Garden Guides website.
Ants love to feed on sugar and protein. This bait has plenty of both. Mix 3 cups of sugar with 1 cup of borax. Borax is a laundry detergent product containing boric acid. Add enough water to the mixture to form a thin paste and stir in 2 tsp. peanut butter. You have ant bait.
Place the bait in a jar or other container with a lid and poke holes large enough for ants to crawl into in the lids. The ants will be lured by the smell, go into the holes, have a snack and carry some back to share with the others. Meanwhile, your animals will not be able to get to the bait.
Boil Them Out
Outdoor ants eventually try to get indoors, so it is a good idea to stop them before they get there. Search your lawn for anthills and lines of marching ants you can follow to the colony.
Once you find the ant’s base of operations, you can quickly take care of a large number of them using water, according to the Tipnut website. Boil 1 gallon of water in a pot with sturdy handles. When the water reaches a rolling boil, add a squirt of dish washing soap to the water and use a safe means of picking up the pot and carrying it immediately to the site of the ant colony.
Carefully pour the boiling liquid into the top of the anthill. You should see an opening where the ants go in and out. Try to get the water into the hole and the surrounding dirt. Pour all of it on the site to kill a large number of ants instantly.
