Various insects cause a lot of trouble for gardeners, but many ways to combat them have been invented. To quickly get rid of ants on your property, you can use special pesticides, but there are safer methods.
One such example is boric acid, which will allow you to quickly cleanse your garden of annoying insects without overloading the soil and plantings with unnecessary “chemicals.” How to effectively remove ants using boric acid solutions, as well as the proportions and recipes for using similar compositions are described in the information in this article.
Properties of boric acid and principle of action
White powder is one of the most effective, safe for humans remedies against garden ants. Its antibacterial, disinfectant properties help quickly destroy entire populations of insects. Boric acid has a pronounced versatile effect. Entering their body through the intestinal contact route, the substance begins to corrode the digestive organs of the pests. In addition, the powder causes severe dehydration in the ants.
Dry baits act as a contact and intestinal insecticide. In this case, products with a liquid consistency serve exclusively as intestinal poison. To prepare dry baits, the powder is mixed with sugar. The poison spreads throughout the peripheral nervous system, leading to its dysfunction, resulting in paralysis. The death of insects occurs a couple of hours after contact with a toxic substance.
In addition to the described effects, the product also has an effect on the reproductive system of insects: it has a sterilizing effect and significantly reduces the population, leading to the natural extinction of pests. There are many options for using acid, but an important universal requirement is to maintain a poison concentration above the norm (2%). At the same time, the insect manages to bring the poison to the anthill without dying very quickly, due to which more individuals die.
The fight against ants in a summer cottage or garden involves the use of dry baits, which are scattered in a thin layer both in areas where pests accumulate and on the paths along which they move. Boric acid is also used to prepare solutions and liquid slurries, which are placed in saucers and serve as bait for pests.
For maximum effectiveness in the fight against annoying insects, it is important where the poison will be located in the garden. As a rule, in the garden, poison is placed in close proximity to anthills or next to ant paths. In addition, the preparation can be used to treat the trunks of fruit trees loved by insects.
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What you need to know about garden ants
The ants themselves in the garden are beneficial, by the way. But many species of ants feed on honeydew, which is secreted by aphids that feed on plants. Ants protect aphids from other predators, such as ladybugs, to provide a reliable food source. Increased aphid activity in your garden, especially when they have bodyguards, can have disastrous consequences for plant life, as aphids can move unhindered through your garden, sucking all the juices out of your plants.
Before you turn into Rambo and unleash righteous fury on the unsuspecting ants in your garden, ask yourself these questions:
- Are they in an isolated area of my garden?
- Are they a threat to me or my family?
- Are they threatening my home?
There is no need to fight just for the sake of fighting. Now that the moralizing is taken care of, let's get down to business. A fairly simple and effective way to get rid of ants is to spread baits with boric acid. Boric acid can be found at your pharmacy as an ingredient in some medications, including eye drops. You can also find boric acid powder in the fertilizer section of large garden centers. We will be happy to tell you how to make an effective remedy against garden ants from boric acid powder.
How to dilute boric acid from ants
You can use the powder to prepare a solution against pests such as ants or aphids. The difficulty can only be caused by the poor solubility of the crystals in water, and the product must be absolutely homogeneous. However, if you know certain tricks, you can easily and quickly prepare ant poison. The recipe with water and sugar looks like this:
- pour a glass of hot water into a small container, in which 5 g of boric acid is dissolved;
- pour 2 tbsp here. l. sugar, mix thoroughly;
- the volume of liquid is adjusted to 500 ml with an additional glass of water;
- water the anthill with a sweet solution at night or late in the evening, when the insects are “at home”;
- To enhance the effect, additionally leave flat dishes with syrup next to the ant trails in the garden (you can use seaming lids, saucers, etc.).
Reasons for the appearance of ants in the apartment
Ants are quite hardworking living creatures that are useful, but when they appear in a person’s home, ants become harmful creatures. In nature, ants can be found everywhere, and in fairly dirty places, such as trash cans, various landfills, etc. Moving into human housing, they carry pathogens of various ailments on their paws. When they appear in an apartment, they can be found in various bulk food products, which does not bring much joy to the residents.
Ants are attracted to a person’s home by a number of factors, such as:
- The presence of bread crumbs, spilled tea, compote, jam or honey on the dining table.
- Storing bulk food products in accessible form.
- The apartment is warm and humid.
- Free access to water.
- The ants wait out the winter in the apartment.
Good to know! Determining the place where the ants' nest is located is not at all difficult. As a rule, a living path of ants stretches from food to the nest, carrying food to the nest for their relatives. The task is also simplified because these insects are diurnal and rest at night.
Dry bait
To prepare them, the powder is mixed with sugar, after which the dry bait is scattered along ant paths and places of increased pest accumulation (near fruit crops, anthills). The dry poison acts somewhat slower than the solution, but is very effective. After just a week, there will be almost no insects left in the garden, and within a month they will disappear completely.
Prevention at home
- Clean the house, take care of the trash can.
- Keep the table clean and do not leave crumbs or food behind.
- Keeping the bags tightly closed is what interests the ants most.
- Always take out the trash.
- If you have an animal at home, do not leave food in the cup all the time.
An important factor in exterminating ants is that the entire entrance or house must be eliminated. If there are a lot of ant families, then they will eventually come to you. Of course, you can use expensive insecticides, but they evaporate, which can lead to poisoning, and if you have pets, this is not permissible. And although the product will be advertised, the effectiveness of destruction is zero.
10 ways to get rid of ants in the garden
Meat balls made from acid and minced meat
To attract insects to the poison, it must be made tasty and aromatic; for this purpose, minced meat is added to the main component. The following recipe helps to remove ants from the garden:
- 4 tbsp. l. minced meat is mixed with acid (10 g), a pinch of salt;
- mix the mass thoroughly, divide into small lumps;
- the latter are distributed near the pests' home.
Meat is a delicacy for ants, so they will quickly eat the poisoned balls. After a few days, the number of pests will sharply decrease and continue to decline until they completely disappear from the garden.
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.
Multi-component bait with potatoes and eggs
This is another very effective way to poison pests. Insect bait made from boric acid and potatoes will help in a matter of days to get rid of insects that are annoying in the garden. Egg poison is prepared as follows:
- boil a couple of large potatoes;
- puree mixed with 2 boiled yolks, 1 tbsp. l. sugar, 20 g of the drug;
- small balls are made from the resulting mass, which are laid out next to the ant paths and near the anthill.
Beer trap
Ants will never refuse alcoholic drinks, so beer can serve as an excellent bait. To get rid of pests in your garden, you need to:
- 1 tbsp. l. yeast pour 4 tbsp. l. warm water;
- add 1 tbsp. l. jam and the same amount of white powder;
- Stir the mixture and pour into several small saucers, which are then placed next to anthills and other places where insects accumulate.
How to prevent infection again?
No one is immune from the appearance of impudent ants in the house, but if you follow certain rules and conditions, you may never see them or prevent re-infestation.
What is needed for this?
- Firstly, you probably guess that ants come to your house in search of food, and therefore you must always wipe off crumbs from the table, stains from cooked food (especially sweet ones) and throw out garbage in a timely manner.
- You should also not leave unwashed dishes in the sink for a long time, because they contain leftovers from your lunch or dinner.
- Don’t forget that pets also have the right to cleanliness, and if you try to keep your furry pet’s bowl clean, you will protect your home from insects. Uneaten food, porridge, etc. – all these gifts from your cat or dog will appeal to the ants.
- And be sure to store food in closed cabinets, boxes and bags (especially sweets). And if you notice the first signs of the appearance of ants, immediately take measures to exterminate them.
