Comments on: Killer ants http://rogerbourland.com/blog/2008/09/27/killer-ants/ Roger Bourland writes about music and life Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:52:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Brad Wood http://rogerbourland.com/blog/2008/09/27/killer-ants/#comment-88051 Brad Wood Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:05:13 +0000 http://rogerbourland.com/blog/2008/09/27/killer-ants/#comment-88051 I haven't had an infestation of ants for a few seasons now, but I was surprised to find that boric acid powder, a remarkably low-toxicity substance to us, does slowly but effectively wipe out ant populations. It has long been known to be good on roaches and silverfish, although again it is fairly slow-acting, but the ants are much hardier. The secret is to put trails of fresh powder down where they will have to track through it, and then carry it back to the nest eventually. It takes a while, and you don't have the satisfaction of seeing throes of bugs writhing in fits from highly toxic malodorous sprays and such. But I found it did work eventually. After a while the powder agglomerates and doesn't stick to their little manders, and has to be renewed. OTOH having inaccessible carcasses stripped of putrid flesh is a nice service! I haven’t had an infestation of ants for a few seasons now, but I was surprised to find that boric acid powder, a remarkably low-toxicity substance to us, does slowly but effectively wipe out ant populations. It has long been known to be good on roaches and silverfish, although again it is fairly slow-acting, but the ants are much hardier.

The secret is to put trails of fresh powder down where they will have to track through it, and then carry it back to the nest eventually. It takes a while, and you don’t have the satisfaction of seeing throes of bugs writhing in fits from highly toxic malodorous sprays and such. But I found it did work eventually.

After a while the powder agglomerates and doesn’t stick to their little manders, and has to be renewed.

OTOH having inaccessible carcasses stripped of putrid flesh is a nice service!

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