Ant Killer and Aphid Update

Carpenter Ants going to Homemade Boric Acid Mixture.

A couple of weeks ago I put out some homemade ant killer (Borax mixed with honey and splenda) and it is time to report on my results. The first set of ants were tending aphids on my lima beans. The limas were so stunted that they had stopped growing. To control aphids I put out yellow bowls filled with water with a drop of dish detergent in each. Flying aphids are attracted to the color yellow and drown in the water. The water mixture attracted and killed a lot of aphids and other insects, notably wasps. I simply squashed the non flying aphids that were attached to the plants.

The ants were immediately attracted to the pill bottle containing the mixture. You could tell that many of them were dying right in the bottle, however they were still bothering the plants. I was wondering if this was going to work, and yes over time I noticed less and less ant activity on the plants,and more activity in the pill bottle, until low and behold my lima plants recovered and began to grow again! The mixture did kill ants and it also got the ants attracted away from my plants enough for them to recover.

The second set of ants are carpenter ants going into our attic! Yikes! I put out the same borax mixture (no need to measure anything, just make a thick paste) in pill bottles and placed them along a lower fence rail they were using for their highway to our attic. Ants did go into the bottles, but mostly ignored them. They did not get all excited and swarm the bottles like the ants in my garden. I kept checking and there did seam to be a reduction in numbers of ants going in and out of the attic, however I wasn't too sure it had anything to do with my mixture. This morning I noticed a mass moving day of the ants from the attic of the house, over to the attic of our detached garage! Gerrrrrr! I mixed up more borax, honey, splenda and this time applied dollops of it directly on the fence rail ant highway. The picture above shows the ants after just a few minutes! Stay tuned.......