| A: This recipe for a homemade ant hotel is an excellent-the ants line up in rows to get into it. In a bowl, mix one cup borax, one cup sugar, and three cups water. Place a loose wad of toilet paper into four different screw-top jars that are about the size of shallow marinated artichoke jars. Pour the mixture into the jars until it is about one inch from the top. Screw the lids on the jars, and with a hammer and nail, make four to eight holes in the lid. Place the jars in areas where you have ants (but keep away from children), and watch them line up in rows to march in. This ant trap will catch the workers but not the queen. A more comprehensive solution is to blend 1/4 cup of confectioner's sugar and one tablespoon of borax and sprinkle it in ant traffic areas. There is not enough borax with this method to kill the worker ants immediately, so they take it back to the nest, ultimately eradicating it. (If the worker ants do die at the powder, cut back on the borax.) Do not place the poison anywhere that children or pets could ingest it. |