Kelly's Korner - And the Ants Go Marching Two by Two.....

Hey, All!

Well, I am back from my staycation all rested and refreshed!  The weather didn't cooperate as much as I would have liked but I did get a lot done inside.

My #1 son and I spent two days (at our pace which included lots of breaks lol!) cleaning, scrubbing and reorganizing the kitchen.  It looks so nice!  But the next morning after all this cleaning I come in and there are ANTS!!!!!!  All over the counters that I had scrubbed and disinfected with both Mr Clean AND bleach!!!!  What the ?????

So I got out the ingredients and whipped up a batch of my ant bait and put it out and within 24 hours they were gone.  If my loyal followers remember, I had a blog last year about this.  Newcomers, and if you don't remember, click on the link for the information.  This recipe will make way more than you need as you don't need to put out but a spoonful, but you can share it with friends and keep it in the refrigerator well marked for any other infestations you may have.

Now what does this have to do with appliances?  Well, those ants like nice warm places to nest and will get into your appliances.  In fact, the #1 son's girlfriend came over for the weekend and said she had them in her microwave at home.  So I sent her home Sunday with some of the super duper ant killer to put out.

Please remember to keep this out of the reach of children and pets, and may you have an ant free summer!

Have a great week!

Kelly's Korner - Homemade Ant Bait

Hey, All!

I don't know about you and the area you are in, but we've had some really mild winters here in  beautiful Portland and it is not killing off some of the insect population.  These little buggers can get into your appliances looking for crumbs and water and some place warm during the winter.

My house and some of the girls that work with me were getting inundated by those little bitty sugar ants (I know there is probably a scientific name for them but to me the are just a pain in the behind!) so I started looking online for some homemade recipes to get rid of the little buggers!  This is the recipe that I found and it works wonderfully - and the recipe makes enough to share with friends and neighbors.

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar
1 cup water
2 tablespoons Borax (you should have some of this on hand from your homemade laundry soap recipe I posted a couple of weeks ago.

Boil water, remove from heat and dissolve sugar in it.  Do not keep boiling the syrup - it will get hard and won't work, you want to keep it syrupy so they can drink it.  Add Borax.

I have mine in a jelly jar with a lid on it and marked as ANT BAIT - DO NOT DRINK!!! and keep it in the refrigerator.  This recipe makes lots so share it. 

Clean the area(s) you see the ants in thoroughly (vinegar works well) then place a few drops of the bait on a flat lid or piece of plastic (I use a canning lid - you want to make sure the little monsters can get up to the bait) then put it where they are congregating.  It may take a day or two for the creepies to disappear but they will.  Just be careful to not let pets and small children near it.

I have also heard that ants like protein in the spring.  So if you mix about a 1/2 teaspoon of Borax with a glob of peanut butter and put it where the ants are (again, away from children and pets!) they should gobble that up, take it back to their nest and die.

Have a pest free week!