Here is the Midwest you have a certain tolerance to common pests. Spring and summer weather brings ants, bees and mosquitoes and you prepare yourself with products that will help you survive along side them with some degree of comfort. So, when I saw a few ants on my floor I smashed them and nodded my head in acceptance. But imagine the horror when my son called out to me because there were tiny black ants crawling onto his plate in my kitchen! I got down at eye level with the black counter top I saw a whole ant platoon! I freaked. I tried to see if they were making a trail or coming from a particular spot but they were just running around making mayhem with no determinable order.
The rest of the day every tiny millimeter of my body felt like it had ants crawling on it. And god forbid a bit of dust or hair fell onto my arm…I would swat and rub furiously thinking there were ants crawling on me. It was awful. Have you seen those Killer Ant shows on the nature networks?? I was having visions of my 11 year old being carried away in his sleep!
But I digress . . . the ants were near the stove area in our kitchen. I could not just put bug killer down where we store, prepare and consume our food, so here is what I did to get rid of the ants in the kitchen using natural methods. We still had some old Easter Eggs around and these particular eggs had holes in the ends (for ventilation? I don’t know). But I knew that I needed to make a natural ant trap that would be safe around the kids and the dog so these eggs came to mind. I thought that they would make perfect Overnight Ant Bombs.
Ant Bomb One Recipe
I made a deadly solution of honey and borax dissolved in water because ants LOVE anything sticky and sweet and the borax kills them (but will not damage a person’s neurological system like the chemical sprays). I soaked some tissue paper in the solution, put it inside the eggs and then left these bombs in places where I spotted ants. There is no strict amount of ingredients. I used about a Tablespoon of Honey and 2 Tbsp of Borax dissolved in approx. 1/2 cup warm water.
This is what I found the next day . . .
Ant Bomb 2 Recipe
The next Ant Bombs I made were the same Easter Eggs with holes in them filled with Grits. Cornmeal/ grits is a powerful, natural ant killer because ants love this sweet grain and when they eat it, it expands too quickly in their stomachs and blows them up (Essentially). They take the grits from the egg bombs and deliver it to the Queens and the colony which is promptly destroyed from the inside out!
Ant Repellent & Deterrent Bomb
I am armed and ready to fill more of these eggs with cinnamon, mint, assorted dried peppers, and garlic. Just put these strong smelling scents wherever the ants might have a way into your home and they will run the other direction!
Do you have any other natural solutions that you have tried to get rid of ants? I would love to hear them because this battle will continue all summer long.
Karen @TheMissingNiche
Thank you!!! I love these! They are great and my husband won’t say I am poisoning the family by spraying!!
Sherrie W.
haha – I love how you are experimenting with ant bombs! Who would have thought old Easter eggs would come in so handy! I wonder if they’ll also work on cockroaches, which is what I get in my crowded NYC apartment …. 😉
Marsha C Potter
Sprinkle boric acid(a white powder) on floor, close to walls and anywhere you see them much. It will take a while, but they will get this powder on their feet & legs, carry it back to the nest & errode their armor & they will die of exposure.