Homemade Ant Trap

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Making a homemade ant trap is a quick and effective way to get rid of ants inside your home.

During the spring and summer months ants seem to appear out of nowhere, marching across your floors in search of an easy meal.

The sight of few ants probably means there are many more you cant's see, or just haven't noticed.

Ants are more than just an eyesore giving you that "creepy crawly" feeling....they can invade pantry food, cookie jars and ruin food items laying on your counter like apples or other fruits.

There are a lot of different homemade mixtures you can spray on the ants such as a 50/50 solution of water and white vinegar, or using essential oils like tea tree oil or peppermint extract.

However, using a homemade spray won't solve your ant problem because you'll only be killing the ants you see.

It's the colony or nest you can't see that's the problem.

In order to successfully get rid of an ant infestation, you need to target the colony and the queen.

So how do you find the queen?

You don't......you let the ants do the work for you!

That's right, the ants will eat the bait and take it back to the colony where it's dispersed to all the other ants, including the queen.

Since the queen ant never leaves the nest, she relies on the worker ants to bring the food back to the nest while she lays eggs.

This trap uses the ants natural instincts to actually take the bait back to the nest, eliminating the entire problem.

Making A Homemade Ant Trap

This homemade ant trap works great!

I've used it several times and it's always eliminated the ant problem inside my house.

The trap uses 3 simple ingredients:

2 Tablespoons of Borax
1 Cup of Sugar
1 Cup of Water

Borax is a laundry detergent booster and multi-purpose household cleaner.

You can purchase it at your local department or grocery store for about $4.50 for a large box capable of making several years of ant traps.

Here's the secret when using Borax.....only use 2 tablespoons.

If you add too much, you'll kill the ants before they make it back to the nest, defeating the purpose.

If you start noticing a lot of dead ants around your homemade trap, you'll know you need to reduce the amount of Borax.

I've found 2 tablespoons is the perfect amount.

Combine the ingredients into a small pot and heat them over the stove to help dissolve the sugar and Borax.

Once fully dissolved and cooled, pour your homemade bait into small jar lids, pop bottle caps, water bottle caps or anything else that's small and will hold the liquid.

It doesn't take a lot and it's best to use several traps.

You can also soak a cotton ball or makeup removal pads into the solution.

Once saturated, set the cotton ball or pad on a piece of wax paper or tinfoil and it's ready to be set out for the ants.

Where To Set Your Homemade Trap

For best results, set the traps in the areas where you've noticed ants.

If you look carefully, you should see a spot where all of the ants are traveling in a line.....almost like an ant highway.

This ant highway leads to the nest. Place your trap near this travel way and let the trap do the rest!

DO NOT kill the ants you see on the ant highway.

I know it's hard....and even gross.....but you need these ants to take the bait back to the nest.

After about 24 hours a vast majority (if not all) the ants will be dead and you won't see them anymore at your bait.

I like to leave the bait out for about 3 days to make sure the problem is completely gone.

If you have pets, I don't recommend setting the bait in a location where your pet has access to it.

Since it's basically sugar water with a little Borax, a pet might be tempted to consume it.

Just keep your pet out of the room for a day, or set the trap in an elevated location if the ants can still find it.