- Joined
- Aug 8, 2005
- Messages
- 11,598
This seems to work but the proportions are very fussy, as are the ants. A combination of one of the more odoriferous honeys, baking soda and water deployed with a sprayer.
The basics are simple, few ants can resist honey. An integral function in virtually all ants utilizes formic acid. Neutralizing the acid likes them semi blind them and can bring their digestion to a halt. So the proportions of water, honey and soda are critical and evaporation eventually causes them to ignore the bait.
It appears we have the ideal ants to experiment with here. Red ants just slightly larger than the common sweet and grease eating ants in the US. These have driven off or killed the other 20 or 30 species we usually have. These ants are primarily lone foragers, only loosely following trails so targeting ant trails doesn't work very effectively.
Barring continuously spraying them where ever they are found the plan it to apply the solution where it remains effective, appetizing as long as possible with contaminated ants managing to get back to the nests.
Anyone else care to experiment? My too watery most recent solution is 1/2 tablespoon soda and five tablespoons of honey in 3/4 liter of water. Effective for less than 10 minutes. Supposedly it only takes a few micrograms of soda on an ants mandibles to take it out of the gene pool.
The basics are simple, few ants can resist honey. An integral function in virtually all ants utilizes formic acid. Neutralizing the acid likes them semi blind them and can bring their digestion to a halt. So the proportions of water, honey and soda are critical and evaporation eventually causes them to ignore the bait.
It appears we have the ideal ants to experiment with here. Red ants just slightly larger than the common sweet and grease eating ants in the US. These have driven off or killed the other 20 or 30 species we usually have. These ants are primarily lone foragers, only loosely following trails so targeting ant trails doesn't work very effectively.
Barring continuously spraying them where ever they are found the plan it to apply the solution where it remains effective, appetizing as long as possible with contaminated ants managing to get back to the nests.
Anyone else care to experiment? My too watery most recent solution is 1/2 tablespoon soda and five tablespoons of honey in 3/4 liter of water. Effective for less than 10 minutes. Supposedly it only takes a few micrograms of soda on an ants mandibles to take it out of the gene pool.