Ant Retardent breakthrough

[The Snark]

In my ceaseless battle to not become invertebrate food I think I have discovered a non pesticide formula that ants loathe and won't touch.
2 tablespoons Dettol. Very similar to Pine Sol<tm> cleanser.
1 tablespoon dish washing liquid
1 tablespoon ascorbic or citric acid powder (pure).
1/2 quart water.
Mix and put in spray bottle. When sprayed on surfaces it leaves a slightly tacky film. So far all varieties of ants refuse to cross this film. After two weeks it remains effective. It doesn't stain and can be wiped up pretty easily with a damp rag.

If anyone is interested and tries this out I would very much like to hear what results you have.

 

[Travis K]

What about Boric Acid?

 

[The Snark]

What about Boric Acid?

You could try it. I have found that it requires a pretty strong and persistent acid to scramble their scent/trail system. Maybe a weaker acid like boric would work if it is held in place by the detergents. ???
So far, 10 days and no ant trails returning. I can live with that kind of results.

 

[MrCrackerpants]

I use http://www.terro.com/products.php?product=liquid_ant_bait

http://www.terro.com/faq-ants.php

Terro can be used safely around pets and children. The inert ingredients are sweet food-based products similar to pancake syrup. The active ingredient is Borax. Borax is a natural mineral that is found in many consumer products and has been used safely by homeowners for years.

It is cheap, very safe and always works on ant colony species with a single queen that are non-carnivorous.

 

[The Snark]

Yes, the ant bait works quite well on the north American black 'sweet and grease eating' ants. I've made similar compounds that have also been effective on them using sodium carbonate and or diatomaceous earth as the active ingredient and corn syrup or corn flour as bait. Unfortunately the ant colonies in Asia and most if not all people biting ants are unaffected and or uninterested in it. The colonies here also have multiple queens. (I wonder why that works into the equation???) The ants here also avoid/ignore ant chalk and poisonous ant baits.

My suggestion is to use Terro or similar by all means if it is effective. My above concoction is more along the lines of napalm. The biggest problem experienced is the tiny red ants (aside from them biting like furies). They start colonies anywhere and for reasons unknown like electrical appliances. Printed circuit boards and electric motors quickly get corroded by their formic acid. If one isn't constantly vigilant you can kiss off that microwave oven or washing machine or whatever and it only takes the ants a few days to turn appliances into short circuited junk.

 

[billopelma]

So they don't like vitamin C or sour patch kids? interesting...

 

[The Snark]

It's not the vitamin C but the acid. Ants communicate entirely by smell and the paths they follow are marked by their formic acid. Adding a different acid that is pervasive scrambles their senses. The human equivalent would be you drive down the road until you see a large yellow sign then turn right. Then suddenly everything in sight gets painted yellow.