On Jul 11, 3:44*pm, (Malcolm Hoar) wrote:
In article , RicodJour wrote:

On Jul 11, 3:19=A0pm, "Steve B" wrote:
Can someone give me the short answer on using them as insecticides?

I tried the grits thing, and they either ate it or ignored it. =A0The ant=
s and
hills are still there.

Mix the boric acid with some sugar water, maple syrup or other sugary
liquid, and put it on a cotton ball and stick that in their path.

The proportions of boric acid and sugar are rather important.
At least, it seems that way with the ants around here.

Too much borac acid and the ants won't take it. Too little
and it ain't gonna kill the colony.

The Terro liquid ant baits work better than anything else
I have been able to make or buy commerically. My local ants
love that stuff and although it may take a few days, it does
wipe out the nest.

Since the OP didn't ask, I didn't mention it, but I second the Terro
recommendation. I had a friend that was trying to deal with a nasty
carpenter ant infestation and was using those small, useless plastic
white-flower-looking ant baits. The ants totally ignored the things
and the traps had been in place for weeks with no effect.

I recommended the Terro traps and offered to help. The Borg didn't
carry the Terro liquid, but a local hardware store did. One day later
the traps were full of carpenter ants. Two days later there were even
more ants feasting. Third day - no ants at all.

As another person posted, the boric acid is good for spritzing dry
into crevices and along sill plates and such.

R