Tip of the Week

The ladybug you picture is the Asian ladybug which is itself a pest, and I have read that this kind of ladybug doesn't even eat aphids.

For ants in your home mix equal parts of Borax [also known as sodium borate or sodium tetraborate] with sugar. Place on a paper plate or a piece of paper and put around the edges of your room. Thin slices of cucumber can also be placed on the mixture. Keep out of reach of children and pets. [If necessary put behind or under furniture].

The cucumber and sugar will attract the ants. The Borax sugar mixture will be gathered by the foraging ants as food and brought back to the nest. The poison is then inadvertently spread to other colony members and therefore invades the ant colony.

This works!

Can you use the borax/sugar mixture for ants outside the home?

I once tried cornmeal to take care of ants. The idea is they eat the cornmeal, search for water then die as the cornmeal expands. They take it to the nest and the same thing happens. Only problem is that they invited a half-million of their hungry cousins to dinner at my house first! Won't try that again.

Mix 3 teaspoons sugar, 6 teaspoons water, 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch and 1 teaspoon borax or boric acid. Soak cotton balls in mixture and place where ants appear. The saturated cotton ball will dry very hard so don't place on surfaces you can't scrub, or protect surface with a bit of foil.

In a drought again this year and the ant invasions are relentless. They must be in the walls of my house as they will come out from behind light switches, vent covers, and many other random places. I put diatomaceous earth along the foundation in the crawl space and outside but it doesn't last outside (we have had some rain). I've been told to try to find the entry points and use silicone caulk. At this point, my friends think I'm nuts for not calling an exterminator!

I read that you can use pre-chewed bubble gum. They eat it and get their mouths gummed up. haven't tried it yet, though.