There’s plenty of critters out there that cause problems… one of our biggest is ants. They like to scrape the waxy skin off the cactus to get the sweet sap the leaves have locked behind all those calcium-walled cells.
I use Boric acid in the house. It is pretty benign… I worked with toxic chemicals for a living for many years… I really don’t like toxins…. so I go for the most benign I can find. And boric acid is my fave for ant control…. my recipe is…
3 cups water, bring to a boil
1 cup sugar, dissolve in the boiling water
4 teaspoons boric acid powder, dissolve in the sugar water
Allow it to cool, then pour it onto cotton balls in little cups, leave it out. The ants wil come to it and eat the sugar and carry it back to the nest to feed the Queen and babies. It takes a couple of days for it to kill them at that concentration. You want them to take it back and kill the whole nest. So don’t make it stronger to get a faster kill. One lady I know couldn’t stand the thought that she was ‘feeding’ ants.. she told me her dishes were covered black with ants going for the sugar/boric acid mix. She worried she was helping them, so she threw out the formula, and went and bought some spray. But with the sprays you have toxins all through your home, and it only kills the workers out to roam… it doesn’t get the Queen. Our boric acid formula will likely help you kill that Queen and stop all ant-issues right then and there…. until another wandering fertile Queen wanders in with some followers.
Some ants don’t want sugar, they might want proteins, so then try to mix the powder with the food they want (cat or dog food or pie). It’s harder to get the correct ratio then, but try, it’s worth the fight.
Go to http://safeandgreenliving.blogspot.com/2009/05/natural-ant-deterrent-tips.html for some more tips on ant control.
Or to ‘About.com’ for their article ‘Get Rid of Ants Cheaply and Naturally’