Nontoxic ant repellent for home interiors
Last year when I posted about our ant problem, a friend of mine posted her suggestion for ridding our living area of ants. Baby powder.Baby powder? No way. I was so skeptical, I never tried it. But this year rolled around and the boys had so many ants crawling on the ceiling and walls around their beds, the big black yucky ant kind, that I needed a nontoxic repellent to eradicate ants since it was in their sleeping area. I remembered her suggestion and decided it was worth a shot. The worst it would do is make the house smell like a clean baby's butt.
So I went around and puffed baby powder along the wall, floor, and ceiling cracks where we had ants and beyond, and watched and waited.
Within 24 hours, we saw a 99% reduction in ants! The day before I applied the powder, the kids counted the killing tally and within an hour were in the 30s. The next day I saw one ant on the wall.
I wondered if it was a fluke or just a dramatic answer to prayer, so I asked God to show me. The next day I happened to look at the doorway threshold and saw an ant writhing in the powder like he's eaten ant poison. Amazing!
Thanks, Kelly, wherever you happen to be, today. Your suggestion reversed the ant invasion on our family!
Check out more Works for Me Wednesday posts at Rocks In My Dryer.
Labels: Animals, Environment, Family, Home Products, Nature, The Mobile Home, Works for Me Wednesday
posted by Brandy Brow @ 7:08 AM
9 Comments
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© 2005-present by Brandy Brow except as noted in policy.
9 Comments:
Talking about asking God for the answer, we've begun having the same problem. And this is perfect, while I'm sure the powder isn't great for my asthma it sure beats the heck out of toxic chemicals. Yahoo, and thanks!
We've got to try that. We've been doing the honey/borax thing and that contains them to one area, but doesn't seem to be killing them at all! Yuck!!!
Great blog. Very different and extremely interesting! Congratulations on being published. I have heard that sprinkling cinnamon works well for ants too, it burns them.
Thank you! :) By the way, is this the "new" baby powder that is made of corn starch? I read about corn starch working too (blowing up their bellies); so now I need to check to see if I should get corn starch or baby powder. I wonder if there is something added to the baby powder to make them more toxic to the ants.
Very very cool - the ants are marching through my kids playroom, so I will try it today!
Angela (first commenter)--I have trouble with allergies, too, but didn't have too much with the powder. The scent wears off after a few days, too.
CC--I was surprised the baby powder actually killed the ants. I hadn't heard of honey/borax. It sounds more like a recipe to invite more ants rather than keep them away. Does it work? Since I've put down the powder, I've seen about four ants. And that's over the course of the past three weeks.
Audra--Thanks for the kudos. Cinnamon is a new one to me, too. Baby powder is cheaper, though, so I think I'll stick with it. ;-)
Anonymous--I used Johnson's baby powder, cooling cucumber melon scent just because that's what I had. It is the corn starch version, but I suspect talc baby powder will work well, too. The ingredients in the Johnson's that I used are: corn starch, tricalcium phosphate, fragrance, sunflower seed oil, cucumber fruit extract, and melon fruit extract.
Angela (2nd one)--best ant battle to you. Let us know how it turns out.
Most excellent!
Well this is way after you posted this but I am so glad to have found this. Our city was said to be built on an ant hill but this is the first year we have really had them. I am going to try this thanks.
Hello all,
I use diatomatious earth (DE), which you can get at garden stores. It's very effective, and MAY be less expensive than some of these other options like baby powder or cornstarch (I say "may be" because I haven't actually compared cost per weight). It's odorless, which works for me. DE works by breaking down the outer shell of ants (and other crawling insects) - and I suspect the other powders do the same thing.
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