The Ants are Marching...

and they are marching right into the Chewy Tot's Room. It appears they are cruising in through the window area somewhere. I do love nature - and even the smallest critters out there, but not in my house, thank you.

So, it was time to Google "child friendly ant deterrents" which let me to a variety of homemade ant killers. The best collection I found was at tipnut.com. It also had some basic information about ants and why some baits work one time, but not another. I was looking to try something with Borax since I was going to be picking up some for other uses anyway. After looking at some of the "recipes" I went into the kitchen and went to work - just like when baking, I only used the recipe for inspiration!

I decided to make two different baits:

Bait #1 - equal parts borax and peanut butter

Bait #2 - equal parts borax and honey

After mixing (and labeling the containers as ant bait and NOT-FOOD!) I put about 1/8 of a teaspoon of bait on a small square of paper. I did two of each bait and set them on the windowsill in the Tot's room. A few minutes later, there were already ants munching. An hour later, the ants were "shoulder to shoulder" crowded around the bait loading up. The visible population of ants in the room had exploded. Not a surprise with the honey and peanut butter available to all.

Now the question is - what happens when they take it back to the nest? Well, my understanding is that it should "take care of the problem". Obviously, it will take a few days to see if that is the case or not - or if I have just opened up a soup kitchen for wayward ants.

Does anybody else have any experience getting rid of ants or other crawlies? I am open to any tips or tricks -- especially any "chewy" solutions that are child safe and frugal!