Since finding out we were expecting, I've been paranoid about fumes. Smoke, bleach, cleaners, and bug spray. Especially bug spray. If it can KILL something and I can smell it, then what's it do to me?!

So, when our kitchen became overrun with ants this week, I was determined to find a better way to murderlize them than with Raid. The first day, we did use spray and they promptly came back the next day, marching right back to whatever it was their little antennae had found that was so tasty to them. The spray also left dozens of dead ants EVERYWHERE, which is pretty gross. Yeah, they're just ants, but still. Dead bugs in my kitchen? No thanks.

The third day of battle I remembered something I had pinned on my Lotta Country, Little Farm board on Pintrest. It was a do it yourself ant killer.


photo courtesy of food.com

The recipe for this ant killer was:

1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons borax (I am really starting to love this stuff)
3 cups warm water

Three ingredients. All natural. And potent. I mixed the borax and sugar together in an old pickle jar and then added the water. I took out a little lid, packed some cotton balls in it, and soaked the cotton balls with the mixture until they were pretty well saturated. I then put it close to wear the little boogers were thickest and waited. They soon found it and covered it. Later that day, however, I found even MORE ants in a different spot in the kitchen, so I took out my pickle jar and made another little trap. Again, I put it nearest to where they were congregating the most and waited. 

The original recipe says to fight the urge to squish and kill all the ants you see as they take the mixture back to where they come from and spread it to the colony, thus killing a lot more. Mwahahahaha! I let the ants alone and went to bed. The next morning I got up and the first thing I did was check the kitchen. Guess what I saw?

Not. A. Single. Ant. 

They were gone. Solid gone. Without a trace. WHAT! WHAT! After nearly a week of fighting with them and having them come back day after day! Needless to say, I am thrilled that I can replace my can of Raid with my pickle jar of sugar and borax! For the original recipe, visit this link. If you've been struggling with a way to get rid of ants, I encourage you to try this! It amazed me!