Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
I did a video on a simple easy diy ant trap several years ago also based on borax but I can never leave a good thing alone and I am always experimenting and trying to find a better solution. I actually found this last year and it worked so well that I thought something else must have been the root cause but I did it again and yep, in less than 12 hours not a single ant anywhere. To put this into perspective, there were literally hundreds maybe thousands of ants walking back and forth near the sink where I do fruit preparation for making jams and jellies which I have been doing a lot lately but the last time was 2 weeks ago and I didn't entirely clean up all of my mess .... which attracted ants. So I still had some of the mixed up ant trap version stored in a mason jar from last year and I put it out about 10pm on cardboard strips. At 9am there was not a single any anywhere to be found. I actually put out 4 pieces of cardboard around the area but the video only shows 2.
Many people have never heard of borax but its simply a powdered cleaner for laundry - so you can get it in about any store in the laundry detergent area or you can also get it online from amazon. Its in a mostly white box with red, blue text and the text that stands out the most is "20 Mule Team Borax" It can also be used to make other "bug" traps for fruit flies, fruit nats, and even rats. Its a great cleaner. Other people say its safe for pets and around kids but I really have no personal experience for that other than the fact my cat will smell it when I initially place the traps out of curiosity and then simply walk away from it. Its main chemical is sodium borate which is a salt.
Borax is used in pest control solutions because it is toxic to ants and rats. Because it is slow-acting, worker ants will carry the borax to their nests and poison the rest of the colony. Borax is used in various household laundry and cleaning products, including the 20 Mule Team Borax laundry booster, Boraxo powdered hand soap, and some tooth bleaching formulas.
Outside of being a great cleaner for surfaces and laundry around the home or as a pesticide, It is commonly available in powder or granular form and has many industrial and household uses, including as a pesticide, as a metal soldering flux, as a component of glass, enamel, and pottery glazes, for tanning of skins and hides, for artificial aging of wood, as a preservative against wood fungus, and as a pharmaceutic alkalizer. In chemical laboratories, it is used as a buffering agent. Its great to have around a homestead and a little goes a long ways (still using the same box I bought 4 years ago)
borax from amazon (its been a while since I purchased at wally world but the price is about the same at amazon from memory): amzn.to/3SUjtD5
The other video I did 3 or 4 years ago is here: youtube.com/watch?v=1dNdlJuSyHw
I did a video on a simple easy diy ant trap several years ago also based on borax but I can never leave a good thing alone and I am always experimenting and trying to find a better solution. I actually found this last year and it worked so well that I thought something else must have been the root cause but I did it again and yep, in less than 12 hours not a single ant anywhere. To put this into perspective, there were literally hundreds maybe thousands of ants walking back and forth near the sink where I do fruit preparation for making jams and jellies which I have been doing a lot lately but the last time was 2 weeks ago and I didn't entirely clean up all of my mess .... which attracted ants. So I still had some of the mixed up ant trap version stored in a mason jar from last year and I put it out about 10pm on cardboard strips. At 9am there was not a single any anywhere to be found. I actually put out 4 pieces of cardboard around the area but the video only shows 2.
Many people have never heard of borax but its simply a powdered cleaner for laundry - so you can get it in about any store in the laundry detergent area or you can also get it online from amazon. Its in a mostly white box with red, blue text and the text that stands out the most is "20 Mule Team Borax" It can also be used to make other "bug" traps for fruit flies, fruit nats, and even rats. Its a great cleaner. Other people say its safe for pets and around kids but I really have no personal experience for that other than the fact my cat will smell it when I initially place the traps out of curiosity and then simply walk away from it. Its main chemical is sodium borate which is a salt.
Borax is used in pest control solutions because it is toxic to ants and rats. Because it is slow-acting, worker ants will carry the borax to their nests and poison the rest of the colony. Borax is used in various household laundry and cleaning products, including the 20 Mule Team Borax laundry booster, Boraxo powdered hand soap, and some tooth bleaching formulas.
Outside of being a great cleaner for surfaces and laundry around the home or as a pesticide, It is commonly available in powder or granular form and has many industrial and household uses, including as a pesticide, as a metal soldering flux, as a component of glass, enamel, and pottery glazes, for tanning of skins and hides, for artificial aging of wood, as a preservative against wood fungus, and as a pharmaceutic alkalizer. In chemical laboratories, it is used as a buffering agent. Its great to have around a homestead and a little goes a long ways (still using the same box I bought 4 years ago)
borax from amazon (its been a while since I purchased at wally world but the price is about the same at amazon from memory): amzn.to/3SUjtD5
The other video I did 3 or 4 years ago is here: youtube.com/watch?v=1dNdlJuSyHw
