Summer is here and for many of us so are the ants! These have to be the most annoying of all bugs not only because they are small and get everywhere but also because of the sheer numbers of them – one colony can have millions of tiny residents. If you have these creepy crawlies always invading your home the big question is how you do kill ants?

You could employ a Brisbane pest control company to fumigate your property but that will undoubtedly cost big bucks! You could purchase commercial products like ant killer liquid or ant killer spray, killer granules, ant dust to act as a barrier which will prevent them getting into your home and so on. Many of these contain chemicals which can be toxic and are not suitable for use around pets and children, additionally do these types of baits work? From experience, all of these measures only appear to be effective for a limited time.

So what bait can be used to kill house ant and can be used safely around pets and children?

What you should consider is making your own, relatively inexpensive yet effective bait, safe to use with no major worries for the kids playing nearby – your very own pest control!

Before you begin getting together your ants baits you need to do some detective work which will without doubt take you outdoors. It is all good and well hunting down the cracks and crevices the pests are crawling through to enter you home but it is even more vital that you track down where they are actually coming from to give you more chance of being able to get rid of ants nest outdoors as a whole.

OK, once you have achieved this it’s time to get down to business – sorting out your lethal ant killer.

This is really about common sense; think about it, why are ants always invading our homes? For food! Your household ants will help themselves to whatever you leave lying around and take some back to the nest to feed the queen and the other residents. So using food as a way of attracting the ants is a simple way to kill them if you have the right ant killer formula. You won’t find many foods with ants not attracted.

Ants will eat just about anything as I’ve just said so using instant oatmeal or grits is a reasonably cheap but more importantly a safe bait to use where there are pets and children and perfect for attracting the ants. Once the oatmeal has been eaten, it begins to expand and begins to absorb all the fluids within their bodies – killing them.

To use this ultra safe bait in your garden or yard simply leave a trail of instant oatmeal along the route you have already identified as being an ant trail, leaving quite a bit around each of the ants mound. The ants will think it's Christmas and you can be pest free! However, don’t put out instant oatmeal unless it is dry outside, otherwise you will end up with one big mushy mess!

Here is one homemade ant killer for indoors which is again cheap and effective and reasonably safe certainly more so than liquid ant baits or those killer shaker or aerosol types.

For this you will need a few bits and pieces – most of which you will have at home. They are cotton wool, sugar, a jar, plastic containers with lids and some boric acid (usually sold under the brand name Borax)

To make your lethal ant killer:- pour into the jar containing 2 cups of hot water add 1 teaspoon of boric acid and 6 tablespoons of sugar then carefully soak lumps of cotton wool (cotton wool balls are probably best) in the deadly solution and place them into the plastic containers. It would most probably be wise to wear gloves whilst doing this. Then make holes in the lids (about the diameter of a pencil is ideal) for the ants to crawl through and place them on the containers. Now all you have to do is set up your little bait stations at the locations you have established they are getting in and leave the bait!

Coincidentally, you may for a short time see the numbers of visitors in your home increase quite substantially but this is only the sugar in the ant killer attracting them and it will only be temporary. Look at it this way, the more solution that you get them to take back to the nest; killing them as they go the more chance you have of being able to eliminate an ant colony completely. All that remains to do once your visitors have had their fill is to remove the bait – you don’t want to attract new colonies!

One note of caution extreme care should be taken that these boric acid ant baits be used safely if you have pets or children in the house. Keep them well away from bait stations and ensure lids are properly secured.