Is Borax Grey-safe?

[Guest JsMom]

The ants in our backyard are driving us all crazy, so we're trying to find earth-, pet- and kid-friendly ways to get rid of them. Several people have suggested sprinkling a mixture of borax and sugar around the hills, but I wanted to make sure it's not going to hurt the dog if he decides to sniff around there. Anyone know if it's safe, and if not, have any other SAFE suggestions? Thanks!

[Guest kydie]

I put corn meal down, ants eat this and when it expands, no more ant

[Ullaluv]

I think with Borax you're supposed to leave it for awhile, then wash it down before the dogs go out where you've used it. Love the corn meal suggestion.

[Guest sheila]

I went looking for information about using borax to kill fleas and came across this little tidbit on another msg board

 

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Sorry, but the Borax thing is unconvincing. I recently bought a couple of boxes of the 20 mule team stuff and completely powdered my 600 sq ft apartment. This included moving furniture around so that I could get underneath. Waited about seven hours, and then vacuumed it up with one of the Dyson vacuum cleaners with a clear tank. The next morning, I looked inside the Dyson and I could see dozens of fleas playing on top of all the borax I vacuumed up. It was like a winterpark for fleas. My girlfriend wants to do another borax treatment this weekend. I won't be surprised if the fleas that end up in the Dyson build igloos with the borax, have snowball fights, snow forts, .....

 

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I did find one recipe for lawn flea treatments in one of my gardening books. (I have never used it so I can't vouch that it will work, but it doesn't look like anything that would be toxic to dogs.)

 

2 cups Listerene

2 oz Palmolive Green

2 gal hot water

put in a sprayer and spray liberally over all outdoor areas where fleas are present.

[ahicks51]

Boric acid ant bombs:

 

1 cup water, 2 cups sugar, 2 tablespoons boric acid ("Roach Pruf" or similar)

 

Mix. Add to cotton balls. Put cotton balls in baby food jars. Pierce lid with a nail to allow ants in and out. Safe for pets.

[Batmom]

Terro is more effective, and you can use it the same way ahicks describes for Borax.

 

You can also dump soapy water down each ant mound; won't kill too many of them but it seems to make them unhappy enough to move house.

 

P.S. If it's fire ants, get some little sections of fence to fence the mounds off from the dog and use the heavy-duty insecticide. No other way to get rid of those.

[ahicks51]

Terro is more effective, and you can use it the same way ahicks describes for Borax.

 

You can also dump soapy water down each ant mound; won't kill too many of them but it seems to make them unhappy enough to move house.

 

P.S. If it's fire ants, get some little sections of fence to fence the mounds off from the dog and use the heavy-duty insecticide. No other way to get rid of those.

 

I've heard with fire ants, if there are two mounds you can take a shovelful from mound 1 and dump it on mound 2- and vice-versa. I presume you have to be slightly faster than the ants, or to Vaseline the handle pretty low.

 

Now, one trick I pulled with the big mound-building desert ants locally- absolutely fascinating: when we finished up with the explosives synthesis for this one compound, we always had dry ice left over, with no way to store it for the next synthesis which could be weeks away. So, I dumped this big block of ice on an ant mound- and they tried to savage it, with ants climbing upon their frozen brethren to attack the dry ice. It was more than the physical object being there- the carbon dioxide must have been a trigger for them. Anyway- after the second application, the ants went dormant. The mound did nothing for months, and when it did, there were far fewer ants. There's no residue, and by the time the ground warms back up, there's no way to hurt a dog. I suppose one could also dig into the mound, dump in some dry ice, and cover it back up- but some of those hills are DEEP.

 

I've tried flooding ant mounds in the past by taking a scoop of soil out of the center, then putting a hose in it to trickle for several days. Sometimes works, sometimes doesn't.

 

One last thing to use: ant baits with Fipronil, such as "Combat" brand ant gel. Put a blob of it on the mound, and cover it with an overturned clay flowerpot. Fipronil is the same active ingredient in Frontline, which is applied directly to the skin. Just keep 'em from eating it, and surely whatever tiny amount of residue might be on the ground when the pot is gone days later will be close to zero risk.