This mysterious and lightning-fast trick, which is often spread on the Internet, sounds downright miraculous. If you are looking for exactly that one specific recipe that is hidden under these sensational headlines, most often it is ordinary yeast with sugar or boric acid (borax) mixed with sweetener.
Let’s take a look at how this “miracle in waiting” works, why the Internet headlines have a little big eyes and what actually works best on ants.
- The famous Internet trick: Yeast with sugar
This recipe promises that ants will disappear within 24 hours.
How to do it: Crush a cube of fresh yeast (or use a packet of dried), mix it with 1 to 2 tablespoons of sugar (or honey) and add a few drops of warm water to make a paste.
Application: Put the mixture on small jars and place them on ant trails at the cottage or in the garden.
How it (supposedly) works: Ants love sweets, so they eat the mixture and take it to the nest. The yeast in their stomachs begins to ferment, carbon dioxide begins to be released, and the ants simply cannot survive.
⚠️ Reality check: Does it work quickly? Yes, it acts like poison to ants that directly touch or consume the mixture. But that the entire anthill with thousands of ants and the queen deep underground will disappear by the next day? Unfortunately, that is a myth. You will have peace for a while, but without eliminating the queen, the ants will return.
- Even more effective “put it down and wait” trick: Boric acid / Borax
If you want something that really works on the principle of “put it on the ground and they’ll disappear” (although it may take a few days), go for borax. Unlike yeast, it works more slowly, which is its biggest advantage – the ants won’t die right away, but they’ll carry the poison all the way to the queen.
Recipe for homemade ant syrup:
Ingredient Quantity Purpose
Sugar or honey 2 tablespoons Ant attractant
Warm water 1/2 cup Dissolving the mixture
Boric acid (powder) 1 teaspoon Active ingredient (poison)
Procedure: Mix everything together well, soak cotton swabs in the mixture and place them on the eyelids where the ants hang out.
Caution: If you have dogs, cats or small children at your cottage or in your garden, place this solution so that they cannot reach it! Boric acid is toxic to them.
- What works in the garden (without chemicals)
If you don’t want to kill the ants right away, but rather drive them out of the flower beds or greenhouse, try disorienting them with an intense scent. Ants follow their scent trails (pheromones). If you disturb them, they will go somewhere else.
Cinnamon or ground black pepper: Sprinkle a thick line of cinnamon around the cottage or directly on the anthill in the garden. Ants hate cinnamon and will not pass through such a barrier.
Chalk: Ordinary blackboard chalk is a hindrance to ants due to its calcium content. If you draw a line around the threshold of the cottage door, they will not pass through it.
Coffee grounds: Coffee grounds sprinkled on plants stinks to ants, and coffee also serves as a great fertilizer for the soil.
Vinegar with water (1:1): Spray it on the places where ants crawl into the cottage. This will destroy their pheromone trail and immediately turn them away.
Final tip: If you need to get rid of ants in the cottage permanently, look for the place where they enter (gaps in wood, around windows) and seal them with silicone. Home tricks are great for quick help, but cleanliness (no crumbs and sugar on the table) and sealed cracks are the best prevention.