Got Ants, Cockroaches or Mosquitoes? Here's How to Get Rid of Them!

Last summer, while we were gone, ants moved in like unwanted guests, and were as hard to get rid of. Our rule is: no poisons in our house and yard. In short-term thinking it's more difficult, but we found a way and it may work for you.

It was possible to subdue the little buggers if we wiped the counters down with a sponge full of eucalyptus oil before going to bed. But, it didn't cure the problem and only worked until the vapors wore off. Then, like the unwanted guests, they were back. The difference is, ants don't sit around with their feet on the furniture and watch TV.

My wife went to Washington State to visit but, before leaving ,I received instructions to get some boric acid. We'd bought some expensive environmentally benign bait that contained boric acid and even though it didn't work, the idea was sound.

Most insects have no way to pass gas, hard shelled insects in particular like ants and cockroaches. When they ingest boric acid it causes gas, they can't pass it and explode. It wasn't as loud as an unwanted guest snoring and it didn't wake us up at night, but it did the trick. Ants take everything they find back to the nest, and happens to the queen? Boom! Without a queen pumping out babies, the nest soon becomes a ghost town of little exploded ant bodies. It took about three weeks as the ant supply dwindled from lots, to a few, to an occasional scout or passerby.

Basically, I don't have anything against ants, they help clean the yard and are second only to bees as pollinators. They just have to understand: I won't mess around in their hill and they won't take liberties in our house! Especially fire ants, they hunt you down and leave you with a week's worth of itching as a reminder they were there.