August 11, 2006

Ants and aspartame

And now for something completely different...

AntDoug Green is asking for people to participate in an experiment. After hearing that aspartame was an effective ant poison, he researched it on the Net and discovered that all references led back to only one source. He'd like all interested parties to try fighting ants with aspartame and send him a report on the results so we can find out how reliable this information is. Click here to go to his site and read the details.

Ants are not normally a serious pest in the garden, so I normally leave them alone. If they're swarming a particular plant, I look closely. It's often a sign of scale or aphids, so they can be a useful indicator. My benevolence dissipates quickly when I find them in the house though. An effective, eco-friendly ant trap can be made by mixing icing sugar with Borax and leaving it in a shallow container along the path the ants take. It will take a few days to be effective, so be patient. Mixing baking soda with icing sugar is also supposed to work, but I find it to be somewhat slower. Your mileage may vary. Who knows, aspartame might be another effective solution. I have no idea if it qualifies as eco-friendly.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

equal killed the ants on my porch

DrJefAaron@aol.com

Unknown said...

A few packets of Equal did the trick for me. The ants were of the very small variety and had formed a one foot diameter swarm near a driveway crack. A neighbor recommended trying Equal (much to my surprise), but what the heck. Sprinkled a few packets around and not only were they gone in a couple hours, we can see many of the dead. So, I say TRY IT - it just might work for you too.

BFG

Janet said...

Sounds like it's effective and easy then. I love home remedies like that. Thanks for the feedback.