Interesting on the ants. I had saved this info to poison Argentine ants (sugar ants)
1/4 teaspoon boric acid powder
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon sugar
and then this:
1. make sure to not to use water containing chlorine or other minerals. If you can get fresh rain water, that is best, otherwise use pure filtered water. Doesn't have to be sterile, just without minerals and not mossy.
2. If after a week or so the ants are still around but are no longer using the bait. Try Changing the formula to substitute honey for the sugar. Same amount.
and this saved post covered the peanut butter:
I use wide pieces of plastic venetian blind, 3" wide blinds, and usually about 3-1/2" to 4" long. Depending on size of the ant trail. (I ask for these at the place the blinds are cut to length at Home Depot. They gave me enough to last a lifetime still wrapped except for the place the cut was made
On the shady side of the plant or in the shade (sometimes have to put a shade on it after putting it's in place). Put these with one edge buried in a little soil placed flat in a level plane right in the ant trail or a place where they are milling around. Then with a syringe, small squirt bottle, or even a clean eyewash squeeze bottle, place tiny droplets of the bait spaced out evenly over the venetian blind piece. leave enough space so that they can feed all around the droplet and still have room for surrounding droplets. Often it is necessary to replenish the bait daily.
If it is a large colony they will fill that piece and as many as 6 pieces. The more ants attracted, the more will come till they begin to thin. A colony is destroyed quicker if the number of feeding stations are increased.
Sometimes the ants are so isolated and flat soil surface is inaccessible where the ants are observed. In such a case a variety of things can be done to create a smooth flat level surface that will allow placement of the bait where the ants can form a trail. One technique is to use a bungee to tie a small box or bottom-up tin can onto the stem of a plant. Then place the bait on the flat surface. Since in such a place it probably isn't practical to put more than one bait station it may stay in place for over a month for a large colony.
Since Argentine Ants are not militant toward their own colonies often they will have a daisy chain of multiple (co-op) colonies. This has been observed here many times. So one nice feeding station may attract colonies from over 100' away.
I used the formula mixed with peanut butter with enough of the formula to make the peanut butter syrupy. Within 2 hours there were three 1" wide X 4" L strips of plastic - covered with ants. many hundreds of ants covered these. Within 3 days the live ants were gone.
The peanut butter concoction is probably one of the better ones there is. One reason for this is that workers eat the sweets for energy. The queen and brood-queens are fed protein and sweet for both strength and energy. Don't know if this is factual, but reasonable to believe both queen and workers would be destroyed with PB concoction.
I've only used this on sugar ants but have not added the peanut butter, I'm uncertain how it would work on other types of ants. Just be careful to place the bait where pets cannot get it.
