Ants in historic home

Ashley Stevens <ashley.stevens [at] ottawa__ca> writes

>I work in a museum that is situated in a historic home.  We recently
>have started to have an issue with ants in our kitchen area.

If you can tolerate sugar as a lure, here is a recipe that has
worked for me each and every time:

Mix 1 cup of warm water with 1/2 cup of sugar, and 2 tablespoons of
boric acid. Then soak the boric acid up with cotton balls and place
those cotton balls directly in any trails the ants have established.
The ants will take the boric acid "food" back to their nest where
other ants will eat it.  Note that you must allow the ants to come
and go at will for several days for this to work.  Also, you must
keep the cotton balls saturated during this time.  A layer of mylar
under the cotton ball will protect surfaces.

I keep a mason jar of this mixture to make re-treatment quick and
easy.

Meghan Mackey
Objects Conservator
Middleton, WI, USA


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 23:29
                Distributed: Thursday, February 11, 2010
                       Message Id: cdl-23-29-003
                                  ***