This method can be used anywhere of course, but I’ve never had such an ant problem before until moving here to Panama. Actually that’s not true, I think in one house I did, but never to this extent.

I got this recipe from another expat & it worked well in one house & not in another, but in the other house I had just started playing around with it.

The ants here can be very vicious.

I’m pretty sure I’ve been bitten many times by ants. It forms as a white welt that is raised, but then later on itches & becomes red. One night I went into my kitchen & there was a mountain of ants everywhere around my kitchen sink & IN the sinks themselves. SCARY!!!

When I took a rag & started picking them up or even brushing them with the rag & running the rag under water so they would be flushed down the drain, the ants started biting me THROUGH the rag & it’s not a thin rag either. Those bites hurt.

Anyway, to get rid of the ants, take a small glass jar & put some sugar into it. I put roughly 4-6 tablespoons in. I don’t measure anymore. Then boil some water & pour it into the jar. I have these small jars that I had from the pesto & imported Italian salsa (sauce) I bought.

Shake up the jar to dissolve the sugar. Then make sure you have boric acid. It’s called “acido borico” in Spanish. Pour some of that in. I usually put in a few teaspoons or one tablespoon. Shake the jar again.

Then rip off a long piece of a paper towel, roll it a bit so it stays somewhat firm & place one end in the jar with the other end draped over the lip so it hits the counter or floor.

Eventually the paper towel will soak up the liquid & become wet so it will get the immediate area around the jar wet with the concoction. Sometimes I have to clean it up a bit so it doesn’t roll away from the jar.

The sugar will draw the ants to it, they will lap it up & then die from the boric acid as well at take it back to the queen (we hope). So at first you will see a LOT of ants congregating around the area which may look gross, but means it’s working.

I leave the jar out all the time & sometimes it draws the ants back to it a few weeks later & I have to go through the entire process again sometimes filling up the jars with more of the recipe if the liquid has evaporated. I also take the lids & use a shorter piece of paper towel & pour some liquid in there & place them around different areas.

You have to find pharmacies in Panama that sell the acido borico as not all do. They come in little packets that usually cost anywhere from 15-25 cents each. I buy at least 5-7 now so I don’t run out.

I once had tons of microscopic ants all over my desk, keyboard, running up & down my monitor & this was the ONLY way I got rid of them.

Now if ONLY I could get rid of the HUGE cockroaches with this, but unfortunately I still get them in my kitchen, but I have managed to kill 3 so far (huge mothers). I grab a garbage can & this past time I grabbed an empty vinegar container.

You need something that’s easy to swing & somewhat dense enough to crash down on them.

The last one was scary as he wasn’t on the floor, he was on my bloody steamer’s electrical cord & then on the side of a cupboard an hour or two later. I didn’t get him 100%, but I haven’t seen him since, so he may have ran off & died some other place. Another one prior to that was on the lip of my kitchen sink. I managed to drown him a bit until I was able to crush him.

It’s really hard to go even a few hours without washing dishes. I don’t wash dishes the minute I finish eating & that’s not a great thing. Even though my dishes are always rinsed off, they are still in the sink.

It’s this house though because in the other 2 houses I never had cockroaches. In my opinion, the older & more poorly constructed house, the greater the chances you will get cockroaches.

Hope this helps you.

Michelle