table of contents
- What is baking soda?
- This is how baking soda works against ants
- Use baking soda correctly
- frequently asked Questions
Ants are undoubtedly useful, but they are often also uninvited guests. A wide variety of home remedies are used to protect the environment. We looked at what baking soda can do against ants.
In a nutshell
- Ants can be fought with home remedies
- Soda kills ants effectively
- Effect is based on a disruption of the acid-base balance and the development of carbon dioxide
- Feeding bait necessary because ants recognize the poison and avoid it
What is baking soda?
From the chemist's point of view, this substance is sodium hydrogen carbonate with the chemical formula NaHCO3. The common name is mainly known from the household, where the substance is used in a wide variety of forms. It is best known as the main component of classic baking powder, where its gas-forming effect is important. Under the influence of water, sodium hydrogen carbonate reacts to form carbon dioxide, better known as CO2.
This is how baking soda works against ants
Quit using it as a leavening agent and look at the way NaHCO2 works3 can help, Ant colonies To combat, two modes of action of the substance come into focus:
- CO2-Education: As in the kitchen, the substance reacts with the moisture inside the ant after consumption and generates CO2. The animals' stomachs are extremely stressed. Damage to internal organs is one of the possible causes of death.
- Acid-base balance: For a correct function the ant stomach is dependent on a very fragile chemical equilibrium in a very narrow pH value range.
Sodium hydrogen carbonate changes the pH value so rapidly and extremely that the body functions of the animals are disturbed. Here too, in most cases, death follows.
Note: Again and again one reads about the "exploding ant" after consuming baking soda. Although the animals do not burst noticeably, the destruction of the digestive tract that occurs corresponds to the described effect.
Use baking soda correctly
So that the home remedy actually achieves the desired effect against ants, you should know how to use it correctly:
- NaHCO3 Mix with sugar, powdered sugar or other feed attractant
- Lay bait on observed ant trails and on the nest itself (if known)
- only small amounts in each case in order to avoid danger to pets from relevant consumption amounts
- Replace the bait after rain, dew and other moisture
- Observe changes in the population and, if necessary, add or embarrassed
Tip: Use only dry substances as an attractant. Moist attractants such as honey lead to the formation of CO2 even before consumption. A large part of the effectiveness fizzles out unused.
frequently asked Questions
It is easily possible to use baking powder against ants instead of pure soda. The corn starch it contains does not affect its effectiveness. If the powder doesn't work, you have probably chosen the wrong baking powder without sodium hydrogen carbonate as a propellant. Other propellants also generate the gases required for baking, but they are ineffective against colonies of ants.
If you can only reach the ants' walkways, it may take a long time before the bait is not only consumed on site, but also transported to the home nest. Only when you lay baking soda directly at the nest can you assume that the entry into the hatchery is high enough that the colony as a whole will be decimated or completely eliminated.
If you use baking powder or pure baking soda against ants, you have to be prepared for a long death struggle for the animals. Sometimes chemical baits achieve faster results and less suffering due to the toxins they contain. However, you are introducing poison into the house or garden, which can also affect other forms of life.
