We used a homemade solution of boric acid and corn syrup. It worked like a charm, and you know exactly what's in it. 5 milliliters or one teaspoon of boric acid to 60 milliliters or a quarter cup of corn syrup, mix well, place a few drops on wax paper or a little tray near the ant trail but away from human feet. You can store what you don't use in a sealed jar and replenish the bait daily. Discard after a couple of weeks. It's safe around people and larger animals, and unless you smear it on something it won't affect your collection materials.
I also would not bother with exterior spraying just for ants (though it really shouldn't affect your collections unless an air intake was sprayed). The only way to get rid of ants is to get the pesticide into the colony, and the only way to do that successfully is to get the ants to carry it in. The corn syrup/boric acid trick works well because the ants carry it back into the colony where it is fed to all the other ants. A pest control tech taught me this and it has been successful for me. Alan *Alan Van Dyke * Senior Preservation Technician Harry Ransom Center The University of Texas at Austin P.O. Drawer 7219 Austin, Texas 78713-7219 P: 512-232-4614 www.hrc.utexas.edu <http://hrc.utexas.edu> On Fri, May 28, 2021 at 4:36 PM Dawn, Melissa <melissa.d...@montana.edu> wrote: > We have noticed a larger than usual number of ants entering a collections > area from a crack under an exterior door. The best IPM solution is clearly > to request this crack be sealed, but until this repair can be made, is it a > danger to the collection to place ant bait traps inside the collections > area beside this door? (The artifacts stored in this area are primarily > furniture, vehicles, and equipment.) If traps are not harmful, what type > of a trap would be best, and what type should be avoided? Also, would it > endanger the collection if facilities sprayed for ants on the exterior of > the building? > > We could buy a recommended product, but these are the traps our janitorial > staff currently have available for non-collections areas: 1) Terro > Multi-Surface Liquid Ant Baits (enclosed bait station with 5.4% Sodium > Tetraborate Decahydrate aka Borax) and 2) Raid Ant Baits (enclosed bait > station with .01% Avermectin B1). > > Thank you for any feedback, > Melissa > > *Melissa Dawn* > > Assistant Registrar > > Division of the Humanities > > > *Museum of the Rockies* > > melissa.d...@montana.edu > > 406.994.2242 > > 600 West Kagy Blvd. > > Bozeman, MT 59717 > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MuseumPests" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to pestlist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/MWHPR02MB322965DB3497A328F502E52588229%40MWHPR02MB3229.namprd02.prod.outlook.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/MWHPR02MB322965DB3497A328F502E52588229%40MWHPR02MB3229.namprd02.prod.outlook.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MuseumPests" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to pestlist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/CAHhLO3ZPUuex_OqG0vZP7igu1P09O%2BJhDjBOqxpyUooa_tQfJw%40mail.gmail.com.
