Anyone ever experience problems with ants after using Borax?

[niceguymr]

Well, I just did.

First - For those of you who don't know, Borax is a very effective treatment for ant infestations. I have used Borax very successfully to erradicate ant colonies. It attracts ants like sugar and then it kills them shortly aterwards. It usually takes a few days before you notice the ants disappear because they live long enough to bring it back and feed the rest of their colonies.

That being said, yesterday I used Borax to raise my pH. My reading was about 7.0 and the pool calculator recommended about 4 lbs of Borax which I put in the pool. A couple of hours later, my pH was perfect at 7.5. Today, I went to check again and the pH was holding steady at 7.5 however, I noticed a great deal of large ants floating on the surface of the pool. There were even more in the skimmer.

The good thing is that since I know Borax kills ants, I don't expect this problem to persist but I was just curious if anyone else has ever noticed any ant problems after using Borax. I realize that the Borax disolves very quickly but I guess if you are in an area that is prone to ant colonization, that this will bring them out.

 

[257WbyMag]

That's pretty interesting.

Borax is a great bait/insecticide for ants and roaches. It's not a contact poison though and must be ingested by the insect to kill it.

Putting a good amount of borax in your pool does lower the surface tension in the water fairly dramatically. I have found that this doesn't allow things like bugs and other animals to escape the water very easily once in it and many will actually drown because of it. That may be what has happened.

 

[jrguzmanr]

Well, I just did.

First - For those of you who don't know, Borax is a very effective treatment for ant infestations. I have used Borax very successfully to erradicate ant colonies. It attracts ants like sugar and then it kills them shortly aterwards. It usually takes a few days before you notice the ants disappear because they live long enough to bring it back and feed the rest of their colonies.

That being said, yesterday I used Borax to raise my pH. My reading was about 7.0 and the pool calculator recommended about 4 lbs of Borax which I put in the pool. A couple of hours later, my pH was perfect at 7.5. Today, I went to check again and the pH was holding steady at 7.5 however, I noticed a great deal of large ants floating on the surface of the pool. There were even more in the skimmer.

The good thing is that since I know Borax kills ants, I don't expect this problem to persist but I was just curious if anyone else has ever noticed any ant problems after using Borax. I realize that the Borax disolves very quickly but I guess if you are in an area that is prone to ant colonization, that this will bring them out.

WOW! the same thing happenned to me! I didn't put two and two together, but after about a week or two, the ants stopped showing up in my pool! I would get three or four clumps of ants each one about the size of my hand. At least now I know why it happenned.

 

[alben]

Well that explains what is going on! I had no idea that ants are attracted to Borax. I added 7 boxes this spring to get the pH up to 7.4. (Yes, 7 boxes. This spring my pH was unmeasurable, it was way below the bottom color block). Now I swear I have every ant from the yard in my pool. The bottom of the pool looks speckled like it is the design of the liner. But closer inspection shows it is dead black ants. Ewww... More vacuuming.