After trying a dozen of methods to kill ants by using gentle ingredients but with little success and feeling really frustrated with the infestation of tiny brown ants in my kitchen and surrounding Cass' desk (this brat eats at her desk!), I tried another method just out of curiosity to see if it worked. I wiped our kitchen counter and floors with hand sanitizer and VOILA, I saw dead ants everywhere!
All I did was pumped some hand sanitizer with sodium hydroxide and wiped the sides of the kitchen counter, the edges of the dining area and under Cass' desk and that's it. The ants just stopped coming and I see dead ones here and there.
What prompted me to use hand sanitizer was our leftover stash of hand sanitizer which we spent much effort and money to hoard during the first wave of Covid-19 early last year. At that time, face masks and hand sanitizers were flying off the shelves of all the pharmacies around the Klang Valley. Whenever we saw any being replenished, we went berserk and grabbed bottles of hand sanitizers and face masks though some unscrupulous sellers jacked up the price. Now that face masks and hand sanitizers are a glut everywhere and they are even given as free gifts, we now have too many bottles of hand sanitizers and some are near their expiration dates. Thus, I use the hand sanitizer to do general cleaning around the house and experimented it with ants. And it worked!
So glad I found another accidental discovery! 😂😂😂
If you have hand sanitizer that contains alcohol, this can also be used to kill ants. However, this is quite an expensive method to try with. You could use with your near expiration date hand sanitizers or simply use cheap alcohol and wipe it on the paths that ants move about to kill ants safely.
Good luck in trying and do let me know if any of the methods that I mentioned works!
What is soap is made with lye (sodium hydroxide mixed with liquid)