Do you mean inside the home? We've used the ant traps that have a boric acid component. They work okay, but I'd rather use a Spinosad ant bait outdoors.

Outdoors? In the garden? Never, never, never, never have used it and never, never, never, never ever will.

Borax is tricky to use in a garden setting. It is OMRI-approved as a soil fertilizer type additive but ONLY if a soil test shows a boron deficiency in the soil.

There is a really, really fine line between having soil that has adequate boron (or that has a boron deficiency) and soil that has enough boron to become toxic to plants. I believe the difference is only a few parts per million, so you can accidentally cross that line very easily. If you use too much borax for any purpose in your garden plot or fields, you can poison your soil so that nothing will grow. Plants take up boron from the soil, and if you have excess boron in your soil (either from borax or boric acid), the plants can take up enough for it to be toxic to them. It is very easy for a person to poison their soil by using too much borax or boric acid, and then soil remediation becomes essential if the soil is ever to be suitable for growing plants again. There are many variables involved in how much boron accumulates in the soil, and it is dependant to some extent on soil pH, how well the soil does or doesn't drain, and rainfall amounts.

This topic comes up regularly here on the various GW forums, often in the Organic or Soil, Compost & Mulch Forums, and sometimes in the form of questions like "Help! I added Mule Team Borax to my garden and now nothing will grow.....". My favorite thread on borax is a very long one from long ago. Let me see if I can find it and link it. If there is no link below (grin), then I didn't find it.

Old Thread on Boric Acid/Borax/Boron

Some of those "use borax for insecticide" articles are really ignoant people clabbering together things they've found about both boric acid and borax, which are not the same thing. And I have not found either to be particularly effective. Info is also contradictory, one saying wet the powder and spray it and another saying wetting the powder destroys its effectiveness. There is an old Heloise recipe that uses flour and boric acid and water to make little balls of bait. But boric acid works when the bug (usually roaches) clean themselves (like a cat) and ingest what is on their feet. This is why you "puff" it out, so there is a thin layer they walk through. Too thick and they just go around. I could not figure out if they would eat it in the little bait balls or not. Maybe if there was no other food source. Sometimes people say both borax and boric acid are poisonous to people, but I researched this and I was comfortable using it in my house. (Boric acid is sometimes used as an eye wash, not very toxic).

We only put it next to the foundation for ants. Never in the garden.

All,

I'm glad you set me straight. Disaster avoided.

Johnny

First licensed botanist in Barre Vermont work on the capitol and many other places up there borax was handy back in 57.

In my part of the world bar IX is the safest to be used and the best it'll get rid of your garments in a hurry .

That should have been firemen