Leggo my Ego
Well-known member
Aspartame - The World’s Best Ant Poison
contributed by Jan Jensen of WELL-thy Choices
We live in the woods and carpenter ants are a huge problem. We have spent
thousands of dollars with Orkin and on ant poisons trying to keep them
under control but nothing has helped.
So when I read somewhere that aspartame (Nutrasweet) was actually
developed as an ant poison and only changed to being considered
non-poisonous after it was realized that a lot more money could be made on
it as a sweetener than as an ant poison, I decided to give it a try.
I opened two packets of aspartame sweetener, and dumped one in a corner of
each of our bathrooms. That was about 2 years ago and I have not seen any
carpenter ants for about 9 to 12 months. It works better than the most
deadly poisons I have tried. Any time they show up again, I simply dump
another package of Nutrasweet in a corner, and they will be gone for a
year or so again.
Since posting this information I have had many people tell me of their
success solving ant problems with this substance, when nothing else
worked.
We found later that small black ants would not eat the aspartame. It was
determined that if you mixed it with apple juice, they would quickly take
it back to the nest, and all would be dead within 24 hours, usually. I
have found that sometimes it will kill them, and sometimes it does not.
Not sure why, may be slightly different species of ants or something.
Fire Ants: We got our first fire ant hill about 2 weeks ago. Poison did
not work. We tried aspartame and the ants ignored it until we got a light
rain. It was just a sprinkle, enough to moisten the Nutrasweet and ground,
but not enough to wash it away. They went crazy, hundreds of them grabbing
it and taking it back into the mound. When I checked the mound 2 days
later, there was no sign of the fire ants. I even dug the mound up some,
and still saw none of them.
How does it Work: Aspartame is a neuropoison. It most likely kills the
ants by interfering with their nervous system. It could be direct, like
stopping their heart, or something more subtle like killing their sense of
taste so they can’t figure out what is eatable, or smell, so they can’t
follow their trails, or mis-identify their colonies members, so they start
fighting each other. Not sure what causes them to end up dying, just know
that for many species of ants it will kill them quickly and effectively.
As with any poison I recommend wearing gloves and washing any skin areas
that come in contact with this poison, and avoid getting it in your mouth,
despite anything the labeling may indicate.
I suspect it will work for other insects such as yellow jackets as well,
but have not tested that yet.
More information on this fantastic poison can be found at: Invalid Link Removed
contributed by Jan Jensen of WELL-thy Choices
We live in the woods and carpenter ants are a huge problem. We have spent
thousands of dollars with Orkin and on ant poisons trying to keep them
under control but nothing has helped.
So when I read somewhere that aspartame (Nutrasweet) was actually
developed as an ant poison and only changed to being considered
non-poisonous after it was realized that a lot more money could be made on
it as a sweetener than as an ant poison, I decided to give it a try.
I opened two packets of aspartame sweetener, and dumped one in a corner of
each of our bathrooms. That was about 2 years ago and I have not seen any
carpenter ants for about 9 to 12 months. It works better than the most
deadly poisons I have tried. Any time they show up again, I simply dump
another package of Nutrasweet in a corner, and they will be gone for a
year or so again.
Since posting this information I have had many people tell me of their
success solving ant problems with this substance, when nothing else
worked.
We found later that small black ants would not eat the aspartame. It was
determined that if you mixed it with apple juice, they would quickly take
it back to the nest, and all would be dead within 24 hours, usually. I
have found that sometimes it will kill them, and sometimes it does not.
Not sure why, may be slightly different species of ants or something.
Fire Ants: We got our first fire ant hill about 2 weeks ago. Poison did
not work. We tried aspartame and the ants ignored it until we got a light
rain. It was just a sprinkle, enough to moisten the Nutrasweet and ground,
but not enough to wash it away. They went crazy, hundreds of them grabbing
it and taking it back into the mound. When I checked the mound 2 days
later, there was no sign of the fire ants. I even dug the mound up some,
and still saw none of them.
How does it Work: Aspartame is a neuropoison. It most likely kills the
ants by interfering with their nervous system. It could be direct, like
stopping their heart, or something more subtle like killing their sense of
taste so they can’t figure out what is eatable, or smell, so they can’t
follow their trails, or mis-identify their colonies members, so they start
fighting each other. Not sure what causes them to end up dying, just know
that for many species of ants it will kill them quickly and effectively.
As with any poison I recommend wearing gloves and washing any skin areas
that come in contact with this poison, and avoid getting it in your mouth,
despite anything the labeling may indicate.
I suspect it will work for other insects such as yellow jackets as well,
but have not tested that yet.
More information on this fantastic poison can be found at: Invalid Link Removed