Cinnamon with Splenda to Control Ants

One Person’s Experience Using Splenda and Cinnamon to Control Fire Ants

I moved from Minnesota to Arizona in 2001. We built a new home and within 2 weeks of moving in we had ants coming out of the foundation in the pantry. My now ex-Mother-In-Law always swore by Cinnamon for ants. Something about how they breathe it in and choke.

I tried it in this instance and it worked. Shook it around where ever I saw ants moving around, left it for a day. No more ants. Then I swept it up. And a week later vacuumed it up.

Same thing when I moved 3 years ago. Ants love dog dishes. They showed up. I cleaned them up, shook around the cinnamon. They disappeared. Vacuumed up. No more ants.

This morning my dog got bit by a fire ant. This was the second time in 2 weeks. The first time I didn't see what happened, he just limped in and wouldn't put any weight on his hind paw. I wound up taking him to the vet. We ultimately found a small weeping sore on his hind foot, that he'd been biting at. The vet gave him some Rimadyl (pet pain reliever) and Benadryl. He showed improvement after the first day and was on the meds for 4 days.

This morning I saw him jerk up the same paw, do his business, not put it down, then he came in. I cleaned up his paw, looked for anything suspicious and gave him some Benadryl right away. I remembered that I had seen some reddish/brown ants in the patio area the previous week, and thought they looked like fire ants. Having been bitten by fire ants before myself (imported in sod), I knew how uncomfortable it was. I called the vet and got a refill on the Rimadyl in case I needed it. By the time I got home the dog was walking around again using his hind foot.

So I'm going to try a combination of Splenda and Cinnamon.

I filled a shaker with Splenda (@ 1 1/2 Cups) and added 2 tablespoons of Cinnamon, stirred it up and went out to the back patio and shook it around. The Splenda drifts on any breeze really nicely so you don't have to be too precise where you shake it.

I'll keep you posted if you want.

Elizabeth

Update – Two Days Later

As of this morning the fire ants had congregated into two new mounds (in different places than I had sprinkled). So I really think this is something that works!!!!!