Icing Sugar and Ants

Ants were a topic of discussion in the staff room today. Specifically, how to get rid of them from your lawn or garden. Maybe even from a picnic.

Icing sugar and borax. Nobody mentioned the specific quantities of these two ingredients, but it was determined that this solution would be cheaper than cornmeal, another much-touted natural method of ant extermination.

Someone even knew where to find the borax--on the bottom shelf at Safeway, one of the local grocery stores. When this was voiced, another woman and I, as if reading from a teleprompter, both piped up in unison: "Twenty Mule Team Borax."

We both laughed; she said, "We're dating ourselves here."

I remember a black and white television ad, with a wagon train pulled by two lines of mules (no doubt ten to a line, although I don't remember ever counting to make sure). The company that made this brand of laundry booster sponsored that great old western, "Death Valley Days."

Now, it just sponsors Death Valley Days for the ants.