Baking soda does not attract ants. On its own, it has no scent or flavor that draws them in, and ants will often walk right past it or avoid it entirely. The reason baking soda comes up so often in ant control is that it can kill ants if they eat it, but you need a separate attractant (usually powdered sugar) to get them to consume it in the first place.
Why Ants Ignore Plain Baking Soda
Ants forage for two things: water and energy. Sugar provides energy, and baking soda provides neither. It’s an odorless white powder with a mildly salty, bitter taste. Some homeowners who’ve sprinkled plain baking soda near ant trails report the ants simply avoided it altogether. Without something sweet mixed in, there’s no reason for ants to interact with it.
How the Powdered Sugar Trick Works
The standard DIY approach is to mix equal parts baking soda and powdered sugar, then place the mixture along ant trails or near entry points. The powdered sugar is the attractant. Ants detect it, eat the mixture, and ingest baking soda along with it. Once inside an ant’s stomach, the baking soda reacts with digestive acids to produce carbon dioxide gas. Ants can’t expel gas the way humans can, so the buildup is fatal.
A few details matter here. You need to use powdered (confectioners’) sugar, not regular granulated sugar. The grains of granulated sugar are large enough that ants can physically separate them from the baking soda and eat only the sugar. Powdered sugar blends uniformly with baking soda, making it impossible for ants to pick one out and leave the other behind. A ratio of 1:1 works well. Even 3/4 tablespoon of each, mixed in a jar lid or shallow dish, is enough to start.
How Well It Actually Works
Baking soda can kill individual ants, but the results are slower and less reliable than many people expect. Lab studies show it takes 5 to 7 days to kill ants through ingestion or direct contact. In controlled tests, death rates ranged from 42% to 99% in fire ants and Argentine ants within 6 to 7 days when the ants were trapped on treated surfaces. That’s a wide range, and real-world conditions tend to fall toward the lower end.
In practice, baking soda typically kills 40 to 60% of worker ants. Give it 5 to 10 days before judging results. The bigger problem is that it rarely reaches the queen. Ant colonies survive and reproduce through their queen, and baking soda bait almost never penetrates deep enough into the nest to kill her. Most homeowners see an initial decrease in ant activity, followed by the ants returning within 2 to 3 weeks as the colony replenishes its workers. Full colony elimination with baking soda alone is rare.
Baking Soda vs. Borax vs. Diatomaceous Earth
If baking soda isn’t getting the job done, two other common household options tend to perform better.
- Borax is the most effective DIY colony killer. Mixed with sugar water or powdered sugar, it works as a slow-acting poison that ants carry back to the nest and share with the queen and other colony members. You’ll typically see fewer ants within a day, and the colony can be wiped out within a few days. Borax is mildly toxic, so keep it away from pets and children. One important note: never mix borax and baking soda together. They react chemically and weaken each other’s effectiveness.
- Diatomaceous earth (food-grade) works through physical damage rather than ingestion. The microscopic sharp particles cut through the waxy coating on an insect’s exoskeleton and clog their breathing pores. Any ant that crawls through it will die, and insects can’t build resistance to it. The downside is that it stops working once it gets wet, so it’s best for dry indoor areas. It also only kills ants that physically pass through it, so it won’t eliminate a colony on its own. It works well as a barrier while you’re using a bait like borax to target the nest.
Baking soda’s main advantage over these alternatives is safety. It’s completely nontoxic to pets and children, which makes it a reasonable first attempt in homes where that’s a concern. It’s also extremely cheap. But if you’re dealing with a persistent colony, borax bait is far more likely to solve the problem because it actually reaches the queen.
Tips for Better Results
If you decide to try the baking soda and powdered sugar method, placement matters more than quantity. Set the mixture directly on active ant trails, near baseboards where you’ve seen ants entering, and close to any cracks or gaps they’re using as entry points. Use flat, shallow containers like jar lids or pieces of cardboard so ants can easily access the bait. Replace the mixture every few days, especially if it gets wet or clumpy.
Watch for activity over the first week. If you notice a clear reduction in ants but they return after two to three weeks, the queen survived and the colony is rebuilding. At that point, switching to a borax-based bait or calling a pest professional is a more realistic path to solving the problem long-term.