Terro liquid ant bait stations open by snapping off a small tab on top of the station. Hold the station vertically with the tab facing up, grip it firmly, and twist the tab until it breaks off. That opening is where ants enter to reach the bait inside.
Step-by-Step Opening Instructions
The process takes about five seconds once you know what you’re looking at. Each bait station has a small plastic tab on top that seals the liquid inside. Here’s how to open it:
- Hold the station vertically with the tab pointing up. Keep it upright so the liquid doesn’t spill out before you’re ready to place it.
- Grip the base firmly with one hand and twist the tab with the other until it snaps off cleanly.
- Place the station flat on the surface where you want it. The opening you just created is the entry point for ants.
If the tab doesn’t snap off easily, you can carefully cut it away with scissors. Some older versions of the T300 product were actually designed to be opened with scissors, so if your package looks slightly different from what you see online, that may be why. The newer design uses the twist-off tab instead.
Cleaning Up Spills
The liquid inside is a sticky, sugary borax solution, and it will leave a residue if it drips onto your counter or floor. If that happens, soak a sponge or cloth in hot water, place it over the spill, and let it sit for about an hour. After that, the sticky residue wipes up easily. Trying to scrub it immediately without soaking tends to just spread it around.
Where to Place the Bait Stations
Once open, set the station flat on a surface near where you’ve seen ants traveling. Ant trails along baseboards, countertop edges, and windowsills are ideal spots. Kitchens, bathrooms, and laundry rooms tend to attract the most ant activity because they offer both food and water sources.
You can place multiple stations along the same trail. The key is putting them directly in the path ants are already using, not in a random corner where you hope they’ll wander over.
What to Expect After Placing the Bait
Here’s the part that catches most people off guard: you’ll likely see more ants in the first day or two, not fewer. That’s the bait working as intended. Worker ants find the station, recruit others, and form a visible trail back and forth between the bait and their nest. The active ingredient, borax, kills ants slowly over 24 to 48 hours. That delay is deliberate. It gives workers enough time to carry the liquid back to the colony and share it with other ants, including the queen. If the bait killed on contact, only the ants you can see would die.
Resist the urge to remove the station or spray the trail with insecticide. Let the ants feed. Activity typically peaks within a few days and then drops off as the colony collapses. If you disrupt the process by killing the visible ants, the colony survives and sends out new foragers.
If Ants Aren’t Taking the Bait
Terro’s liquid bait is sugar-based, which works well for most common household ant species. But ants’ dietary needs shift throughout the year. During certain seasons, a colony may crave protein or fat instead of sugar, and the workers will walk right past a sweet bait. If you notice ants ignoring the stations entirely, placement is the first thing to check. The station needs to be directly on or very near an active trail. If placement looks right and ants still aren’t interested, switching to a protein-based bait is the next step.
Also make sure competing food sources aren’t drawing ants away from the bait. Crumbs on the counter, sticky residue near the trash can, or pet food left out can all be more appealing than the station. Cleaning up those alternatives pushes ants toward the bait instead.
Safety Around Pets and Children
Borax has low toxicity for people and animals at the concentration used in these bait stations. That said, you don’t want a dog chewing on a station or a toddler picking one up. Place stations in spots that are accessible to ants but harder for pets and kids to reach: behind appliances, inside cabinets where you’ve seen ant activity, or along baseboards behind furniture. The enclosed station design helps keep the liquid contained, but it’s a small plastic piece that a curious pet could easily carry off.