How I Finally Got Rid of Ants

The process was simply, really. I had read other stories of people using enzyme cleaners, like Bac-Out, to wash their floors and discovering that ants, bugs and lizards didn’t like the smell.  Surprising, really, because Bac-Out doesn’t smell bad it all — it’s smells like citrus, and does a great job of getting rid of bathroom odors. Really? Pine Sol smells worse — and even that doesn’t permanently get rid of ants.

I can’t help myself. If I see an ant, I grab it an plop it into a carefully prepared bowl of sugar mixed with a lethal dose of Diatomaceous Earth (not lethal to humans). Same thing I use to handle pantry moths. 

Inspired, and curious, I started moping my floors with enzymes. Within seconds of distributing the enzymes on my floor, ants that I didn’t even know I had, came scurrying out of the woodwork. I swear, if I could hear them, they were saying,  “Get me outta here!”

But are the floors clean? One person commented that the grout on her tile floor gets progressively whiter every time she cleans with enzymes. Guess what? My grout, is now  back to “cream-colored” so bright and pretty.  I’m talking about the grout in our first floor bathroom that gets a tremendous amount of traffic from the boys and their friends, constantly. I had accepted it would be “gray” forever.

So, you know where this is headed, don’t you? I couldn’t resist. I bit the bullet and started making my own, garbage enzymes. I just wanted to see if I could do it — you know, kind of an experiement.  How hard could it be? I’m already saving citrus peels for my own do-it-yourself Citrasol.

Why do this? I know, you can simply go out and buy Bac-Out. But, making your own garbage enzyme makes a “mash” that is so good for cleaning the sludge out of your drains, which also eliminates fruit flies.

More on that in the coming weeks. In short, the benefits of the “mash” is worth the trouble. In the third-world, Garbage Enzymes is the latest craze to save the environment. A  Study of the Garbage Enzyme’s Effects in Domestic Wastewate by the World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, helped me sleep better. Garbage Enzymes are the “new compost.”

“It makes good use of kitchen waste which would otherwise end up in landfills and generate methane, a potent greenhouse gas. It is something that housewives can do. And the enzyme also reduces our reliance on chemical cleaners, detergent. The Star.

Yet, The whole time I was preparing the materials, I was saying under my breath, “You DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THIS,” but the other voice kept saying — “but enzymes are so powerful, you need the extra cleaning power, and making  your own is practically free!”

The battle raged in my mind for two weeks, until the first batch of garbage enzymes was completed. That battle stopped once the first batch of garbage enzyme was done, and I saw for myself how simple it was to make. The whole process, hands-on time, was probably about 10 minutes, tops. Now the enzymes “make themselves” over a period of two weeks. Think of it as yeast rising a bread, except this takes longer.

I know this sounds terribly complicated, and most of you have already stopped reading by now. Who wants to go to all the trouble to “make” a cleaner.  But, if you’re still with me, keep reading. Again, this is pretty much a “hands-off” process, and one that I highly recommend.

Here’s what you’ll need to get started.

• A plastic container with a lid, large enough to hold 2 liters. Plastic is best. I used an old pickle jar… but be sure to leave the lid slightly ajar, as the gases in the concoction need to expand. This goes for plastic and glass.
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon yeast. Without this, the garbage enzyme will take 3 months to ferment.
• 1 liter water
• 2 cups citrus scraps. Technically, you can use vegetables and fruits. But, let’s be honest. Do you want to clean with tomatoes? Let’s keep it sweet-smelling by only using citrus.
• If you don’t have 2 cups of citrus peels, just keep adding them to the container until you have two cups. The enzymes will start being created on the day you have the full two cups.

1. Mix all the ingredients together.
2. Mark the date you created the mixture on the container.
3. Shake once a day for one week.
4. After one week, just let it sit.
5. Keep the lid slightly loose, to let the gas escape for the first week.
6. After two weeks, strain the mixture and store it in an empty container. Once, I let it sit an extra 10 days, and it was still in perfect shape.
7. Keep the leftover pulp, the mash. Flush it down your toilets to clean out the drains.

This post has a lot of information. But this is not the last thing I have to say on the topic. I’ll continue to give updates on how great it is to have your own garbage enzyme around your house.