I remember my grandmother having this in the house, but I can’t recall her ever using it for anything. I’ve used Borax for home-made laundry detergent, though.
borax is different than boric acid. They both come from Boron. It looks like boric acid is better for insects, but borax for some other things like cleaning. A lot of overlap though
https://homescopes.com/garden/borax-vs-boric-acid/