The effect of negative ions on the modulational instability properties of nonlinear dust acoustic (DA) waves in the electronegative dusty plasmas was investigated by considering Boltzmann-distributed electrons, negative ions, positive ions as well as positively charged dust grain under the ultraviolet irradiation. It is shown that the modulational instability properties of the DA waves were strongly affected by the temperature and proportion of negative ions. The modulational instability can occur only if the proportion of negative ions was smaller than critical value. The instability growth rate has a maximum value when the proportion of negative ions was a critical one in the unstable region. The effect of photoelectron generated by ultraviolet irradiation on the modulational instability of dust acoustic waves was also discussed by numerical method.