Ants - tips for avoidance

I just found my first ant trail inside the house for the season, so I thought I'd post my tips for dealing with them and would love to see other tips.

I've not had any kind of ant bait ever work since moving up here. The stuff my dad uses that works for him in Bay Area - my ants completely ignore it.

Argentina ants (what I've got) are a serious threat to herps, they will kill them and eat them down to the bone very quickly - it happened to me when I was 11 with some lizards.

1) Get rid of any and all pieces of shed skin ASAP. They seem to attract the little buggers.
2) Place pans of some sort under the feet of any tables/stands if possible. I use large metal baking pans for my hatchling rack, pie tins for my vision rack (on wheels). Smear vaseline all over the inside of the pans. I've never seen the ants get past vaseline. Be liberal with it.
3) make sure no power cables are in contact with the ground. Ants will use them to access your equipment. They still may find the power cable via the outlet, rub vaseline along the power cable.
4) If you can find their point of entry into the home, a little caulking or silicone can block it. There's a good chance they'll find another path in though.
5) Not tried by me but I read about it in a herp book (I think Kathy's but I'm not positive) - Diatomaceous Earth. Apparently ants really don't like to walk across it.

What works for me in Florida is a call to the exterminator! They go to my bird room about once a year. The ants. But I have year round pest control. I'm not in favor of that, so much, but it's a necessity.

I think the diatomaceous earth kills them by slicing them with tiny sharp slivers. It's used for aquarium filtration.

I've heard that putting a coating of Vaseline around the edge of your viv will keep them out.

You know what I hate- ants that are attracted to the well outside, to the electric contacts, causing it to shut down. What's up with that???

Hah! This is funny! Last night our ant battle went into the new reptile room where the ASF's are. The ants were swarming all over their rack...

Here's some other solutions that you can do that won't hurt your animals:

• Coffee You can spread coffee grounds around the outside of your house or brew some strong coffee, put in a spray bottle and spray around the house and where you find them coming in (if you don't mind the smell of coffee). Coffee will stain, so be careful what you spray on.

• Mint Ants have a natural aversion to mint (and catnip, but mint smells better). Use a mint tea found at your grocery store (or if you have mint growing, just boil the leaves) and put in spray bottle. If you smell the mint as you're spraying, it is the proper concentration.

Nanci said:

I think the diatomaceous earth kills them by slicing them with tiny sharp slivers.

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I think that's right, and then they dessicate. I've heard they don't like to walk over cornstarch/baby powder, too. I don't know why; maybe it's because they can't leave their chemical trails in it.

During really wet summers, we have occasionally gotten trails of fire ants into the house. I would take a spoonful of Amdro (fire ant killer), mix it with some grease or greasy meat (their favorite thing!) and put it into a small container with holes plenty big enough for the ants, but not big enough for the cats to get into. Then I would lay it near the ant trail. Very shortly, the container would be swarming with ants, and I would just totally ignore them. Within a day or two, no more ants! Of course, it might have to be repeated later when another colony invades, but it has been an easy, cheap, and safe way to deal with meat eating ants.

Flea powder works really well. Just sprinkle it whereever they are getting in, kills them. Also sprinkle it on the next if you can find it.

I also sprinkle it aroung the base of that stand that my cages are on (not near the actual cages mind you). Works wonders, if you don't mind having rings of white powder everywhere! lol

Thanks for the mint tip, I didn't know that, will definitely try it! I HATE ants!!!

I'm using diatomaceous earth this year for pest control. I've got the food grade that can be used in food to kill internal parasites too. As I've just got new kittens I can compare how it works with how my other animals had the traditional treatments when they were young. For ants, fleas etc, it has to be put where you won't vacuum it up so it can dessicate the little blighters.

Great thread! I love th e coffee and mint ideas. And I always have lots of coffee grounds. lol

I had my first ant problem yesterday! They were little black ones (thank goodness not fire ants). My home is not, uh, completely sealed to the outdoors. (Yes, I'm poor.) So anyway, little tiny ants got into my bathroom/snake room, but just into the garter snake aquarium which is on the sink counter. I moved the garter to his feeding bin, thoroughly cleaned everything, including dumping out his aspen and replacing it with paper towels. I would change all the snake cages, dumping out aspen and replacing, but I just fed them the day before yesterday. So until this weekend, I'm keeping my eyes out for ants just in case. I am SO going to pour coffee grounds near any openings/cracks poutside the house, and do some coffee spraying inside near those areas!

Thanks folks for all the suggestions. Keep them coming!

This website has lots of ant info:

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7411.html

I put a pyrethrin spray around the outside of our house and have kept the ants out for the last 2-3 years.

GUY

I don't understand why you can't just use Terro ant killer. I put a tiny bit on a piece of paper somewhere no where near my animals and the ants swarm it, take it to their nest, and kill off majority of the nest. Unless that is deadly to snakes in some way?