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Aspen Bedding-Ant infestation

N

nsmar4211

New member
Never had this happen before on an animal!
About a week ago I was walking by my corn's cage and saw a trail of sugar ants coming out of the cage. I thought, oh no, the snake died (he hides 90% of the time) so I took the cage outside and striped it down. Corn snake was fine and a little peeved at being woken up. The sugar ants had nested under the aspen bedding and were all in the piece of grapevine driftwood that was in the cage, as well as under the water dish. I took everything out of the cage and put the corn on paper towel substrate (my ball is on paper towels already), only giving back the water dish and a hide.
Not sure what the ants were after, the cage was clean (bedding changed weekly) and the snake is healthy? Sugar ants don't bite so they weren't after the snake. The only thing I could figure is they were after the water, but also in the same room is 140 gallons worth of aquariums, and they weren't in the ball's cage. Since getting rid of the aspen, no more ants.........
Anyone else ever have this happen?
 
never had that happen... but if they do come back, try drawing a chalk line around the invaded viv. Ants follow the scent of other ants (scouts) and the chalk should mask that scent.
I had an ant problem in my old apartment building and by crushing chalk into my window sills and patio door track the ants quit comming in.
 
I don't spray anything in my room because of the aquariums and other critters, so I use this stuff called Terro. It's basically borax in sugar water, you drip a few drops on a piece of cardboard where the ants feed and they take it back to the nest and all gone in a few days. Borax also works I'm told :)
 
I recently had a reoccurring infestation in my snake room. I don't think they were sugar ants because they were on refused pinks and shed skins within hours. The refused pinks I could control by making sure I checked everyone on feeding day. However, for over a week I would know when anyone shed because the ants would be all over that bin. Often the poor snake inside would also be thrashing around trying to get them off, even though they weren't biting the snake. The also started going after the dog food in the mice cages.
It was a very bad infestation, and none of the "holistic" methods worked. I opted to use an ant killing "gel". You have to be very careful to keep it away from your animals, but I would stick some gel in every source hole I could find and we haven't had ants since.
 
Sprinkling diatiomaceous earth around your exterior walls seems to help, and if you happen to find the entry point as well. The diatomaceous earth is made of long-dead diatoms, little glass-shelled sea critters.

As the ants/mites/fleas walk through it, the glass will cut their exoskeletons and they essentially bleed to death. My mom has those seasonal ant migrations, usually in the spring and fall, in the kitchen. Sprinkled some around the backsplash of the counter top, around the sink, and around their entry hole, and they stopped coming back.

I learned about it from an exterminator who would rather use a more holistic approach than chemicals in a home full of pets. He said he sprinkles it on the carpet and pet bedding in a flea infested home, and the problem usually goes away if you keep your pet treated like normal.

Its non-toxic and not harmful to larger animals in the least. I've even used it to dust chickens that were infested with feather mites, and it worked beautifully. Some people even feed small amounts to their chickens with their regular feed because helps to cut up and kill worms in the gut. I've not had the courage to try that yet, but many people report success.

There's also another "natural" product that you can find at Walmart. Its made by Bonide I believe, 'Home Defense' rings a bell for some reason. It's an orange oil product that kills bugs on the spot through suffocation, deters them from coming back, and is non-toxic. It works great on everything from wasps, to roaches, to ants.

Chalk works too because ants can't lay down the pheromone trail they typically follow and it gets on their feet. Ants are fastidious groomers. ;)

I've even used Vaseline and Crisco to gum up a hole in the foundation of our old farm house that they kept getting into.

Lots of things you can try that aren't chemical in nature. =)
 
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