So so many ants...

[LadyJ]

There are ants all over my enclosures... these enclosures are kept pristine (spot cleaning as required, completely disinfected once or twice a week) and no food is ever left in there for more than an hour.

But there are hundreds of ants everywhere! I don't feel comfortable offering food in the enclosures while there's so many ants around and I'm worried about them making it a permenant stay!

Can they harm my reptiles or my equipment and how can I safely get rid of these? I have a jar-lid of honey sitting just outside the enclosure and they seem to be drawn to it... but they're too smart to drown!

 

[REPTILIAN-KMAN]

hi lady G, i have found ants come into my house when the weather turns bad, cold, wet , rain, changes in conditions ( weather) there are attracted to items like sugar and honey ( remove the Honey trap ) i in the past have brought RID_ANT it works great its a black liquad and you place this on there ant trails the ants are attracted to it they eat the substance and then then they go back to there nest and it kills all the other ants. i finf it works great and dont find any ants again until another colony moves into another area. give it a try theres also a chalk you can get as well

good luck

but make sure you remove all food items from the areas as well !

 

[TassieHerper]

Australia has been plagued with European brown ants for around 8-10 years now. They are opportunistic ant and they don’t need any real reason to come and say hi.

You could try placing some ant bait traps outside the enclosure. Ants walk in one line following the scent of the ant that has been before it. if you can put it near the line they walk you might have a better chance in getting rid of them the only problem with this is if your herps eat the ants it will be a little more difficult.

In large numbers they can be a problem but in most cases only an annoyance to the herp. They become more of a problem if your herps have any open or new wounds. They will climb in and start eating the dead and fresh flesh from the edge of the wound and drink the fluids.

 

[Bez84]

Ant-rid works really well comes in a tiny bottle and is a honey colour, you just put a few drops of it in one place and ants come to it drink and take it back to nest and feed it to the rest.
Think it contains borax which basically dehydrates the ants till they die and dry out.
I had a problem when i fed on rainy days or nights and left a pinkie with a hatchling over night that by morning it would be covered with ants.

 

[burger]

get a thorny devil??

 

[LadyJ]

get a thorny devil??

You're not the first to suggest that, hehe!

But in all honesty... I just got rid of hundreds of ants without using any spray or powder. All I needed was a lighter and some lemons, work perfectly!

 

[MYT14]

top of decent is the bomb.

 

[LadyJ]

top of decent is the bomb.

I've heard that from a lot of people - I'll have to get my hands on some!