ANTS IN THE SALAD!!!

[jings55]

Hi! We found bookoos of "sweet ants" (the tiny, tiny ones) in Stryker's salad last night!

The salad was made of kale, carrots, squash and blueberries. He never touched it...and they came marching in! The salad was left out all day-as usual. We do seem to have these ants this time of year-every year-in the house. We don't know how to get rid of them, cause we have a housefull of animals and are afraid to spray or put down ant traps (cats).

Last week, they were in the Anole's cage (same room) and I decided the whole cage-substate and all had to be cleaned out.

Has anyone else had this problem? What did you do?

We removed the food and checked out the cage real good and they didn't seem to be hiding under the reti carpet or logs.

Would these ants have attacked Stryker and eaten him???

We did not put another salad in. He just got crickets.

What's a mother to do?

 

[ynevar]

How is it going? We don't have ants here, we just have no-see-um and mosquitoes. Tons of spiders... various other bugs... I am glad we don't have ants. When we lived in NY we had ants, but Alaska--nope.

How is Stryker? Is he loving his new diet of more crickets?

Hope all is well.

I was thinking.... I don't know if you have a garage or basement, but if it is temp controlled maybe hubby may consider a container of crickets in the garage or basement, not in the house?

Marcy

 

[wilddanny88]

Try not to leave food in his cage overnight and they might not come for a midnight snack. lol We've had some problems with ants as well but they're fire ants! None of them got in Guy's cage thank god. We sprayed the room floor with bug poison and mopped and they went away. Guy had to stay in another room for a few days while the poison fumes aired out. Hopefully you can get your ant problem under control as well.

 

[SeanFred]

My pet friendly remedy for ants is corn starch. Find where they are coming in and spread a bit around, they take it back to the colony and it kills them somehow. I don't know the science, but the results are great.

 

[jings55]

Hi! Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one this has happened to!

And You hit the nail on the head-we did leave the salad in there overnight! He hasn't been eating much salad this week at all. I gave him kale and one day he ate it, and next he ignored it! I'm going to try collards or turnup greens now.

I never heard of using corn starch. But it's safe and worth a try! But so far, we don't know how/where they're coming in. We also have them in the kitchen and one bathroom. My husband says the moisture attracks them-especially this time of year when it's so dang hot outside. Years ago, I remember my mother telling me to put spearmint gum sticks in the cabinets to keep them out-and I would do that again, except that I'm raising two granddaughters, 10 & 12 and the 10 year has problems and won't listen and I know her-she'd eat the gum!

Marcy-unfortunately we don't have a basement or a garage to raise crickets in. Just a (creepy) crawl space under the house-and I'm not going under there! Good idea, though! At least he's eating them! But I have a new "repti carpet" in my 40 gal tank this past week and the crickets are hiding under it! I liked it better when we had this astro-turf type carpeting, that came with his 10 gal set-up. They also hide in his branches that he baskes on. :x

Anybody else that has any suggestions or wants to share experiences is welcomed to chime in!

 

[ynevar]

Well I right now am using paper towel, so it's pretty easy to lift up and see what is in there. And disposable boxes for basking spots. As soon as I take their fecals into the vet and get the green light for NO coccidia I am back to using slate. The crickets would hide under there too. At night I'd shake the basking branches off, pretty good shake too, because they can really creep in there and hide good. I am actually looking forward to dubias because they won't bite the dragons like the crickets do...

I'd leave a pinch of cricket food for them under the carpet then, so they munch on that and not your dragon if you don't lift the carpet out and get them all out at the end of the night. I personally scoop them all out with a baggie. Pain in the NECK but I'd rather that than have my lil ones tortured while they sleep.

 

[jings55]

We never had so many crickets hide on us before! That's a good idea about putting the cricket food under the carpet. I've seen the crikets eating the little red dragon pellets before and even fighting over them! At least they got "loaded"!

 

[ynevar]

Have you thought of feeding him in a separate container, like a sterlite tub that you can easily dump back into your cricket keeper? that would eliminate the hiding crickets...

 

[TheWerewolf]

My pet friendly remedy for ants is corn starch. Find where they are coming in and spread a bit around, they take it back to the colony and it kills them somehow. I don't know the science, but the results are great.

Interesting, I'm studying to be an entomologist and have never heard of it. I wonder why it kills them? We do have 'sweet ants' or 'sugar ants' as I like to call them but they are in small numbers. But we do use the, take-to-the-colony-and-die ant traps and that keeps them down. Although, sometimes carpenter ants crawl into Nim's cage, and boy do they regret that. Once I saw an ant crawl into Nim's cage and down the lizards throat it goes! Haha :lol: That is why any insect I want to keep, doesn't go near my Nim's cage. Oops, sorry about the long story. I have a thread for that.

 

[bunnyrut]

never heard of using cornstarch.

here is a site for home remedies. http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Ants

i mix peanut butter and sugar and put a container outside the house, they go after that instead of in my home.

the boric acid remedy will kill the colony.

 

[jings55]

Bunnyrut- I liked your Ant story I HATE Carpenter Ants!

Werewolf- I've read of doing that, but I'm still a newbie and haven't implemented a lot of ideas and suggestions yet. I will see about buying one of those containers! What size do you use so the beardie & the crickets can't get out?

 

[jings55]

Thanks for the website, Bunnyrut! Will check it out! :study: Death to the Ants!!!

 

[SeanFred]

We used it in the barn growing up, we saw ants, throw corn starch where you see them, they carry it back to the nest, they don't come back for long while.

 

[wilddanny88]

I never thought about a "pet-friendly" home remedy. But it was all fine because we let the poison fumes air out for a few days while Guy was in another room.

 

[jings55]

Just gave Stryker greens-no fruit or other veggies for two days. Only saw one ant. Will try to incorporate veggies tomorrow. We had not ever had a problem til now. Thanks for all your help and advice. I'll keep you posted if they come back... :wave: