Tips for killing and preventing ants!

[gambite]

I have read some of the thread in the archives, and was wondering if anyone has any more ideas on how to kill and prevent these guys without hurting my inverts. For the past couple days, I have found wayward ants around my bedroom. I didnt think much of it, and just put all my foodstuffs in suspended bags. I keep my windows open 24/7, so I think its most likely that they are coming in from their, despite me being on the second floor of the house. I have not actually SEEN them in the windows, though, it just seems most likely.

Well, today I went to check on my sick B. jacksoni, and his tank was full of ants! They were not their last night or yesterday, so they must have found it overnight. It was not a HUGE swarm, maybe a dozen or so in the tank and another dozen or so around the edges of my bookshelf, leading down to the floor and carpet. I tracked their trail a few feet, but lost it due to their scarcity.

My first reaction was to grab my spray bottle of isopropanol and spray the bejeesus out of all the ants and their trail. This seemed to kill them quickly, but I am not sure how effective it is at getting rid of their trail.

So far, that was the only tank I have found with them in it, and I have not found many more around the room yet. I am sure they are there, though. What do you guys suggest? How harmful can they be to my inverts? The one they were in today was already dead, and the tank was moist. Will they be attracted to ALL my enclosures? Or only moist ones?

 

[Memento]

We had a serious ant problem a few weeks ago, and we did the following:

1. Place your enclosures in shallow pans of mildly soapy water. This will prevent the ants from getting to them, and let you proceed with the next parts without the ants contaminating the enclosures.

2. Get some diatomaceous(sp) earth and *carefully* apply it under your baseboards and inside any cracks in the room. This will kill any ants that walk through it. Be very careful that you don't spread it around, as it will also kill other inverts if it gets on them (it works by abrading the exoskeleton).

If you're unsure about using the earth, use cayenne pepper instead. It won't kill the ants, but they won't cross it.

3. Get some ant bait traps, and place them within 3 feet of any trails you find.

4. If there are obvious holes, cracks or crevices, get some pure peppermint oil (mentha x piperita), put a couple of drops on cottons balls, and stuff these into the openings ants may be coming from. Peppermint tends to repel inverts that use scent trails.

It took about 2-3 weeks before the ants completely disappeared, so you just need to be patient.

 

[T_DORKUS]

Had a trail of ants leading to my H. lividum tank. I used the bait traps that comes in some sort of plastic that holds the bait but has small holes to let the ants in. Seem to work- ants are gone in a couple of days. The traps come in packs of 4 and I have them in every corner of my T room and under the shelves. I have a roach colony with fruit and other goodies and a holding tank for crickets- but no ants still. Guess the scouts don't make it past the ant traps.

 

[rustym3talh3ad]

im not sure if this is 100% accurate but i have heard of using borrax soap around the exterior of your home. its supposed to be a soap that eliminates odor from hunting clothes. that could keep them from gettin into the house in the first place but once again ive only heard of it, never tried myself.

 

[Memento]

Dry Borax powder works the same as diatomaceous earth, so you could use either of them. It's abrasive, so when inverts walk through it their exoskeleton gets sliced up and they die of dehydration.

 

[8legedemily]

equal or sweet and low will kill the ants they take it back to the hive like toro ant bait.your T will not eat it but keep it away from the inside of there enclosure.

 

[natebugman]

The first question we really need the answer to is, what kind of ants are they? Putting your cages in pans of soapy water is a good first step no matter what kind of ant you are dealing with, but the types of bates that can be used to get rid of them will depend on what ant species your dealing with and what type of food source its after.

If you are dealing with a small "sugar ant", I would recommend trying a solution of 1% borax in a 10% solution of sugar water. Soak cotton balls in the solution and place them in small containers (vials) and place them near where you have seen the ants. The ants are attracted to the sugar water, but can't taste the low percentage of boric acid. They eat it and die. We use it in the lab to battle ghost ants to keep them from eating our mosquitoes.

 

[scar is my t]

heavy chemicals out side the house, Nukes , concrete over the ant holes , giant earthquake machine , or of course just drown them out......... i use chemicals (ant killer) outside if i see ants. and of the course ant traps are awesome

 

[MaThEwMoNsTr323]

i too, have been having(had) ant problems. my only worry with the bait, was that they still might carry it up to my Ts containers. so for last couple of weeks iv been using an Ant Chalk. it took some time to find, but well worth it. my Ts cabinets are in my garage, so i was able to chalk circles around each leg on each cabinet. work's great, so far...

 

[pinkfoot]

I have just moved my roach colonies out to a wooden hut in our garden, and am having a terrible time trying to rid them of ants.

Baits that work on ants also work on any roaches that might escape and return to the colony, so that's out.

I've tried plain water, but the ants laughed at me and swam across...;P

If there are any ants reading this...I HATE YOU LITTLE BASTARDS!! :evil: :evil:

 

[gvfarns]

I have just moved my roach colonies out to a wooden hut in our garden, and am having a terrible time trying to rid them of ants.

Baits that work on ants also work on any roaches that might escape and return to the colony, so that's out.

I've tried plain water, but the ants laughed at me and swam across...;P

If there are any ants reading this...I HATE YOU LITTLE BASTARDS!! :evil: :evil:

Roaches that escape and then return to the colony? You might want to change your setup if that's happening. An escapee once a blue moon is not unusual, but none of this getting out and then getting back in without you noticing stuff.

 

[MizM]

I find the best approach is to use the bait that they take back to feed the colony. You need to kill off the colony, if you only kill the workers that enter your home, more will soon follow. It takes longer, but AFAIK the only effective way.

 

[pinkfoot]

Roaches that escape and then return to the colony? You might want to change your setup if that's happening. An escapee once a blue moon is not unusual, but none of this getting out and then getting back in without you noticing stuff.

Heh heh! You been talking to my wife?!

Some of the species I breed, have nymphs that are so small, they can pass through the wire mesh. If this happens and they run into some bait, I could realistically lose a colony.