ants problems!!! help!

erguayabero

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 29, 2010
Messages
22
I have ants on my terrarium!!! help!

how can i kill the ants on my terrarium without killing my tarantula??
 
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Mattyb

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 28, 2004
Messages
2,317
how can i kill the ants on my terrarium without killing my tarantula??
Remove the tarantula, and clean the entire terrarium and put in new substrate and put the tarantula back in.
 

TomM

Arachnobaron of Pennsylvania
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 15, 2009
Messages
448
Remove the tarantula, and clean the entire terrarium and put in new substrate and put the tarantula back in.
+1
This is what I would do.
 

Bill S

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 2, 2006
Messages
1,418
Remove the tarantula, and clean the entire terrarium and put in new substrate and put the tarantula back in.
I had a sudden invasion of ants a few months ago that caused some damage. As others have indicated, move the tarantula to a new container with fresh substrate. But you'll also need to make sure the ants are not going to re-invade. I was able to get poison ant bait traps at a local store, and they worked wonders. I keep a bunch of them on hand now, and have one on each shelf in my arachnid room.

Good luck!!!
 

odiakkoh

Arachnosquire
Joined
Sep 8, 2010
Messages
57
Bury a pound of sugar in your backyard. Give the ants something else to annoy.
 

odiakkoh

Arachnosquire
Joined
Sep 8, 2010
Messages
57
I think you would end up with even more ants if you did that lol.
Lol we do it every spring/summer. Keeps the ants out of the house. They're going to be there anyway, I rather them be out than in.
 

Bill S

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 2, 2006
Messages
1,418
Bury a pound of sugar in your backyard. Give the ants something else to annoy.
There are thousands of varieties of ants, and only some of them would pay any attention to sugar. While you are fattening up the sugar ants in your back yard, the ones invading your cages (which are not looking for sugar) would continue to invade.

Much more effective to directly deal with the ants that are causing the problems.
 

BatGirl

MAJOR
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 4, 2008
Messages
139
I hate ants !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, the world could get along very nicely without frackin' ants!:evil:

The ants are ON not IN the cage, so it is just a case to re-direct the monster invaders away... and then kill 'em all! Scrubbing the ant colony's 'trail' with some scented soap will stop more coming over to the cage, then enjoy squashing the remaining ones that are on the cage. Roger on the bait trap - but be careful as some may leave the bait trap and go into the cage before dying carrying what killed them with them and possibly hurt/kill your pet (not to mention they may track the stuff on your food and dishes and harm you...). I'd place the bait trap as far as you can upstream of where you scrubbed the ant trail.

If the ants ever get into the cage - remove your pet and dump the substrate, wash everything else to remove their 'scent' that they lay out for the other ants to follow, and follow the pargraph above to destroy their 'trail' and any followers.

I REALLY hate ants.

ANT WARFARE{D

As far as the sugar in the yard - you are just letting the ant colony grow and eventually there will be so many that when their size outgrows the free sugar food, they will come looking for food into your home - so in the long run, NOT A GOOD IDEA AT ALL (also, they may not be going into your house for the time being but be going to your neighbors house, so not very neighborly, eh?). We have problem with ants due to the fruit trees. We have to spray the base of the trees with pesticide to keep them out of the tree, keep the fruit picked up, and in the spring when the little $#!+'s start poking their mounds out of the ground, I carpet bomb the mounds with pesticide every single day until there is no longer any mounds popping up. Then the trails coming from neighbor's yards are ruthlessly tracked with pesticide to discourage such invasion. I've been know to see an ant mound on the side of the road, will pull over, and will attack it just out of instinct (can we say I'm obsessed with destroying all ants?)

I think I sorta got off topic...
 

KevinFrancisco

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 15, 2010
Messages
33
Oil

try putting oil around the base of the container. i used to have the same problem then i found a baby oil around the house and tried applying it. it worked for me.

hope that helps :)
 

Bill S

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 2, 2006
Messages
1,418
I think BatGirl really hates ants.
But she's so subtle about it.....:D

I'm not fond of ants invading my house, especially my arachnid room. But I do differentiate between different kinds of ants and won't go on the warpath against harmless ants outside. Sugar-eating ants aren't a problem - I get them on my hummingbird/bat feeders all the time. They have yet to invade the house. And some of the others, such as the snap-jawed ants, are actually pretty cool. We have a species of army ant that seems to just raid other ant nests - cool to see the columns on the march, but if they ever decide to raid the inverts in my house I might change my mind about them.
 
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k2power

Arachnoknight
Joined
Sep 26, 2010
Messages
183
Batgirl lives in fire ant country so has every right to hate ants. We always mess with fire ant mounds when doing field work in the South. It is so much fun to swing a golf club at a fire ant mound to last those buggers and see them go bananas looking for something to bite. If you have ever been stung by a fire ant you would sympathize.
 

whitewolf

Arachnolord
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 11, 2008
Messages
615
Batgirl lives in fire ant country so has every right to hate ants. We always mess with fire ant mounds when doing field work in the South. It is so much fun to swing a golf club at a fire ant mound to last those buggers and see them go bananas looking for something to bite. If you have ever been stung by a fire ant you would sympathize.
Right. Stupid nasty evil demon things. Riding lawn mower or firecrackers are more fun. I swear they just move around the yard and never die. They should have brought the flies to regulate them if they were going to stick us with the damn things. Only way I have ever kept them under control is over and out and instead of wetting down with water use cutters spray to take care of both my most hated pest. All Sketters and fire ants must die. Actually this year they haven't been bad till a few weeks ago. I didn't get one mosquito bite till fall started even with high grass in the back lot. :confused:
 

KnightinGale

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 16, 2009
Messages
170
Aaaah, B.C. Canada. No fire ants, none of those freaky nasty fuzzy wasp things...in fact almost nothing at all, plant or animal, that has any sort of nasty bite or sting or that will go on the warpath against people. (or parasatise my pets!) {D Worst I ever met here was a big fat latrodectus hesperus and for the last two years she has lived in a nice container on my desk. :) And I only met her because I currently live south-er than usual.
Though I did get chased by a moose once...
 

k2power

Arachnoknight
Joined
Sep 26, 2010
Messages
183
I must have seen 15-20 black widows today in SE Virginia surveying below ground water valve vaults. Some vaults had 2 or 3 of them under it. I am now very leery pulling up the handle and putting my fingers where I can't see them. May have seen some males but am not too sure of that. Even saw a large mud dauber type wasp that was about 2 inches long dragging an even larger caterpillar across the ground.

No fire ants up here in the Hampton/Newport News area. We saw one mound but if you travel about 1 hour or so south of here they are somewhat common and 2 hours south very very common. The only thing fire ant mounds are good for are depositing stunned deer flies that you just slapped after biting you.
 
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