Ants..This Is Kind Of Odd

[Maggie]

I check on all my T's at least daily. Yesterday there were no problems. This morning in ONE enclosure there were ants. Now my question is, how in the **** did they get in there in the first place( lot of tiny holes) and why just THIS one? I moved the sling(P. cambridgei) out of the enclosure and into a new one. Checked all the others again to be sure. Nothing.
Is there anything I could put around the Ts that would not be harmful to them but would keep the ants away? I know of lots of insecticidal herbs but they would be detrimental to the tarantulas as well.

 

[MizM]

There was probably some little cricket leftovers in that container that were too small for you to see, but enough for the ants to smell!!

You could:
1. Set the container in another shallow container of water.

2. Buy a fresh habañero pepper or other very hot pepper, slice it open, and rub a line of the juice around all of your enclosures. (Ants HATE hot pepper juice. Put some on an ant and watch... it's HILARIOUS as the try frantically to get it off!)

3. Toss a cooked chicken leg outside where the ants are coming in. That stops them right there and they should feast all summer. (Yes, it worked for me, I SWEAR!)

4. Buy some ant killer GRANULES and sprinkle around their trail OUTSIDE. They take this back to the colony, feed everyone and they ALL die. Spray insecticides are futile, they only kill the individuals they contact, then more come out find out what happened!

I don't use insecticides, fertilizers or chemicals of any kind. We have ants up the YING in So. California and they are persistent! The steps above have completely eradicated them from my house and I haven't had them for two seasons now. But, since I am bragging about this, I am sure I will go home tonight and find some in my house!!!

Best of luck!

 

[Maggie]

Thank you! I am going to try the pepper thing for sure.
What I did today and so far it seems to be working, is put dish soap around the bottoms and up a little on the sides of the enclosures( not by air holes), and sprinkled a little garlic powder too. We always used it for fleas and while it didnt kill the fleas it made them leave the dog! I am not sure how the tarantulas will like it so I did use this sparingly.
Chicken leg...=D ...but more power if it worked for you. (Unless you are giving me **** ) Around here one of the neighbors dogs would just run off with it!

 

[MizM]

I'm SERIOUS!!! My ex told me about it and I can't stand him so I just scoffed at the idea because he's such a jerk. Got desperate one year, remembered the tip and tried it... it really worked!! And the coyotes never even touched it! (Probably because of the swarm of ants on it!!=D )

Again, GOOD LUCK!!