ANTS!!!! (ack!!!)

[NoahsMommy]

I HATE ANTS!!!!!

I'm starting to think summer is my least favorite season. Its hot, everything indoors is now totally crowded and the stupid, horrible, ANTS invade my house! I hate them soooooo much!!!

I awoke to 7 (Livvy got her food ant protected last week) VERY hungry kitties. I didn't know what the deal was, they had a full bowl of food, until I got closer.

Their bowl and entire three foot area was COVERED in ants!! Even thier water fountain!!!

I cleaned everything, sprayed RAID, then wiped it with those Clorox wipes so the kitties wouldn't get sick in case they felt like licking the walls. I even washed out their fountain and put a new filter in.

NOT 30 minutes later and the whole fountain had ants in it again!!

I think I'll try Sara's trick and put fresh mint in their fountain. Any other ideas???? I HATE these ants so much, I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about them!!!

GRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

[jazzcat]

I don't have any suggestions but it does look like the fresh mint is worth a try. Good luck.

[Craftlady]

Ant traps with enclosed bait area so kittys do get into those traps. Spraying outside around your home.

[catcrazylady]

I have no advice but I sure would be upset by that too! Geesh! I hope you find something to get rid of the critters!

[Sara luvs her Tinky]

I HATE ANTS TOO!!!!

We got them last year.. and i moved the kitters' food and haven't had a problem this year...

I think i saw a thing on Dr.s Foster and Smith's website .. some tray or something that had water under it somehow to help rid ants..

GOOD LUCK!!

[catnapper]

I was having the same problem earlier this summer and those ant baits (like the roach motels) have worked wonders. Now instead of a million ants I only see one or two.

Yes, summer truly is icky. I hate summer too.

[catmandu]

Those Ant Hotels work,quite well,at the Found Cat Hotel!

[CatMama78]

We had ants too and I used the covered ant baits. Warning - Oreo did try to to play with them, so I had to put them behind the washer and dryer where he couldn't get. It seems to have worked. I've also moved their food on top of the breakfast table cause we never use it and the cats can jump up there, yet the ants cannot .

I hate them too and I HATE summer and the heat. I cannot wait until October.

[sirrahbed]

Kelly - we get invaded several times a year and honestly - the little plastic "hotels" get rid of the ants within a day or two at the most! My hubby also sprays the outside of the house near the places where water enters - bathrooms, laundry room, kitchen, etc. Water seems to be what they are after.

[gini]

Kelly, there is a Chinese chalk on the market. It comes in a little orange and black box. However, from what I understand, any chalk will do.

I have a serious ant problem in the spring and it drives me right up the wall.

I put the kitties food down and their water bowl and draw a line of chalk all around each. The ants won't cross that line because it gets on their feet. It may not look the best, but it does work.

[CatDad]

I am with you, hate ants. Summer is also not my favorite time of the year either, but that has nothing to do with the ants.

I don't have any ideas that you can use around the kitties, but the little ant hotels sounds like the best idea.

Actually, I wanted to ask gini if sidewalk chalk would work. Also where did you find this out. I have never heard of it.

[gini]

I bought the chalk at a hardware store (not a Home Depot), but a smaller hardware store.

The box is about 3 1/2 X 1 X 1/2" It is orange and black and in a yellow area it says MADE IN CHINA.

It is called Miraculous Insecticide chalk........safe for humans and animals.

It worked great....but someone later told me that it is the chalk that works because the ants don't like it on their feet. I think that ants use their feet as sensors.

So probably regular sidewalk chalk would work just as well. Although I have noticed that this chalk is denser than regular chalk - more like a carpenters chalk.

I could get some and mail it to you if you wanted to try it.

I used the ant hotels too, but I noticed that my ants just walked around them

[bluekat]

Ohh I hate ants too I always wake up to find the food bowl still with alot of food in it, but I look and theres no ants in it. There are alot around it though. This morning I woke up and found about 20 ants ALL on one little piece of cat food beside Blueberry's food bowl. Ewwwwwww......I'm really scared of insects but since I am the only one home, I had to kill them all. LOL. Ewwww it was so disgusting. Even though they're just tiny ants that are much smaller than me they scare me.

[CatDad]

Thanks for the information.

I think I have some carpenters chalk that you mentioned. I will have to check. We also have some smaller hardware stores here, I will see if I can find it.

I do appreciate the offer, and I may PM you at some point if the stuff I try isn't working.

Sorry to have hijacked your thread.

[jonza]

Here's a couple of possible solutions from New Scientist:

The natural assassin

Question
Because there are environmental regulations covering the use of ant powder, is there any reason why you could not tame an anteater to do the job for you, therefore providing a wholly natural solution to the problem? Would a single suburban garden be enough to sustain the anteater or would you have to hire it out to neighbours and friends?
Brian Jackson , UK

Answer 1:
Anteaters have developed special features for feeding from anthills in South America. However, their enormous claws, said to be able to kill a jaguar, would not be suited to breaking open the patios and house bricks that house ant colonies in the British suburbs. Their long snouts would be equally useless for poking into cracks between bricks, because they have evolved into toothless tubes for sticking inside the huge mounds made by colonial insects in their native countries - not the small holes made by pesky ants in UK gardens.

Finally, anteaters need to eat as many ants as possible while awake, because ants do not provide very nutritious fare. The average suburban garden in the UK simply would not have enough ants for an anteater to survive, even if it were shared with other households and their gardens.
Victoria Clent , Northampton, UK


I thought of this possibility a while back, but it seems it isn't a very good idea after all!



Answer 2:

The trouble with anteaters, and other creatures that eat ants, is that they actively hunt out ants or termites rather than just catching them as they wander past. This means that once your garden became ant-free, your anteater would be looking to move on.

The Australian thorny devil is one of the few animals that relies on the ants to do the legwork, but it is a bit impractical for our climate.

Instead, I invented a very good, environmentally friendly cure while I was living in Hong Kong. First, you need to find a wandering ant in your house, garage, garden or greenhouse and then pile a teaspoon of sugar in front of it. Wait a few hours, and you will see that a clearly visible line of ants will link the spoonful of sugar with their nest.

Once you have located this point, decide where you would like the ants to stop - just outside your house or garage, rather than inside, is as good a place as any. Pile another tablespoon of sugar at this point. The ants will pick this up, turn round and return to the nest with it, and will not bother travelling any further. The column of ants to the original teaspoon of sugar will quickly peter out, and you can clear it up.

Then keep an eye on the new pile of sugar - it may need topping up occasionally if you have a large nest, but it will certainly solve your problem.
Jason Miller , Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, UK