Ant problem

[amon]

I keep my roddents in a outhouse. After many outside rats visit eating my roddent food, I've done my best to keep them outside now.

Then came the ANTS!!!!! Red Fire Ants. They eat meat and like the dog food I feed my roddents with.

Anyone has any suggestion on how to get rid of them?

[littleindiangirl]

You can purchase a fly spray meter that goes off every 15 or 30 minutes. It's permethrin (sp) based product and should kill all insects in the barn. Just make sure there is enough room like the product specifies on the package because the chemical can cause nausea, headaches etc, and doesn't spray or mist on the rats racks or food. That product should not be ingested or inhaled in the aerosol form.

Or, you can spray the perimeter of the barn with insecticide, ant traps, use fly strips along the base of the board of the barn. The last couple will need to be change periodically to maintain the properties.

I personally would spray the outside of the barn with insecticide, but I don't know how that commercial strength stuff would effect your rats, and I would be worried about the effects of the chemicals residue and gas on your rats.

Just thought about this! You can use insecticide dust used for gardening and the like, some like Seven Dust around the perimeter, it wont have the fumes, but kill whatever insect goes walking across it.

[amon]

I can't spray around it, because next to my rat house is my tortoise pen and lizard cage, all attached.

I've used some ant bait and they seemed to work in the beginning but now seem like the ants have learnt better.

I've ordered new brand of baits online and keeping my fingers crossed.

It seems that the normal ground dwelling insecticide dust don't work on fire ants. I've tried some also.

[littleindiangirl]

Have you thought about diatomaceous earth? It's in a nutshell, microscopic extremely razor sharp particles and slices the exoskeleton of the insects, causing them to sorta "bleed out" and die.

It works on insects as they walk over the earth. Here is a quick link I found on it, I didn't read over the link but it looked good from the description. Or you can look at the wikipedia for it.

http://www.dirtworks.net/Diatomaceous-Earth.html

[whytepizza]

Have you thought about diatomaceous earth? It's in a nutshell, microscopic extremely razor sharp particles and slices the exoskeleton of the insects, causing them to sorta "bleed out" and die.

Wow, you make it sound so harsh...
Actually, i used this product when i had a red tail falcon. worked great! My only concern would be a rat getting ahold of any...

[Beardedragon]

Heres a few home made things

Get a bowl of sugar, and mix it with baking powder and soda. The sugar will attract them and the baking stuff should kill them. uncooked grits also will kill ants, they take it back to their colony I guess and die. IDK, but they both work and are safe if anything else gets into it.

[littleindiangirl]

Wow, you make it sound so harsh...
Actually, i used this product when i had a red tail falcon. worked great! My only concern would be a rat getting ahold of any...

I don't know how any of his rats would get a hold of it, it would have to go around the perimeter of his rat barn so the ants walk thru it to get inside.

Amon, You can hold it, it's like a sand, but like I said, microscopic razors! Your hand will actually lose moisture if you play around with it too much.

[amon]

Have you thought about diatomaceous earth? It's in a nutshell, microscopic extremely razor sharp particles and slices the exoskeleton of the insects, causing them to sorta "bleed out" and die.

It works on insects as they walk over the earth. Here is a quick link I found on it, I didn't read over the link but it looked good from the description. Or you can look at the wikipedia for it.

http://www.dirtworks.net/Diatomaceous-Earth.html

Wow!! learn something new everyday...lots of info on fire ant. thanks. I'm studying the info.

[amon]

Thanks for all your input. Make me feel more confident on fighting them.

[littleindiangirl]

Haha, go get em! I think you'll be able to get rid of the nest in no time.