Any invasion urgent

[Skyrivers]

I discovered ants invading my house and they moved into Rainbows new enclosure. I stripped it down and cleaned it up but ants are everywhere in the house now. What can I use that is safe for my animals?

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[tttaylorrr]

i have no animal-safe help to offer off the top of my head unfortunately.

maybe those poison traps where the ants brings the poisoned food back to their colony? so nothing needs to be bombed or sprayed?

just try to ensure there's no open food or anything around the whole home to keep them at bay.

good luck!!!

[pretends2bnormal]

Line doorways, openings, etc. With Diatomaceous Earth (food grade!). It is essentially ground up shells or something similar, I forget off-hand, it is completely inert, but it sticks to insect exoskeletons and dehydrates them/cuts them up until they die. Generally you'll find little piles of carcasses in the DE from wherever they are getting in. Dusting can be done with a turkey baster, just suck some into it and squeeze to proof it out.

Harmless to typical pets (cats, dogs, etc.) even to eat and for us as well, and I can't think of why it would be harmful for a reptile in tiny amounts if an ant carried it back into an enclosure on its body (dust around the perimeter of the enclosure if you need to and not inside.. but I'd just do the room walls/entrances/any cracks instead).

If nothing else thorough vacuuming/cleaning in the room and lining any access points ants might come through should be enough to keep them out of the room and cage. I'd definitely spray some pesticide outside the house to deter them coming in the rest of the house, though if you aren't wet and getting rain the DE xan be used outside also.

You can find it near pesticides at home depot and probably other hardware stores.

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[Skyrivers]

They are closed till tomorrow but will do asap.

Line doorways, openings, etc. With Diatomaceous Earth (food grade!). It is essentially ground up shells or something similar, I forget off-hand, it is completely inert, but it sticks to insect exoskeletons and dehydrates them/cuts them up until they die. Generally you'll find little piles of carcasses in the DE from wherever they are getting in. Dusting can be done with a turkey baster, just suck some into it and squeeze to proof it out.

Harmless to typical pets (cats, dogs, etc.) even to eat and for us as well, and I can't think of why it would be harmful for a reptile in tiny amounts if an ant carried it back into an enclosure on its body (dust around the perimeter of the enclosure if you need to and not inside.. but I'd just do the room walls/entrances/any cracks instead).

If nothing else thorough vacuuming/cleaning in the room and lining any access points ants might come through should be enough to keep them out of the room and cage. I'd definitely spray some pesticide outside the house to deter them coming in the rest of the house, though if you aren't wet and getting rain the DE xan be used outside also.

You can find it near pesticides at home depot and probably other hardware stores.

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[Bogertophis]

Ugh! I HATE ant invasions! They'rs so relentless! and when I lived in the desert, they even killed one of my geckos! They traveled up a tall cabinet to that
cage mostly to eat the gecko's mealworms, but they also killed the gecko with only a few apparent bites.

Helps to figure out what they're looking for: doesn't sound like they're after food at all (some like sweets, some greasy foods), but maybe dry ground? That's
the only time I've had ants invade my house here, after lots of rain...they're looking to move to higher ground & you have to convince them otherwise. Here,
they travel along pipes under my house & pop up in bathrooms & then the kitchen. I finally trained them to go & stay gone using these:

Various things to try- diatomaceous earth*, or boric acid powder, or even Ajax cleanser, sprinkled on the floor trails will discourage them (& the powder on their
feet supposedly messes up their ability to follow the previous ant's trails).

I'm not a big fan of those ant bait things that they supposedly take back, eat & all die: too many keep coming & they don't seem to get the word back at home?
Plus, if they're not after food to begin with, there's no point to using them at all. I'm also not a fan of pesticides...too toxic for pets & me too, & overkill.

Around sinks & tile, I spray a mix of Dawn (dish soap that helps solution stick to them), bleach & water...this does kill them, & they do NOT like it!

There WAS a pet-safe spray I used years ago (in CA) that KILLED ants fast and offended them into leaving & not coming back...safe to use in kitchens too: it
had rosemary oil in it, also wintergreen oil (it smelled good to me but not to ants, lol)...I forget what else was in it, but you could maybe mix up your own to try,
or search for a similar product (I can't recall the name, they quit making that version, but I think I saw a similar spray in Walmart...read labels carefully though.)

*BTW, DE is also sold in health food stores, people consume it for ???- and that's where I got mine, lol...

[Skyrivers]

Found the cause of the invasion. A bag of candy on top of her cage almost completely devoured.

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[Bogertophis]

Found the cause of the invasion. A bag of candy on top of her cage almost completely devoured.

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Your bad then!

So now that you know what they like & that they're hungry, you might actually want to try some of those ant baits (for sweet-eating),
for the ones that keep coming, following the trails of the previous ones. Have fun...

Keeping foods like cookies & chips in metal or glass containers with tight-sealing tops should help in the future, 'cause now that you
put out the "Welcome" mat, they'll keep sending scouts back to visit.

[MAC1]

I draw the line when they come in the house.

Terro liquid ant bait. The ants go crazy for it, it takes 12-24 hrs to work. Don't interfere with the ants and the bait, just let the bait do its thing.
I pick them up at home improvement store.

[MAC1]

The ants in my area seem to want water.