Help! (ants)

[macyfidlerr]

Help!!! My tortoises cage is covered in ants... The dirt and everything! I just noticed this morning. How do I safely get rid of all of these ants? They're everywhere!!! And I have no where to put my tortoise because it is too cold outside and all of his dirt is smothered in ants. Please help! TIA

 

[rbcurdt]

Interested to hear from the experienced. I just found ants, albeit one, in my baby rt's enclosure yesterday. From previous threads I've read...baking the substrate will help?

 

[wellington]

Food grade diatomaceous earth seems to work for a lot of people. Put it around the outside of the enclosure. It's safe for your torts. I would get rid of any substrate if possible first, put in new and then use the dia earth.

 

[Yvonne G]

If I'm remembering correctly, you were going to be getting a new tort table, so I'm going to answer your question as if your tortoise is in a tort table.

Buy some ant and roach spray, Black Flag or Raid - any brand will do, and spray the outside of the tort table, making sure to not get any where the tortoise can contact it.

Clean out the inside of the table so there is no food or anything attractive to ants inside the table. If you wait a while after spraying, the ants should leave on their own, but if they don't, you'll have to clean out the table and toss all the substrate and start over.

 

[macyfidlerr]

If I'm remembering correctly, you were going to be getting a new tort table, so I'm going to answer your question as if your tortoise is in a tort table.

Buy some ant and roach spray, Black Flag or Raid - any brand will do, and spray the outside of the tort table, making sure to not get any where the tortoise can contact it.

Clean out the inside of the table so there is no food or anything attractive to ants inside the table. If you wait a while after spraying, the ants should leave on their own, but if they don't, you'll have to clean out the table and toss all the substrate and start over.

Thanks for the help! I actually got the tortoise table today due to some problems the builder was having. So I just threw out his old cage which turned out to be infested with ants on the bottom of it. I sprayed with raid on the floor and then mopped it with pet safe cleaning spray and left my window open for couple days to get the smell out. Also used the food grade on the floor. But now I have the tort table! Here it is

 

[macyfidlerr]

Food grade diatomaceous earth seems to work for a lot of people. Put it around the outside of the enclosure. It's safe for your torts. I would get rid of any substrate if possible first, put in new and then use the dia earth.

Thanks for the help!! I used the food grade and it caught a lot of ants. Thanks again!!!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

The food grade D/E does eventually win the war but keeping them from coming in the first place is the best thing.
Don't leave anything sweet , sugary inside the pen.
(Ants wont show up to eat a pile of green leaves.)
I have also used ant poison/baits on a glass jar with holes punched in the lid. the ants can go in and eat the stuff but the animal is 100% unaffected.
Someone here posted a recipe for an ant bait for just this purpose. Or you can just buy some. I use the ant gel and a small Miracle Whip jar.