Warm climate tort keepers, pls help with ant problem

[Pearly]

My outdoor enclosure is semi-ready for test runs. The plan was to start bringing babies out for couple hrs in am and then again in pm. Just to keep close eye on things and tweak deatails as they come up. Well, one major "detail" is ants! They just come out of nowhere! I've done orange oil and molasses but they are back! We've had so much rain, maybe it got washed out... I don't know. I'd like to hear what how those of you who live in similar climate (I'm in Texas) deal with it. I really, REALLY want to get those babies out! They are yearlings! Their terrarium is getting too small. I was hoping that by now, we'd mainly use it for them to sleep in (have nice warm/humid bedroom. Please, HELP!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I have "mayonaise" type glass jars hidden here and there with tiny holes poked in the lids, and poison/bait inside and the jars slightly tilted downwards making them waterproof for the most part. I also treat my yard with ant and insect granules. That's doable if your tortoises DON'T roam the yard.
Honestly, I have no more issues with ants.
The D/E didn't work well due to all of our humidity and rain. It does work well inside of my garage and in my attic, though.

 

[Yvonne G]

This might not match your situation, but I have my babies in large plastic tubs. When it's time for them to go outside, their tub goes too. I place the tub on some sort of table with legs, and I put the legs inside of cans full of water. Once in a while the ants will make a bridge and get over to the legs, but then I spray Raid around the legs. The residual keeps them off.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

This might not match your situation, but I have my babies in large plastic tubs. When it's time for them to go outside, their tub goes too. I place the tub on some sort of table with legs, and I put the legs inside of cans full of water. Once in a while the ants will make a bridge and get over to the legs, but then I spray Raid around the legs. The residual keeps them off.

That sounds about fool proof!

 

[Tom]

I have found that different ant species need different strategies. Here are two that work well for me:

1.I put "Terro Ant Baits" anywhere that is convenient. These are just sugar water and boric acid, so relatively safe for people, tortoises and other pets. These work best indoors here, but they could work outdoors too. Try them and see. Just put them in the path of the ant trails, or in an area where you see a lot of ant activity.

2. "Amdro Ant Granules". This one is a toxic pesticide, so you have to be more careful about where you put it. The directions say to scatter this stuff about. That doesn't work for me. I pour a little mound of it directly onto the entrance to the ants burrow entrance. They clear the entrance by pulling this "food" down into the hole and feeding it the the queen and colony. Very effective. If you can't find the ant's hole, you can put the granules on a butter tub lid, or something similar, in an area of high ant activity. They will come clear it all away and you'll be able to see that the poison is all gone. I use it inside my tortoise pens when I can find the ant's burrow entrance, and I just block access to the poison or remove the tortoises until the poison has been cleared by the ants. Usually only an hour or two. If you are using it the other way, you might want to keep it outside of the tortoise pen in case any stray granules get dropped. This stuff works well for all the outdoor species here.