ants in my veiled chameleons cage and need help!!!

[trippers]

hi i have had my chameleon for almost 8 months and ive noticed ants in his cage and i have taken everything out clean it very well and put everything in boiling hot water to kill the ants but for some reason there are more ants in his cage. I found this forum website in order to seek help and if anyone has any advice for me then thatd be great. i dont want the anymore ants and i would like to keep them away from the cage for good.

 

[scruggyj]

is the cage inside your home or outside???

 

[jessica]

M

If your chameleon's cage is on a stand you can put the legs in cups or little dishes of water.

Make sure they are not living in your plants, I have a 4 ft ficus outside waiting to get replanted because it has an ant colony living in it.

 

[trippers]

the cage is inside cuz i live in canada so it pretty cold outside lol and the cups idea thats genious lol i dont know why i never thought of that to begin with lol ill give that a try but the ants are inside the cage and i have woodchips for his flooring and i got those artifical vines i dont have a green thumb so i dont think that real plants will last lol. is there any kind of spray or something i could put in his cage to kill them and not harm my chameleon? and plus im going to be moving him really soon into a even bigger cage

 

[scruggyj]

I would get rid of the wood chips altogether you don't need any substrate. Are you sure they didn't come from the wood chips or can you see where they are coming from outside the cage?

 

[trippers]

well he was upstairs but thats where i noticed that they were coming up the stand leg and into his cage and when i move him into his new cage im just going to put that fake grass stuff in it lol

 

[Carlton]

well he was upstairs but thats where i noticed that they were coming up the stand leg and into his cage and when i move him into his new cage im just going to put that fake grass stuff in it lol

First, isolate the ants in the cage. Give them some sort of bait to lure them into a trap. There may be some ant traps that have a lure that isn't actually toxic...they just can't find their way out of the trap again. I don't think there is any type of spray safe for your cham. Better yet, take the cham out, strip down the cage, scrub anything that ants can hide in with hot water, and get rid of any ants you find. Re-assemble the cage and put the feet in bowls of water so you don't end up with more. Ants can definitely bite or annoy your cham while it is asleep. Substrates will just keep attracting them.

 

[jmdavis]

I ran into this about a month ago.. The ants came inside my house from a plant plant I brought into my house when it got cold outside. They ended up relocating into the ficus I have in my chams enclosure. I woke up that morning to find that ants had invaded the feeder cup and eaten all of them. I had to repot the plant and clean the whole cage out. I also took Raid and sprayed it around the base of the stand my cage sits on and I haven't had a problem since. I made sure not to spay it close to the cage because I'm sure it would kill her

 

[trippers]

ive already cleaned his cage out and put the legs in bowls of water and i got rid of the wood chips and boiled everything in hot water and now the ants are gone hopefully for good