Ants!

Sancho

Sancho

New Member
Ok so I've move my chams into cages from LLL friday I got home and both cages were covered in ants! one of the females was at the very bottom of her cage just sitting there with her eyes closed like she was scared or something even when I tried to get her out to clean the cage of the ants he tried to bite me which she has never even opened her mouth of blown up at me..

The other one was at the top like it was a normal day.

Can ants do damage? There is no food in the cage except the crickets and the ants don't bother them.

I don't know if the ants were going after the cage cause of the water in there since it's been a cooker here in L.A the last week or so.

ANTS are driving me nuts right now they are everywhere!
 
tbs350z said:
Ok so I've move my chams into cages from LLL friday I got home and both cages were covered in ants! one of the females was at the very bottom of her cage just sitting there with her eyes closed like she was scared or something even when I tried to get her out to clean the cage of the ants he tried to bite me which she has never even opened her mouth of blown up at me..

The other one was at the top like it was a normal day.

Can ants do damage? There is no food in the cage except the crickets and the ants don't bother them.

I don't know if the ants were going after the cage cause of the water in there since it's been a cooker here in L.A the last week or so.

ANTS are driving me nuts right now they are everywhere!
Click to expand...

I share your pain. I recently had the same problem. The ants are probably after the dead crickets and waste at the bottom. Start by cleaning up any dead bodies.

What I had to do to get rid of them was to

#1 Find where they are coming in.

#2 Close off entry. Tape or calk holes.

#3 Kill as many as you can

#4 Set ant traps near the point of entry

#5 Set traps outside so they take it back to the queen

#6 Kill more

#7 Kill More

If at all possible move the stand for the cages away from the wall and create a water barrier to prevent them from climbing the legs. Maybe a pan of water set the legs of the table stand etc. They will find the cords and climb up those as well so you may need to organize them so they don't touch the floor or make it more difficult for them to get to it.
 
Ryan Jarosek said:
I share your pain. I recently had the same problem. The ants are probably after the dead crickets and waste at the bottom. Start by cleaning up any dead bodies.

What I had to do to get rid of them was to

#1 Find where they are coming in.

#2 Close off entry. Tape or calk holes.

#3 Kill as many as you can

#4 Set ant traps near the point of entry

#5 Set traps outside so they take it back to the queen

#6 Kill more

#7 Kill More

If at all possible move the stand for the cages away from the wall and create a water barrier to prevent them from climbing the legs. Maybe a pan of water set the legs of the table stand etc. They will find the cords and climb up those as well so you may need to organize them so they don't touch the floor or make it more difficult for them to get to it.
Click to expand...


There was no dead anything or poop in the cage I just cleaned it less then 4 hours before. I did kill most of them and move the chams to my kitchen until the raid smell went away so they didn't get sick. Will continue to KILL
 
tbs350z said:
There was no dead anything or poop in the cage I just cleaned it less then 4 hours before. I did kill most of them and move the chams to my kitchen until the raid smell went away so they didn't get sick. Will continue to KILL
Click to expand...

They are a freaking pain in the you know what. Good luck! You'll get them under control it took me a couple of days to get the major load stopped. Then a week or so to get the stragglers hiding in the cage.

Are they really small black ants??. A little smaller than you usually see?
 
Welcome to my world! Seems like I have been putting up with this all summer. I had 1000 adult crickets breeding, the bin got raided by ants, I moved it outside hoping the ants would just leave...The colony of ants attacked and killed all 1000 crickets in less than 2 days..no joke... It was a battle royal! In the end the Crix looked like the Spartans at the end of 300, all lieing together in a battlfield scattered with bodies. I have also had ants take out my bin that had like 50 silkworm cacoons and I fund ants crawling in and out of all the cacoons. The containers I use to gutload have been ravaged along with the feeders several times. It has gotten to where I use a large critter keeper with about an inch of water at the bottom, And I set the smaller critter keeper with feeders and gutload in the center of the water, In order to create a moat that the ants won't cross. I really wont be suprised if I come and they have built a bridge. Dealing with an ant problem is HELL! I am so ready for the seasons to start changing... I have had enough of this heat...I am ready for winter.

If I don't catch the ants right when they start to gather in the herp room... They will find a plant and start colonizing in the potted soil. You almost can't tell when this happens until you move the plant and thousands of ants try to climb out and up your arm...:eek::eek:Heebeegeebees!
 
they were after your crickets.

And yes, they can do harm. My neighbors veild cham was killed by swarming ants. He said he went to bed, everything was fine, but when he walked into the living room in the morning, hi veiled was dead in the bottom of the cage and the whole cage was crawling with swarming ants.
 
hey all , lil trick my uncle taught me here , mix baking soda with icning sugar the real powdery stuff and place the mix in bottle caps or lil plastic containers and the ants will eat it and they cant fart or burp so they blow up lol doest work to kill the queen but with out any workers shes not going to have any more babies and eventually the colony will take a down woard spiral and die lol hope this helps some of yous out

Ryan Booth
 
I haven't been on lately but I've also had the same problem over the weekend. I cupfeed my cham so I noticed that ants had killed the three remaining crix I had in the cup. I immediately cleaned out the cup, wiped down the entire enclosure floor and sprayed some raid on the lets and top of the rack my enclosure is sitting on. The cham seems okay and I no longer see any ants crawling inside. I wil have to check the soil to make sure they did not colonize there.
 
boothy i like the way you think haha did your uncle loose his magnify glass the day he came up with that haha
 
put your cage away from walls, so there is no way for the ants to climb without going thru the floor. Use cinnamon powder and create a circle surrounding your cham's cage. The ants will leave the cage alone and probably attack something else :D.

I hate ants! my new house is swarming with them.
Apparently, they made a nest on a big tree on the pavement just outside of my house.
It's too hot now and they start to migrate into my peach tree in my backyard:mad:

I bought Amdro now and hopefully it will kill the ant's queen.
 
Ugh

So i went to move a plant on the deck and got halfway across the deck before I realized, i was being covered in itty black ants.. They were ALL over the pot.. They are outside. I do not keep chams outside but I was wondering if they are able to be eaten by chams? I would like to give Al and Peggy some outdoors time but I dont want them to be freaked out.. We have had an overrun of ants and flies and if they could help witht hat, it would be great.. If they are harmful, Id like to remove them before I allow the chams outside. Thanks for the info!
 
Amanda,

They hate cloves..the spice, whole cloves, not that ground up stuff. Put some around the area they are residing, and coming in from ...etc.

Thats an old beaner trick....Dont ask me how I know that one, I'm Italian and spanish...:rolleyes:
 
Malicious said:
Amanda,

They hate cloves..the spice, whole cloves, not that ground up stuff. Put some around the area they are residing, and coming in from ...etc.

Thats an old beaner trick....Dont ask me how I know that one, I'm Italian and spanish...:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Oh man you guy just reminded me that ANT season is coming up :( Everything I tried last year and nothing worked :(
 
well i dont know if this will work the same for ants but tips you ever get gnats or any bug over running cage... take the chameleon out of cage..... goto local grocery store.... goto meat dept.. ask for dry ice..... when they give you that funny look explain your self... most places will give you a fair sized chunk..... take a bucket with warmish water in it... drop dry ice in... set in the cage..... close gcage... put a towel.. for all you mesh people... seal it so if fills with this white smoek... it will destroy all..( exept plants) clean bodies.... go for a smoke.
 
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