Unwanted Little Critters!!!

[SoCaliSon]

Okay... This weekend I lost all of my Silkies and pupating caccoons to swarms and swarms of Ants that came in through the electrical outlet in my Cham Room!!!! I got everything clean I thought... Until the next morning they were raiding my Dubias and Hissers. I got the Dubias cleared out... But... My colony of Hissers I have been raising for around 8 months have all persihed after I cleaned there bin and kept them in my car, to avoid more ants, and to keep temps warm, But it was too warm. I was stupid not think about the 120+ deg in my car during the summer and that it is too hot for even roaches. I have been hearing from people about the ants taking over at there place as well. It is a real nightmare when it happens! I had some questions related to this...

Are the ant traps safe?? I was thinking that there might be a danger of one ingesting poison to take back to queenie... but getting eaten by a cham first... which I imagine would be a bad thing!

Will Ants kill your Cham?

What is the best/safest way erradicate them once they are present?

Are Ants in a electrical socket a fire hazard? Should I turn off that outlet next time?

Any tips or tricks??? It seems like no matter how clean you keep it... This hobby requires the presence of things that attract ants... all the way down to the moisture.

~Joe

 

[Marc10edora]

Try using cinnamon to keep the ants out. The ants don't like it and won't cross over it. I put it near the doors and windows.

 

[desultadox]

I've lost 2 clutches of crickets to ants, but for a time, I let them hang out with my adult crickets, because they seemed to prefer the dead ones and really it just helped keep things clean. But once I noticed an above average amount in my chameleons' cages, I decided to set up traps and also spray Raid on any cracks they could be coming from. I've never seen my chameleons eat ants, but one time a long time ago... I did come home from school to find a swarm of ants carrying away my brand new baby jackson's D: I don't think they'd do much harm to a grown chameleon, but they can definitely take down a baby. The ants I'm dealing with are small and black.

 

[mika]

Can the cinnamon be used inside the enclosure?

 

[mika]

Hey Joe, since you're coming tomorrow you can grab some silkworms and roaches (dubias..yuck!) if you'd like..

I haven't housed the roaches properly though. They're still in the container I got them from Chad last Saturday and my silkworms are really small..

 

[SoCaliSon]

Thanks Mika! That would be awesome! I can always use more feeders to boost my colonies. I'm going to work on getting my Dubia colony Rockin, that way I can feed those to my Dragons instead of the Hissers... they are way easier to keep. Once I get a real nice sized colony going I will be able to return the favor. I can always use more feeders... 8 shooting tounges here to feed so I can always use a few to boost the colony.

 

[SoCaliSon]

Can the cinnamon be used inside the enclosure?

That is a great question! I would love to know.

 

[opihiman]

Getting rid of ants without gassing the entire perimeter and inside of you house of you place is very difficult. because ants exploit every crack and crevase.

Terro ant bait stations are a good start. They are fairly safe enough to use around your chams....Provided your Cahms don't eat them. The ants will take the bait back to their nest and share with the rest of the colony and help to do the job.

If your infestation is pretty bad you may want to move your critters away from the walls and more towards the middle, then create a perimeter with some kind of repellant...cinnamon if you like. If the ants are sweet loving ants they may just leave every thing else alone provided that there is enough bait stations available.

another consideration is the use of diatomaceous earth poisons. Not for use in the house but can be use outside. Remember that this is a non discriminating pesticide so it may also kill off good stuff too. Becarefull around kids and dogs.

This method may take awhile ( it took me 3 or 4 years) but for the last 2 to 3 years and going. I haven't seen ants in side my place. We have done everything to get rid of ants, from fumigation, to poisoning, to spraying RAID. After all of those the ants just kept coming back. This seems to have been the best results so far.

Like I said...Hard to get rid of ants.

Hope this helps

OPI

 

[CammieNLeno]

this is not a permanent fix, but a bandaid and works quite well if there is just no progress fighting the battle.

put your insects on a stand or something.. something with 4 seperate legs. I use a metal rack with 4 feet. Place each of these feet in small dishes with water... even little petrie dishes would work, doenst have to be much water at all.

Ants wont climb up the legs, they cant make it past the water to leave the scent trail..give it a try!

 

[Jeweledchameleons]

I has a slight ant problem a few years back
it didn't take much for me to lose it and go nuclear on them.

Not only did I nuke my place but I also did most of the neighbors property as well
I walked around with a big bag of granules and rubber gloves spreading it around EVERYWHERE
the result... no more ants...
made a few of the cats sick for a few days but it was totally worth it!

 

[mika]

Well I have the small red ants here and I was so pissed at them I sprayed them with the "Healthy Habitat" stuff that I spray the bottom with to clean it.

I was shocked to find out it works in killing the ants..

Mine wasn't coming from the floor. They were coming in from the window onto the ledge & going up the tube that's hooked up to the misters.

I live in an apt on the 2nd floor and there's no yard here anywhere. Everything here is concrete so I sprayed some Raid outside and some on the window cracks.

Argghhhhh.. And I still can't get rid of them. I have to double check & see where they're coming in again tomorrow. I thought I got rid of them.

 

[reyesjoshuacruz]

there is a chalk you can get at sawpmeets from the oriental vendors that have tools, or kids toys.

its a small box with 2 sticks, and its very cheap. it works like you would not believe. just outline whatever it is you dont want them to cross, ie base around your cage, or cage stands.

these chalk sticks are going to give you a few yrs, but they will get immune to it after a few.

i cant use it because im living in the house i grew up in, and my family already got its few years out of the chalk, they just laugh at it now.

on top of that i have a huge colony of the small fire ants. my family has been fighting this war for yrs, and we're deff losing...... it was pretty ruff, i had to one by one remove the ones stuck to her tounge... you can imagine joe how small the ants are, and how small the tounge was. but it was swollen from all the bites, i cleaned them all out after like 15 min, but it was too late, she was already fading.

 

[BocaJan]

We had that same problem here in our home in Florida. We have a pest control service that we kept bugging. One day I was outside and noticed some red ants crawling around a block bed divider. When I moved it there was the nest! I immediately called out pest control guy and he came out that day and turned over many of the blocks and sprayed, laid down Turro and the pellets and they were finally gone! He did come out on his regularily scheduled apt. and did it all over again just to make sure.

Now, that's not to say that they won't come from somewhere else and enter my home, but at least I got that nest.

 

[Loudbay]

I'm in Colorado now, but while in Florida, we used to contain new ant mounds/colonies with boiling water... We would disturb the nest and when 10,000 of them were out trying to repair the damage; we'd strike! A few pots of boiling water later and the mound would die off... Cheap if nothing else. There's also Diatamaceous Earth (I couldn't have spelled that right). It's a fine powder made from the shells of diatoms. The ants rub against it and it scratches them and they die. This is totally safe to lay on the floor or dump it on mounds or even in your cham room. I miss FL for the possibility of an outdoor enclosure, but I DO NOT MISS THE ANTS!!!

Cheers, Matt

 

[Eric Adrignola]

get yourself some honey, bananna, and ivermectin paste (for horses, available at a hose/famr and ranch place).

Mix it so that the stuff is a paste, and put it into small containers scattered around your room. Ivermectin will kill the ants, but requires high doses to kill a chameleon (turtles will die from even a tiny bit, so be careful).

It's much safer than using a commercial ant killer, and it works.

I didnt' have any ivermectin when I was in NJ (prescription only at the time, I think), so I used boric acid and banannas - worked.