Ant Extermination

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Memphis

World Domination- Is Easier With- Thumbs

Purred: Mon May 28, '12 3:49pm PST


	Hi all. The people below us in our apartment complex appear to have an ant problem. We only have the baby sugar ants coming upstairs so far, and before today, they mostly milled around the fridge, trying to find whatever water they could. I placed traps under the stove and fridge to try and thwart them. For about a week and change, I didn't see any. Today, I found them making a conga line to the cat food bowls. I'm not a sloppy person, and the floor is washed/vacuumed regularly. I've Chlorox'ed and Lysol'ed the floor and I'm keeping the cats away from it for the rest of the day. Anyone have any suggestions for dealing with the ants without poisoning the cats in the process?

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Ben

I fetch,- therefore I am.

moderator

Purred: Mon May 28, '12 7:45pm PST


	They actually make ant-proof bowls and trays for pet food that use a water moat to keep the ants out...though I suppose it would probably work about the same if you put the bowls in saucers or shallow pans of water. We used to try to keep ants out of bowls by putting a ring of petroleum jelly around the outside edge of the bowl. It's not 100%, though. You might want to consider moving the bowls up off the floor. If you have a low table that the kitties can jump onto, it might help keep the ants away. Good luck! Keep us posted! Edited by author Mon May 28, '12 7:46pm PST

KuJu Ku

Bobtails Rule!

Purred: Tue May 29, '12 6:31am PST


	Ye, we had the same problem, we now feed on a table. Nothing else to do

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Mocha

1138114

Purred: Tue May 29, '12 4:04pm PST


	I put cheap ground black pepper in all of my window sills, outside door jams, and will often line the foundation with it as well. It's worked wonders. I usually do it just as it starts to warm up; before the ants make it in. However, when I first started doing this a few years ago, we had a horrible ant problem in the house and I located where they were entering, and then put the pepper around that area to 'corral' them in. At that point, I started working on getting the ants inside the house taken care of. A lot of vacuuming took place, and I just kept an eye out for new infestations. We've been ant free for going on four years now. So far, it's work on about three different ant species including red ants and the sugar ants.

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Toro

Who is that- masked man?

Purred: Tue May 29, '12 10:32pm PST


	We've had ant problems in the past and have successfully used a product called 'Orange Guard.' It is made from orange peels and inert ingredients. It kills the ants on contact and is safe to use around pets, and we would also spray the door frames that lead outside and the window frames outside for preventative purposes. You can buy it at hardware stores (like Ace and OSH). We like it! http://www.orangeguard.com/

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P.C.

aka, Squeeker,- Toeboy or- Perfict Cat

Purred: Wed May 30, '12 11:53pm PST


	Ben is right. What Mom had to do for her Aunt was to put there food bowls inside another dish filled with water ,like a moat. mol But around our house, Mom uses this liquid called "Ant-Kill" by Protexall Products,INC it for controlling sweet and grease feeding ants.But and this is a BIG But, it has to be kept away from us cats. Meowma makes an ant trap of her own, by putting some in a folded down plastic,paper or Styrofoam cup with 4 small holes,just above the bottom.Just make sure we can not eat or rip them apart. Now batting them around is different. Mom got it from a place called Publix, it is a Grocery Store here in Florida. But you can Google the stuff if you want and see where you may be able to find it. Best of luck, they can be hard to get rid of sometimes.

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Isabelle

Queen of Cuddles

Purred: Thu Jul 19, '12 12:11pm PST


	I'm late to the party for this response but in case anyone else has trouble, I thought I'd chime in. A few years ago we had a bad ant problem. It was mostly small sugar ants but there were occasionally some big ones too. We tried the traps for a little while but that didn't work. They kept getting into my cat's food and especially with her being older and with kidney problems, she would throw up food or hairballs and the ants would swarm it (gross). Finally we broke down and bought some Hot Shot Barrier Protection spray from Lowe's (until $10/gal) and sprayed both the outside and inside perimiters of the house. You have to keep your cats/dogs/other critters away from it while wet but it's safe once dry. That took care of it no problem and we've never had an issue since then as long as we spray a couple times a year. Only when we had the strong infestation did we spray indoors- the rest of the time I just do the outside barrier and it's been fine. I know a lot of you (including myself) prefer not to have to use chemicals if possible but in my case it was the best option.

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