Community Chat

[Porcelain]

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@Icegoddess wrote:

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@Porcelain wrote:

A line of plain table salt works as a barrier too. They hate crossing it. And sealing the areas where they get in as well as possible.

What I found worked the best, though, was to remove the primary bait that was attracting them. Which in my case was the cats' food. I got some ant proof bowls and then put the cats' bowls inside them. Ants stopped visiting.

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@Porcelain tell me more about the ant-proof bowls.  What I do is I have metal bowls that I turn upside down and add water in the rim and then put their food dish on top.  The ants won't cross the moat.  Problem is, the cats sometimes drop their food into the water and it gets gross.

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I hear you! What I have is the Petmate Fool A Bug bowls. They don't seem to be in stock at Amazon at the moment. I highly recommend them if you can find them.

I tried something similar to what you've tried, I just put the food bowl in a larger shallow bowl with water in it, and I had the same issue you did. Floating food bits that quickly got gross.

No water needed with the Petmate bowls and no anti ant gel or anything extra. The bowls sit up barely off the floor on little legs, and somehow because of the design the ants can't get at the outside of the bowl once they climb up a leg under there. It's a dead end with no reward. The only catch is that you have to keep the bowls from touching each other or any walls or anything else an ant can climb up to get into the bowl.

Also, they are made of heavy duty plastic, which can cause cat acne, so because of that and to make it easier to keep things clean, we put porcelain bowls inside the petmates.

[jlkz]

@SilleeMee 

Add to your list:  Trees overhanging the roof.

One year we had an infestation of carpenter ants in our cathedral-ceilinged dining room.  The source was an overhanging branch.  Exterminator was able to find the queen's nest.  Then we had the oak tree trimmed way back.   It took a week before all ants were gone.  They stayed in the one room thank goodness !

The way I discovered the problem:  walking past the bow window, I saw very large ants crawling all over the window.  They really stood out with the pale yellow sheers behind them.

I still get the creepy

[Icegoddess]

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@Porcelain wrote:

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@Icegoddess wrote:

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@Porcelain wrote:

A line of plain table salt works as a barrier too. They hate crossing it. And sealing the areas where they get in as well as possible.

What I found worked the best, though, was to remove the primary bait that was attracting them. Which in my case was the cats' food. I got some ant proof bowls and then put the cats' bowls inside them. Ants stopped visiting.

---

@Porcelain tell me more about the ant-proof bowls.  What I do is I have metal bowls that I turn upside down and add water in the rim and then put their food dish on top.  The ants won't cross the moat.  Problem is, the cats sometimes drop their food into the water and it gets gross.

---

I hear you! What I have is the Petmate Fool A Bug bowls. They don't seem to be in stock at Amazon at the moment. I highly recommend them if you can find them.

I tried something similar to what you've tried, I just put the food bowl in a larger shallow bowl with water in it, and I had the same issue you did. Floating food bits that quickly got gross.

No water needed with the Petmate bowls and no anti ant gel or anything extra. The bowls sit up barely off the floor on little legs, and somehow because of the design the ants can't get at the outside of the bowl once they climb up a leg under there. It's a dead end with no reward. The only catch is that you have to keep the bowls from touching each other or any walls or anything else an ant can climb up to get into the bowl.

Also, they are made of heavy duty plastic, which can cause cat acne, so because of that and to make it easier to keep things clean, we put porcelain bowls inside the petmates.

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@Porcelain thanks, I'll look into it.  I agree about the plastic bowls.  queso seems to continually have a little scab or soemthing on his chin so I got away from them long ago.  

[Mom2Dogs]

The ants are gone this morning!!!...all day yesterday I was sweeping ants off the moulding at the ceiling...DH put out TERRO stakes late morning in the yard by the kitchen outside wall...it has to be the bate sticks that stopped the ants.  

[lovesrecess]

I have tried lemon and vinegar; neither one worked for me. Fortunately I have not had ants inside for a long time; they are outside and are fire ants. I am all organic in my yard and garden...but for fire ants....nothing is too toxic.

[lovesrecess]

If essential oils are what you are wanting, you can find them wherever they sell candles, like Walmart or Target.