Ants!!!

[hiriki]

I wasn't sure where to post this, it's really just a vent post more than anything but it's not quite off topic.

Yesterday I was in the bird corner trying to convince my conures to go home so I could take a bit of a nap, I turn around to say hello to my lovebird and UGH!!!! Her chop bowl, fresh, is FULL OF ANTS!!!!

Between my wife and I, I'm the person who is generally called upon to remove spiders from the home. I like spiders. If my wife finds an earwig, I'll admit that I don't bother to pick one of those nasty things in a napkin to bring them outside, but giving an earwig the death penalty is just a simple chore to me, no emotion. Ants though? Oh my lord, I think it's because you never seem to see just ONE ant, but the sight of ants swarming anything can absolutely make me scream. Poor Kiwi--he was sitting on my shoulder and was not prepared for a sudden scream smh.

I spent my entire evening moving cages and throwing things away and deep cleaning and vacuuming. Poor Elby didn't get to enjoy her chop for long either because once I saw the ants it was to the kitchen and down the garbage disposal immediately. I'm a bit nervous to give her todays chop tbh, I did put some of those ant traps on the floor that are full with syrup and the ants are supposed to drown, right by Elbys cage leg so they'll probably go in there before bothering to climb up to the chop, but....... my heart is too weak to see another bowl of ants today, sigh.

Anyways.

 

[PeentPeent]

I feel you I am so so afraid of bugs I was alone and there was remodeling of my condo complex where they redid all the sidings. this scared all the earwigs living in it to go upwards, im the top floor , i couldnt sleep until i had my BF come over and get them all out!

What i did after tho Ive never ever had a bug enter my house again, there are these squishy tube things you can install to your doors and windows it seals it shut (makes opening and closing hard) But it was worth never having any bugs come inside again. I know how scary they are, it makes me feel nauseas and i cant eat... creepy lil things ugh. Im so sorry you went through that! I find it very upsetting when you get an ant swarm, makes me feel nervous about the bedding of my cages and i have to check everything!

 

[hiriki]

Yea honestly like a single earwig isn't upsetting to me, but seeing multiple earwigs has the same impact as a swarm of ants on me, makes me feel disgusting.

Unfortunately, I do live in a basement apartment--I love it here, the space is perfect, there's an adorable nook for my birds, generally I have no complaints... BUT, basements do tend to attract bugs. The day I moved in there were so many earwigs that instead of sleeping in my bedroom I slept on hardwood floors upstairs on a yoga mat...

We have a pest control service spray outside every season, which is the kind of thing I never thought I'd want because insecticides make me feel uncomfortable and anxious for the environment, but I just cannot share my basement with ten million bugs. The spraying really does help and I have a feeling it's been a while since the last treatment. The windows here are the small high-up basement window design that I can't really seal, and they're probably pretty old too, so I can't really use those foam things in them.

 

[pebbles1553]

oh! the other day there where ants all over Pebbles' cage! her birdie heater, the bars where i usually out all her fruit, and they where climbing up all over the cage! my dad put some ant killer next to their hole, while I cleaned and killed and cleaned and killed. they where all soon dead, to my ( and pebbles') great relief lol.

 

[pebbles1553]

Welcome spring!! (sadly that includes all the ants!)

 

[clark_conure]

similar issue with moths, if you can get this its completely safe around birds and kills on contact.

I'm a big fan. I have no involvement with the company.

 

[goalerjones]

We use the Terra ant bait and it always works for us.

 

[LoveMyFids]

I wasn't sure where to post this, it's really just a vent post more than anything but it's not quite off topic.

Yesterday I was in the bird corner trying to convince my conures to go home so I could take a bit of a nap, I turn around to say hello to my lovebird and UGH!!!! Her chop bowl, fresh, is FULL OF ANTS!!!!

Between my wife and I, I'm the person who is generally called upon to remove spiders from the home. I like spiders. If my wife finds an earwig, I'll admit that I don't bother to pick one of those nasty things in a napkin to bring them outside, but giving an earwig the death penalty is just a simple chore to me, no emotion. Ants though? Oh my lord, I think it's because you never seem to see just ONE ant, but the sight of ants swarming anything can absolutely make me scream. Poor Kiwi--he was sitting on my shoulder and was not prepared for a sudden scream smh.

I spent my entire evening moving cages and throwing things away and deep cleaning and vacuuming. Poor Elby didn't get to enjoy her chop for long either because once I saw the ants it was to the kitchen and down the garbage disposal immediately. I'm a bit nervous to give her todays chop tbh, I did put some of those ant traps on the floor that are full with syrup and the ants are supposed to drown, right by Elbys cage leg so they'll probably go in there before bothering to climb up to the chop, but....... my heart is too weak to see another bowl of ants today, sigh.

Anyways.

Get a non toxic insect spray like Zevo (pictured in another post) & spray the perimeter baseboards of the room & around any windows (which are where they are probably coming in), & you can also use things that repel ants natually like buying peppermint extract & a spray bottle. Use like 30 drops to a 10oz. of water & spray the perimeter, under the cages, the windows. You'll have to repeat this every week or so as it goes away, but it'll smell great! A really good trick that works is grease the lower third of the cage legs with vaseline. Ants won't crawl over vaseline & it'll stay there quite well unless the room gets super hot & starts to melt & drip down. You can also use the lid from a vitamin jar or jelly jar to sit the wheels of the cage into if you are worried of vaseline getting on the floor (depending on the floor it's on). Coasters also work. Dish soap in a dish around the wheels also works. In the animal hospital I work at which has many kennels, they sometimes do a line of dishsoap around the kennel. The ants won't cross it. It can be a bit messy though. Then there will be no way for ants to crawl up into the cage & access the food bowls. I've done it after an ant invasion & it works! This also works for bird feeders as well-you can grease the chain. Another thing ants hate is orange oil. I have wiped it on baseboards & it repels them. I personally like the Vaseline method though to keep them from getting up there to begin with, but you obviously need to repel them from the room too.

 

[Chenetaqwa]

I wasn't sure where to post this, it's really just a vent post more than anything but it's not quite off topic.

Yesterday I was in the bird corner trying to convince my conures to go home so I could take a bit of a nap, I turn around to say hello to my lovebird and UGH!!!! Her chop bowl, fresh, is FULL OF ANTS!!!!

Between my wife and I, I'm the person who is generally called upon to remove spiders from the home. I like spiders. If my wife finds an earwig, I'll admit that I don't bother to pick one of those nasty things in a napkin to bring them outside, but giving an earwig the death penalty is just a simple chore to me, no emotion. Ants though? Oh my lord, I think it's because you never seem to see just ONE ant, but the sight of ants swarming anything can absolutely make me scream. Poor Kiwi--he was sitting on my shoulder and was not prepared for a sudden scream smh.

I spent my entire evening moving cages and throwing things away and deep cleaning and vacuuming. Poor Elby didn't get to enjoy her chop for long either because once I saw the ants it was to the kitchen and down the garbage disposal immediately. I'm a bit nervous to give her todays chop tbh, I did put some of those ant traps on the floor that are full with syrup and the ants are supposed to drown, right by Elbys cage leg so they'll probably go in there before bothering to climb up to the chop, but....... my heart is too weak to see another bowl of ants today, sigh.

Anyways.

2 years back I had the same problem with ants raiding my birds chop and fruit... what finally worked for me was I installed duct tape backwards on the bottom of the cage legs with the glue facing out ...it stopped the ants from getting up into the cage. I folded it so the tape would stick to the legs but still faced out

 

[texsize]

I am having a bad ant invasion this year also.
Had at least 5 years ant free and they are making up for lost time.

I have sprayed around the outside of the house with that Ortho gallon jug that is supposed to (ha ha) last a year.

I have used wasp spray around the outside at the critical points of entry.

I have bait left here/there inside the house.

They keep coming.

I am trying the Zevo stuff and I am not impressed.
It may be non toxic but it stinks enough to drive me out of the house.
The bathroom is one of the prime entry points and it’s also one of Bella’s favorite locations. Now

Now it’s for ants and brief human occupancy only.
And despite the stink of Zevo the deterrent effect doesn’t last nearly as long as the stink.

They seem to be coming out of the woodwork.
I mean that literally.

 

[Chenetaqwa]

I am having a bad ant invasion this year also.
Had at least 5 years ant free and they are making up for lost time.

I have sprayed around the outside of the house with that Ortho gallon jug that is supposed to (ha ha) last a year.

I have used wasp spray around the outside at the critical points of entry.

I have bait left here/there inside the house.

They keep coming.

I am trying the Zevo stuff and I am not impressed.
It may be non toxic but it stinks enough to drive me out of the house.
The bathroom is one of the prime entry points and it’s also one of Bella’s favorite locations. Now

Now it’s for ants and brief human occupancy only.
And despite the stink of Zevo the deterrent effect doesn’t last nearly as long as the stink.

They seem to be coming out of the woodwork.
I mean that literally.

2 years ago I had the same problem start ...I tried everything you mentioned with the same results.. last year I did some research and found out that boric acid is poisonous for ants ...but the boric acid I was able to find had grains larger than the ants ... I mixed some into a small amount of water and then added jelly and melted it all together in the microwave... I used that mixture as a bait and poison for the ants ... seemed to help but didn't wipe them out .. eventually I found where they were coming from outside... in rotted wooden landscape timbers... now that I eliminated the wood I no longer have ants... you need to find out where they are coming from and get rid of the nest