Ants!!!!!

[Birds lover from Hawaii]

you live in australia?-
i have a couple of qustions!-lol

I used to live there 25 years ago but not now. You probably will get better answers from Ms. LaManuka as she lives in Queensland.

 

[Zoruace]

I used to live there 25 years ago but not now. You probably will get better answers from Ms. LaManuka as she lives in Queensland.

even if u used too ill still ask
have you ever hand fed a parrot before? (wild)
if yes what did it feel like?
if not why not?
how do lorikeets sound
is it too noisy in the morning?
how many spiders are there?
and 104 more

 

[Birds lover from Hawaii]

I cleared a foot wide section all around the house and once a year I put down these slow release ant beads. they work well, we used to get these tiny sugar ants. I tried several of the ideas above, but these seem to the trick each year.
Of course, Salty only gets dry foods in his cage, nuts, Nutraberries and pellets. His wet foods (fruit, chop or veggies) he gets in a hanging boing adjacent to his cage, so the ants would need a road map up the wall, across the ceiling and down the metal chain used to hang the boing.

Can you give me the brand name of the slow release ant beads? We have all different kinds of ants that either like sugar, oil, even meat including humans and could show up on our bed to take a bite on our leg. However, if the slow release beads are toxic then we will not use it as we have been feeding lots of wild birds through the years such as Bulbuls and Cardinals that trusted us so much that they brought their young to come for the feeding. They like to stand right close to our sliding door to look into our house to see where we are anxiously calling us to feed them.

 

[Birds lover from Hawaii]

even if u used too ill still ask
have you ever hand fed a parrot before? (wild)
if yes what did it feel like?
if not why not?
how do lorikeets sound
is it too noisy in the morning?
how many spiders are there?
and 104 more

Okay, here are the answers:

have you ever hand fed a parrot before? (wild) - No. Had a blue mask love bird from a breeder in Sydney, brought home the last weeks of weaning to hand fed with a crooked spoon for bonding.

if yes what did it feel like? - I've only done it for two weeks using a spoon. Just a little nervous but the breeder has done the most critical part so just have to make sure the temp is right.

if not why not? - Not experienced don't want to risk also have to work full time.

how do lorikeets sound - Our house in Sydney was facing a reserve. I have counted there were almost 100 rainbow lorikeets perching on our balcony waiting to be fed at one time. They are not very loud but you can imagine if there are hundreds of them all shown up at the same time. LaManuka may have a Lory as she has mentioned her Lilly eats nectar.

is it too noisy in the morning? - Check with LaManuka but if you want to keep one, they could really messy bird as they eat nectar.

how many spiders are there? - No worries on this. I have only seen one in 10 years. They don't jump on you unless you try to kill them!

 

[Birds lover from Hawaii]

Very glad to hear that you feel so at home here already! We do pride ourselves on being just about the nicest corner of the internet in our little community. More like a family really, a little dysfunctional at times to be sure but what family doesn't have it's issues from time to time??

You are very brave for being able to stay in Sydney for so long! No disrespect meant to our southern neighbours at all (), it's a nice enough place to visit but I wouldn't wanna live there. Tweed Heads is a beautiful spot, and just over the border from my fair State of Queensland - albeit on the wrong side! I hope one day to be able to revisit Hawaii, my hubby and I enjoyed our visit there immensely although all we got to see was Honolulu and Maui. Would LOVE to go back some time and visit the volcanoes on the Big Island - from a safe distance of course!

Canola was the oil of choice mainly due to it being nice and cheap. No point spending too much if it's just gonna end up on my bird cage legs. I guess you could use sunflower or olive or anything food grade though. Fortunately none of my flock are the type to climb down the cage leg and lick the oil off so that hasn't been a consideration for me whereas it seems it might be for you.

I was very sorry to read of BB's ongoing health issues and I am very hopeful that he is on the improve by now after his course of antibiotics. Nothing worse in my opinion than being worried about the health of a much beloved flock member, so I hope that your BB is restored to good health very soon!

I see what you mean by being brave living in Sydney for so long. Sometimes there are not many choices in life that you just have to accept what you have at the time and learn to adapt. BTW, Hawaii is open to tourists now even we still have an average of 200 cases per day due to the Delta variant. We locals don't really like the idea but our State depends solely on tourism so it's really a Catch 22 situation.

For the time being, I won't worry about using which oil to deter the ants as BB won't have the energy to do that anymore. Two days ago, he was so exhausted from regurgitating so frequent the day before and could only eat a little with his eyes closed. Our vet has advised us to keep him at 90F (32C) 24/7 so we bought a heat lamp hung above his cage and use two thermometers to monitor the temp inside and outside his cage. We know we have to be very careful using heat lamp so we don't want to be too aggressive so we keep the temp at 85F. He has shown quite a drastic improvement after using the heat lamp for just one day and night and could sleep much better. He started eating and has more energy. We were amazed how temp could make such a difference. Still keeping our fingers crossed for s full recovery. I plan to start a new thread when he fully recovers to share what we have done wrong and right from this agonizing incident.

 

[Noahs_Birds]

There’s an old saying here in Aus that blokes during military training used say - “In Australia, the bugs and spiders are so big they flip over your dog tags to check your blood type before they bite!”

 

[Zoruace]

Okay, here are the answers:

have you ever hand fed a parrot before? (wild) - No. Had a blue mask love bird from a breeder in Sydney, brought home the last weeks of weaning to hand fed with a crooked spoon for bonding.

if yes what did it feel like? - I've only done it for two weeks using a spoon. Just a little nervous but the breeder has done the most critical part so just have to make sure the temp is right.

if not why not? - Not experienced don't want to risk also have to work full time.

how do lorikeets sound - Our house in Sydney was facing a reserve. I have counted there were almost 100 rainbow lorikeets perching on our balcony waiting to be fed at one time. They are not very loud but you can imagine if there are hundreds of them all shown up at the same time. LaManuka may have a Lory as she has mentioned her Lilly eats nectar.

is it too noisy in the morning? - Check with LaManuka but if you want to keep one, they could really messy bird as they eat nectar.

how many spiders are there? - No worries on this. I have only seen one in 10 years. They don't jump on you unless you try to kill them!

thank you very much

 

[Betrisher]

Birdlife Australia has recently issued a plea that people think first before using poisons for pest control. Our native owls are suffering from the current mouse plague because people are laying poisons for the mice, which the predators then eat. There's currently a huge death event going on among native raptors because of it!

I know the tendency is always to think 'If they invade my property I'll do whatever it takes to get rid of them', but please think first before you use poison. You might not even know what valuable species you're about to kill along with the pests.

 

[Birds lover from Hawaii]

Birdlife Australia has recently issued a plea that people think first before using poisons for pest control. Our native owls are suffering from the current mouse plague because people are laying poisons for the mice, which the predators then eat. There's currently a huge death event going on among native raptors because of it!

I know the tendency is always to think 'If they invade my property I'll do whatever it takes to get rid of them', but please think first before you use poison. You might not even know what valuable species you're about to kill along with the pests.

Agreed 100%!! The Pest Control companies here kept bugging us for business claiming all the stuff they use are environment friendly but we never really believe it. I can see the Pest Control van driving around our neighborhood with all their so called "environmentally friendly" compound at the back of their van. The most proven example is we have not seen a lot of bees flying around for many years. If we see one, it will either be dead or look disoriented sitting on the wall or ground not able to move. Do you want to mae a guess what's happened to them?

 

[Scott]

It may work for some but not my boy as sometimes I let the cage door open and enjoy watching him sliding down the cage leg like a fireman. He may need to use his beak to help him slide and the Dawn dish soap may get onto his little pinky tongue.

In that case, not a good thing! Dawn quite safe but no reason to ingest!

 

[larson]

I don't have a clear non-toxic recommendation, but I do highly recommend Terro-PCO. It's a liquid form, so you just put one tiny drop where the path of ants commonly go. They'll pick it up and bring it back.

I feel safe using it around Cairo because we do make sure to put it in places he can't access (but the ants can). And it just takes one drop for one bedroom

Absolutely right. Terro OPC is really effective.
We use the bait two ways. Another brand of ant bait wasn't as effective but their outdoor baiting stations were well-designed to be permanent. I use the diluted Terro in them, flushing the traps out once a year. Secondly, our city requires food scraps be put in "green bins" with yard trimmings, for composting.
Great for the ecology, but a feast for the ants! I drizzle the Terro over the most obvious food scraps - as one reviewer points out, at certain times the ants are looking for fat and protein, not just sugar - before adding to the bin. I do this several days before pick-up, so the ants have time to be attracted and bring the poisoned food back to the nest.