Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Everyday I make a great salad for my turtles. Usually they will start eating it as soon as I put it in there, and eat more later. However, lately, after the food sits there for a few minutes there will be ants on it. The ants don’t seem to bother the turtles, but I don’t like them. Is there anything I can put around the enclosure to keep the ants out?

Thanks,
Drew

Assuming you do not have any pets that roam around the outside of your boxie enclosure; you can make a ring of diatomaceous earth around it.

Diatomaceous earth will not leech toxins into the soil as it is a natural substance from volcanic ash. There are no poisons or volatile chemicals in it.

It will keep most insects slugs / snails from crossing the ring. The physical nature of it being made from silica; destroys the thin exoskeleton of most insects. It has been used with large mammals ( horses to rid them of worms ) however it's exposure has not been thoroughly tested with respect to dogs and cats. So I would advise extreme caution with small mammal exposure and or ingestion.

Ric

Ditto to Ric's post.

Also, you can try to take away their food source by constructing some sort of moat (sp?) system. Bury a heavy, glazed terra cotta pot catch pan (~2" high) in the ground to the rim. Purchase another pan of the same height, but not as wide. Place food in the small pan, put it in the larger pan, and pour water around the edge of the larger pan.

Someone once posted a picture of a rig like this, so I tried it. It works famously, but my turtles do seem to get a little aggravated with the new system. One bonus, I haven't had to trim their nails. The terra cotta seems to help with wearing them down.

THANKS!!!! Ill try that and keep yall posted