Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone,
This is kind of a general reptile/pet question, but I thought I would post here specifically since many of you will have experience with deep, natural substrates that might attract ants.
I am having a terrible ant problem in my apartment, that has just grown exponentially over the last month. They are tiny, awful little things, a variety that I'd never seen until moving to Sacramento, even after living in the general area my whole life. I have a quite clean apartment, I assure you, and these guys will just not go away! They mob on the slightest hint of food smell, and have recently taken up residence in my monitor tank and are even crawling around in the sand in my sand boa tank. The tanks are clean, that's not an issue. I am at my wits end.
While what I would really like to do at this point is just move out for a few days and poison the entire place, I have a cat and a few reptiles that wouldn't be too happy with that idea. I am extremely hesitant to use any toxic pest control anywhere near my pets, but really don't know what else to do to get rid of these things for good.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to fix this problem, without the risk of harming my animals? Please?? I have all my food in the the kitchen stored tightly away, as they have managed to get into just about anything that is not sealed airtight, but this just doesn't seem to be doing anything anymore. I would really appreciate any help, thanks.
Angela

Yes, this is easy.

There are gel based products that you can put in a few selected spots at your house, and this gel has atractives with venom that the ants will eat, carry back to their nest and kill the whole colony.

I cannot indicate a specific brand as I'm not american and don't know which ones are available there, but I'm pretty sure you guys have it in your country. It comes in a syringe and is safe for pets as long as they don't lick eat the gel.

Solves your problem in a couple days.

I've had similar problems in the past. I use a product called TERRO Ant Killer. It is a thick, viscous liquid. You put small patches of it in the paths of the ant trails. The ants mob around the bait and take it home. The stuff is poisonous, so it kills the ants. In a day or so the ants vanish.

Luke

You can use any product with borax in it and that will do the job. Make sure to put the borax out in an area your cats can't get to because it can be dangerous to them if the ingest it. Good places are under the kitchen sink, back of cabinets, behind fridge or under stove (if it’s too tight for the cats to get behind/under). If you do that you reduce the risk of you animals getting hurt(unless they are eating the ants then I would stay away form poison in the first place)

Good luck