Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This year I am having a problem with ants (large, medium and small) black ants and some flying little black bugs. Kind of look like flying ants? Anyways, what can I do? I have been killing them as I see them but they are multiplying like crazy and I cant keep up. I have 6 LARGE bearded dragon cages, 4 worms bins, 1 roach bin, 2 cricket bins, and a ton of baby dragon cages. Please help! Are the ants deadly to the dragons if by chance they eat them? Also what about the flying bugs? I am trying to look them up now, to identify them. Can anyone help! Thanks, LindsayMarie
-----
BC Dragons

Ok I think the flying ones are flying ants! Now what????
-----
BC Dragons

i have the SAME problem!!!! the flying ones are also ants...i have 4 Large herp cages in my reptile room along with cricket bins, roach bins, mice bins, and SILKWORM bins...i had a 100$ order of silkworms come in, and 15 minutes later they all were dead, eaten by the ants. i dont think any are poisoness if eaten UNLESS you have ant traps with poison in them, and then the ants eat the poison and before dying get eaten by your dragons your dragons can get very sick and DIE! i need help too, however im thinking about moving ALL my cages and bins and EVERYTHING to a seperate room and calling an EXTERMINATOR....good luck Lindsaymarie!!!! i hope this helps :/ :
-----
~David - KDRKreatures
1.2 Bearded dragons (Ralph, Artemis, Cheech)
1.0 Veiled Chameleon (Chiquito)

KDRKreatures-Home Page
My Email

Sounds like you need to bug bomb and spray the outside of the house. You will have to remove your beardies and make some kind of temporary enclosures if yours are too big to move easily. Then spray like crazy and kill everything. But don't bring your beardies back in for at least a day AFTER the bug bomb has cleared out. Then you will have to wipe everything down that your beardies come in contact with that was left in the house. Don't let them loose on the carpet either. If they were to lick the carpet that had the insecticide on it they could get really sick.

Good luck! This certainly won't be a fun job.

Veronica
Beautiful Dragons

Right now I am staying with my parents. It isnt for long but long enough! I have no where to move the cages, bins etc as space is extremely tight as it is. Is there some kind of no pest strip or other ant killer I can use? Are there any other options? Thanks, Lindsay

Gosh what else can go wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-----
BC Dragons

Hmmm, I'm not really sure. Just keep in mind that anything the ants ingest could be inside of your beardies should they get ahold of one of the ants and eat it. I would call a few exterminators and vet clinics and see what they recommend for being safe for pets. I'm curious as to what you find out. Keep us posted. And good luck!

Veronica
Beautiful Dragons

as vironica said, call the exterminators to see your options...maybe they have some type of thing that they can do wit the cages still in there or something. Also, at MulberryFarms, they have this "Ant Chalk" that you can put down that the ants cannot cross the line,and you can put a thick line around all the bins and the cages so the ants cant cross those lines! im not sure if this works, but im ordering some to try it out, i sure hope it works! its worth a try...good luck!
-----
~David - KDRKreatures
1.2 Bearded dragons (Ralph, Artemis, Cheech)
1.0 Veiled Chameleon (Chiquito)

KDRKreatures-Home Page
My Email

np
-----
~David - KDRKreatures
1.2 Bearded dragons (Ralph, Artemis, Cheech)
1.0 Veiled Chameleon (Chiquito)

KDRKreatures-Home Page
My Email

i read it in this Ant Remedies forum i found, looking for the answer ,,..heres the post i read :

RE: Ant Remedies?
Posted by: TREKaren (My Page) on Thu, Mar 14, 02 at 10:10

This was posted over on Organizing the Home forum. Don't know if it works, but hey, it's worth a try.
"Ants, ants, ants everywhere ... Well, they are said to never cross a chalk line. So get your chalk out and draw a line on the floor or wherever ants tend to march. See for yourself."

RE: Ant Remedies?
Posted by: merj13 (My Page) on Sat, Aug 31, 02 at 10:54

When I get ant infestations, I use either salt or chalk. A chalk line works great on my kitchen counters...just gotta make sure you have the chalk in front of the ants (otherwise theyare blocked from getting back out of your house). Salt sprinkled on the carpet helps when they come chasing cracker crumbs and other snacks that small people seem to leave in abundance on the family room floor.
Hope this helps!
merj
-----
~David - KDRKreatures
1.2 Bearded dragons (Ralph, Artemis, Cheech)
1.0 Veiled Chameleon (Chiquito)

KDRKreatures-Home Page
My Email

I had ants marching into my kitchen from the deck, I chalked inside the door and outside. Either they didn't care, or they had little poll vaults, cuz they just kept on coming.

that was funny... but it did make me think of one thing, if you put vaseline around the legs of the stand, would that keep them out of the tanks and away from the dragons?

well yes i think vaseline would, but i just remembered something i read in a book about animals attacking, this one lady was attacked by killer ants in her hospital bed, and after they hosed her off (aww lol) they put each leg of her bed in a bowl of water....the ants have no other way to get in!! so a bowl of water in each leg could do it, vaseline might too!! its worth a try!! lol
-----
~David - KDRKreatures
1.2 Bearded dragons (Ralph, Artemis, Cheech)
1.0 Veiled Chameleon (Chiquito)

KDRKreatures-Home Page
My Email

There are a bunch of ways that exterminators can get rid of ants without "bombing" the whole room. If I were you, I'd get all the other insects out of your reptile room so they stop attracting ants. Ants come indoors for food and shelter during the summer. Hopefully the ants won't attack your beardies; keep a close eye on them, especially the babies! You might wanna move out your dragons too.

I never did identify the little black bugs, we think they came in with the crickets.

We did two things, put no pest strips outside the dragon cage and a product called "terro" on cardboard on the floor under the cages. It worked within 24 hours to rid us of the ants.

Althought I've never seen the dragons try to eat an ant, I can't find anything that says they would harm them. I know that wild anoles lizards main diet is ants and they do not seem to harm them, but thats not guaratee it would not hurt a dragon.

If the ants come in contact with the no pest strips and that product terro and dont die right away, can they kill my dragons if they are eaten by the dragons? Or do the ants die on contact with those products? Also where can I buy both products? Thanks, Lindsay
-----
BC Dragons

so they are not going anywhere for your beardies to be able to eat them. Also this is what all the cricket farms use at the entrace and above the breeding bins in the crickets warehouses to control pests (as in bugs, not ex-boyfriends

And the other ants that we treated with the TERRO was around the crickets/worms area, so we moved the crickets to the garage, put the TERRO on the area we saw the ants in.

Then cleaned the crickets really well and stored them in another room in the house for a week.

We cleaned all the cages to remove any that had got in them and moved them to another room also for a week. I only saw a few ever in the dragon tanks, but it upset me as one was going in and out of Sandy's ear!

I was amazed at this stuff..... the ants swarmed to it immediately and after a few days we never saw any again. They seemed to eat it then head for home. We did find one area under a baseboard that had hundreds of dead ones in it when looking to try and locate them, but I don't think it was the nest.

So I probably shouldnt spray that terro stuff in the reptile room? Sounds as if it doesnt kill them right away.

Like I stated I just dont have anywhere else to move any of the cages or feeder bins. I am staying with my parents right now and I have already crowded everything so we barely have room to walk!

This is so frustrating I am so worried but there is little I can do. I am going to call around today I think and see what I can find out. I will keep you updated. Thanks evryone, Lindsay
-----
BC Dragons

put on a peice of cardboard, once we used it the ants never went near the beardies, they ants love this stuff and have no need to seek farther for food and accorording to what I read, they take it back to the queen and kills the colony.......

But beleive me, I stood around with the vacuum cleaner parked in front of their cages for the day, even after cleaning and moving them.... HOW DARE those ants crawl on my DRAGON!

.

go to www.terro.com and you can see--the black bugs are flying termites and/or flying ants, and it also gives more info on the product
-----
~David - KDRKreatures
1.2 Bearded dragons (Ralph, Artemis, Cheech)
1.0 Veiled Chameleon (Chiquito)

KDRKreatures-Home Page
My Email

I think all I can do for now is move things away from the walls, try and find the source (where their coming in) and clean it out as best I can and then apply no pset strips and/or terro products. I am going to do a little more research and probably call the vet and/or exterminators and see what they say. Unfortunately I cannot remove the dragons from the room, there just isnt anywhere else to put them. I am trying to find the babies homes now and once I do I will be a little less stressed as the adults dont seem interested in the ants, where the babies do. Thank god 99% of the ants are staying outside of the cages and I havent yet seen one in the feeder bins. The flying ones however, get everywhere but I kill those off quickly. I am also going to try some cuccumbers in easily reached areas. Last year we put cuccumbers on our counters (a suggestion by my grandmother) and we didnt see another ant on the counter the whole summer. Why it works I dont know. But it works. Whether it will work in a room infested reptile room, I dont know? Its worth a try. Thanks everyone....Lindsay

ps. For those having the same problem, goodluck! If you figure out a safe sure way, let me know!
-----
BC Dragons

The first thing you have to do is find out how they are getting into the house. Seal off any cracks, gaps etc around the house adn room. Also outside, I would use hot water and pour it into every ant hill you can find around the house, especially around the room your beardies are in. I beleive soapy water works too, it drowns them..coating their outsides with soap so they can't breath. However the soap could be toxic to your beardies. Insect tape won't risk your dragons, unless they get in contact with it..probalby get stock to teh really tackyness of the tape. You can buy little trays of sticky stuff to put on the floor...actualy this stuff was for mice..but should work for anything that gets in contact with it.

I would take all your feeder bins and store them away from your bearded dragons. If the temperature is warm enough, maybe put them in a screened off area to limit the chance of bugs and ants getting in, maybe a two man tent or screen house. Or you can always buy a few sparrows to fly around in the beardie's room....or a bunch of those anoles another poster mention that loves eating ants. Dragonflies would do the same too.