Reptile & Amphibian Forums

any suggestions on how to prevent ants from invading my indoor enclosure? i was doing my nightly rounds and noticed that suddenly my box turtles home is filled with biting ants.. they felt like fire ant bites but i didnt know they came inside? anyway.. i spent two hours cleaning it.. took all the rocks and other decorations and soaked them in hot water in the tub, scooped all his dirt out (and the ants) and threw it outside, and sprayed the ones that were on the carpet outside his home with ant spray.. i didnt spray anything in his enclosure, but i want to make sure they arent going to come back before i set it back up.. its 8 feet by 6 feet, made of plywood and a huge flat piece of wood.. i have it set up off the floor with cinderblocks.. we have been having ant problems in our kitchen and we finally put traps out for them, so i suppose they relocated to my turtles tank (dirt, food and heat!).. i have him in a temporary tank until i can make sure they wont come back.. any advice is greatly appreciated..
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my pets: clown treefrogs, reed frogs, big eyed treefrogs, tiger leg monkey frogs, gray treefrogs, milk frogs, cuban treefrogs, whites tree frog, green treefrogs, squirrel treefrogs, blue webbed gliding treefrog, red eye treefrogs, chameleon treefrogs?, mossy treefrogs, dusky salamanders, tiger salamander, veiled chameleon, box turtles, mud turtle, map turtle, yellowbelly slider, florida softshell, two saltwater tanks, four cats, two chinchillas, and a boyfriend.

I use a solution of boric acid, sugar and water. when I find a trail of ants (inside the house) I put down a few drops. They carry the solution back to their home and go away. we have other pets and make sure it is not available to them./p

>>I use a solution of boric acid, sugar and water. when I find a trail of ants (inside the house) I put down a few drops. They carry the solution back to their home and go away. we have other pets and make sure it is not available to them./p

If it's any help, you can buy a boric acid product already made to keep bugs away. I don't remember the name but I think I saw it at Walmart. I'm just throwing this in because I remember when I was a kid you couldn't buy it already made you had to make it yourself.
We have problems outdoors with ants getting all over our hummingbird feeders. Once they do the hummingbirds won't feed off them. When it first happened I tried everything I could think of & nothing worked. Finally I found some ant baits at Lowe's made on stakes with the active ingredient arsenic. These are supposed to be hammered into the ground but I can't do that because we have a dog & tortoise. Instead I taped them along the ant trails out of the dog & tortoise reach. That stuff worked quicker than anything else I ever tried.
Whatever you try I hope it works.
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PHRatz

If it's any help, you can buy a boric acid product already made to keep bugs away. I don't remember the name but I think I saw it at Walmart.

You're probably thinking of Terro. I've used it before with good results.
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Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

i put everything back in and put those little traps around the cinderblocks.. i cant put anything out unless its directly under the turtle thing because that is the room our chinchilla is in and we let her run around every night.. but ill look for that terro stuff to put under it where she cant get to.. i think i figured out where they came from.. i checked when i was cleaning the thing out and couldnt find a trail that led from anywhere.. but i bought a plant from walmart less than a week ago to put in there, i had checked it thoroughly for bugs before i added it.. but my mom told me that there could have been eggs in the soil that hatched because they got warm or something.. im not sure how likely that would be but it would explain how fire ants got into my apartment on the second floor and why i couldnt find a trail from outside.. anyway.. thanks for the suggestions! agent orange is getting a girlfriend this week and i want to make sure everything is perfect before she gets here..

-dana
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my pets: clown treefrogs, reed frogs, big eyed treefrogs, tiger leg monkey frogs, gray treefrogs, milk frogs, cuban treefrogs, whites tree frog, green treefrogs, squirrel treefrogs, blue webbed gliding treefrog, red eye treefrogs, chameleon treefrogs?, mossy treefrogs, dusky salamanders, tiger salamander, veiled chameleon, box turtles, mud turtle, map turtle, yellowbelly slider, florida softshell, two saltwater tanks, four cats, two chinchillas, and a boyfriend.

>>.. im not sure how likely that would be but it would explain how fire ants got into my apartment on the second floor and why i couldnt find a trail from outside.. anyway.. thanks for the suggestions! agent orange is getting a girlfriend this week and i want to make sure everything is perfect before she gets here..

Maybe they're coming from the apartment below yours. Maybe whoever lives there needs to set out some ant traps.
Whatever the case I hope you do manage to get rid of them & that everything is perfect by the time Agent Orange's girlfriend arrives.
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PHRatz

Try putting some of those ant traps around the perimeter of the turtle pen.