I live in TX and house my box turtles and baby sulcata's outside. I have not had any problem with ants in the area as long as I keep the area clean of food. When I first put up my outside area, I did put out fire ant bait in the immediate around it to get rid of any in the immediate area. Now I only treat mounds that might pop up close to the enclosure...but never put anything inside the enclosure.