I thought I had gotten rid of a strange and sudden ant problem in my kitchen with a few traps a couple weeks ago. Then yesterday I come home from work to find the ants are back but in a new location, which unfortunately means they’re gathering around my cats’ wet food dish. I put a trap in the cabinet behind the dish so it’s hidden, but it doesn’t seem to be doing much.
I’ll be telling my landlady in the morning that we do need an exterminator. In the meantime, I need to relocate the wet food dish so I can still feed my guys. My first thought was higher ground on the opposite side of the kitchen, but it’s not like ants can’t figure that out. They have dry food for now but I feel bad not being able to put out the wet.
Suggestions for how to safely put the wet food dish out and avoid the ants getting to it?
I have the same problem every Spring. I move the cat bowls out of the room, spray the baseboards and the door sill and put down 6-8 traps and then replace the bowls. It’s always worked. I like the moat idea except that it doesn’t discourage ants from swarming a dropped piece of food on the floor or counter.
Buy liquid Terro. Nothing works better in my experience. Ants love that stuff and they will all be dead in a week or two. They also have cups you can put in the yard to prevent them from coming in the house to start off with.
You know what ants hate? The skin of cucumbers. Think about it, cucumbers grow on the ground but you never see an ant crawling on one! Because there is actually something in the skin of cucumber that repels ants.
I learned this from my 100yr old Gran, and it worked a charm to rid my uni apt of many, many ants. I just did as she instructed and jammed cucumber peel into every gap and crack wherever I saw ants. Don’t worry it won’t rot, just petrify and continue to work! I did it once and got rid of a terrible ant infestation. Lived there for another five years and never saw another ant! Way cheaper and more effective than any store bought chemical product, to my mind.
We had this problem. We put the food bowl on what amounted to a foot-high, 12" by 12" end table with thin legs. The cat would jump up there to eat without any difficulty, but the ants never seemed to figure out to climb up the legs.
mix about half-and-half jelly (mint, apple etc.) and boric acid powder. I was told to use mint jelly as ants love the stuff, but I’m sure anything sugary will work. Cut a drinking straw or two into segments, then use a toothpick to stuff a little of the boric acid mixture into the ends. Tape onto the walls/baseboards/wherever, out of the reach of cats/kids.
It will seem like it’s not working at first. You will still see ants. Then, one day poof! all gone. They carry the food back to the queen and poison her. The advantage is that you can tape the straw segments directly along the existing ant trails, and can strategically place them in safe places if you have kids or curious pets.
A moat for the pet food dish is easier, though in dry climates ants often invade homes in search of water, not food.
put down liquid ant poison in their path as mentioned, don’t distress that you see dozens of ants feeding on it, don’t disturb them. let them eat their fill, they take the poison back and feed others in the nest. in a few days they are all dead.
Just sprinkle a ring of baby powder around the cat bowl and the ants won’t cross it. Indoor, outdoor, this always work. Also, if you see where the ants are getting in, just sprinkle some baby powder by that point and they’ll stop coming in, too.
I’m not sure how scientifically correct this is, but I was once told that the ants send a little tracer guy out first who leaves a chemical trail that the other ants follow. The baby powder disrupts this so they get all confused, freak out, and don’t cross.