Ants....

[David Loftin]

I hate argentine ants more then anything else in the world. Since we moved to the new place, it has been one non-stop infestation after another. First they attacked the rhacs, and now they are going after the leo racks. Almost every surface in our room is covered in bug killer, and now they are COMING THROUGH THE WALLS [wood paneling]

Time for us to look for a new place. Sadly this is the best we could get for the price [a fair amount of space because its uninsulated] gerrrrr

 

[Gecko]

I've been real lucky. I've had massive ant trails, but no real cage attacks.

 

[dprince]

I freakin' despise ants. :main_angry:

Good luck finding your new place, David and Tamara.

 

[techgirl]

yuck, I am not a fan of ants!! Good luck finding a new place.

 

[lil_katiedan]

David, we're right there with you! I swear our house is sitting on a giant ant bed (can't wait to move!)....we haven't been as lucky though and they got to a few baby cresteds last year, which is why I freaked out when I saw some creeping in the day after we got the galeatus. The worst part is, there are no poisons you can use without potentially harming the geckos.

Ants are evil. :evil:

 

[nwheat]

When I lived in Hawaii, I would have sworn the first house I lived in would have fallen down without the ants giving the walls some structure. They would periodically come streaming out of a teeny tiny hole in the wood panelling - so I know what you mean about coming out of the walls!! If we left even the tiniest crumb around there would be 5 million ants there. If there were no crumbs they would attack the kleenex box or worse - the toilet paper roll. Nothing like noticing that a little too late. :toilet:

By the way - I use windex to wipe out trails on hard surfaces (obviously not in cages). It kills the ants instantly and wipes out their trails. Seems like it is a less toxic alternative for us & our mammalian pets than actual ant spray.

 

[lil_katiedan]

Our ants here just won't die. We have tried many many things and they're definately too smart for those bait traps...LOL.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

I have had LOTS of problems with these Argentine ants. Last summer, they killed 2 of my U. milii hatchlings, and the year before they got into my incubator literally turned an newborn hatchling into hamburger. They swarmed my banded gecko tank and almost killed one of my females, but fortunately she survived the multiple bites.

Jacy lost one of her very first hatchlings to Argentine ants:
http://www.geckoforums.net/showthread.php?t=12461

Conventional ant bait traps and not effective, and it is impossible to eradicate these ants as they have multiple queens in multiple colonies. If bait kills one of the queens, all the surviving workers will be absorbed into the other colonies. Since they all originated from one single colony, they all recognize each other and will not attack other colonies.

They come in during the summer to escape the heat and find water during the dry times. They are attracted to dead mealworms and crickets, as well as gecko feces, as well as egg yolks.

The State of California is under seige with these ants. Our native horned lizard is now a protected specie since they feed on ants, and the Argentines have literally wiped out the other native ant species which is causing the lizards to starve to death. These ants will actually aggravate native bird species causing them to abandon their nests, and the ants eat the hatchlings.

The only thing I can suggest is to do what I had to do last summer. I had to pull out all of my geckos racks, tanks, and incubators, and spray the perimeter of the gecko room with Home Defense. I also sprayed around the bases of all my racks and furniture. I smeared Vaseline all around the base of my feeder bins so the ants will not cross it. If the ants walk through it, they will not be able to leave a scent trail for other ants to follow. Also, I now have an extermination company come every other month an put down a special poison outside the perimeter of my house that will keep these ants away.

I hate to use poisons, but it has been the only way to protect my geckos!

 

[Ccrashca069]

That Home Defense is pretty good. I spray our place with it about every 3 months to keep the ants away. If I don't we get swarmed with them in the kitchen cabinets and bathrooms.

 

[lil_katiedan]

I have used that many times and the main thing is, it smells so bad. I was afraid the fumes and such would have negative affects on the geckos. The stuff I have is called "Home Defense Indoor Insect Killer"....very strong citrusy smell, in fact I can barely stand to be in the room after I spray a few squirts.

 

[dprince]

Marcia, I also have my house sprayed every month for insects. I'm with you, I hate using poisons - but I figured that was well worth it versus losing my mind. :main_angry:

We have had that service since we bought our house four years ago. The reason we started it was because the house we moved from had several black widows nests' INSIDE that we found as we were moving - that was it for me. The bonus is that we also don't have an ant problem. I didn't even realize that it helps to keep the geckos safe!! That's certainly a good enough justification for me. :main_yes:

 

[David Loftin]

At least other people share our hate.. Haha. We have a friend that worked at a Hydroponics store and he actually gave us some amazing stuff. It works well as long as no water gets on it after applying it. The windowsil and the bathroom are 2 major sections where the ants have been coming in.. Which sucks because they get condensation every day. I will get the name of the stuff when I am at home later. Its a liquid and you just wipe it on surfaces. The bad part for us since we dont have anywhere to move the Animals to... We cant apply it to ALL of the spacing in the Wood Paneling.. Yup.

Thanks Nancy for the idea of Windex. I have been using Purell and just killing them off with that. It seems to work well as well as cleans their scent trail..

The weird part last night was.. They came from the bottom of one of our Racks.. across that one.. and up to the very top of the one right by it.. And went into the tub there. They went after the mealworms in there... instead of the other boxes.. Weird.

If there were no crumbs they would attack the kleenex box or worse - the toilet paper roll. Nothing like noticing that a little too late. :toilet:

Eek.. Thats scary and gross.

They went after Tamaras Toothbrush yesterday.. Hopefully not the tp today.

The BEST thing I have found is Provent-A-Mite. It is an aerosol spray that works well at really creating a barier that no invertabrate can cross. Since its an aerosol though.. I don't want to use it in our room with all of our animals. The next place we move I am getting 2 cans of it and spraying every nook and cranny of the place inside and out with it.. I don't want to deal with this again.

 

[David Loftin]

Thanks everyone for sharing their approaches on this.. It helps a lot.

 

[bleeding_sarcasm]

so, in the cage that the ants got into yesterday [they went after the mealworms, NOT the geckos, ironically] tonight there is a dead gecko. Our las vegas het blizzard female There are no ants in there now, she dropped her tail, and she is still warm, no rigor yet, eyes are still clear, but there appears to be pooling of blood in her gut. We just spent $600 on maddie at the vet on Monday because I woke up to her having seizures [just to learn that it was "probably" low blood sugar] So we dont have $$ for a necropsy. This is dissapointing and frustrating to say the least. The only reason I can think of for her dropping her tail is because of the ants, but there are no bites on her tail, or ants in the container. Whats up?? She was fat and healthy, eating like a pig, solid poop, good temperatures, etc.

This is just really frustrating.

 

[dprince]

Oh Tamara, I am so sorry to hear this!! That is just horrible.

 

[Gecko]

One year I literally vasoline rings around everytank and tub. It did work BTW. I had to buy it in bulk though. For quick death I use a mite spray that's supposedly safe that messes with the exoskeleton. It's also what I use on black widows I find in cages.

 

[lil_katiedan]

Aw, Tamara! That's horrible. The ants killed one of our Knob-tails last year, talk about upsetting! Hopefully we can all make it through this ant season without too many fatalities.....*crosses fingers*

So what is the name of the Home Defense stuff you guys use? Is it the indoor stuff that smells so bad?

 

[Ccrashca069]

Ok it is made buy Ortho Home Defense Max is what I use. You can buy it at Home Depot, Lowes, OSH and I am sure alot of other places. I buy the 1.33 gallon size. It says on the front Non staining and ordor free with a guarentee lol.

 

[GeckoStud]

Thats awful, I can't imagine what have those kind of swarms of anys could be like. The worst we have up here are those little black "piss ants", but they don't really swarm or bother anything. They mostly just stick around in the yard. I guess I have to thank my lucky stars it gets too cold up here for those "super ants". Good luck and I hope you find a way to deal with them.

 

[lil_katiedan]

Ok it is made buy Ortho Home Defense Max is what I use. You can buy it at Home Depot, Lowes, OSH and I am sure alot of other places. I buy the 1.33 gallon size. It says on the front Non staining and ordor free with a guarentee lol.

Okay, cool. Is this what everyone else uses?