OMG. What next????? ***update***

[Golden Gate Geckos]

ANTS!!!!! I have been fighting a loosing battle with ants in the house for that last two days, but I'm about to go ballistic. My entire gecko room is all torn up... all the racks pulled out. There were trails of ants all over the racks, and all the tubs with my baby U. milii were swarmed solid black with ants. I have a baby that will likely die, it was bitten so much. They are fucking literally everywhere... all over the kitchen, in the freezer, under the sink, in the bathrooms, in our bed. Solid black lines of ants. I had to dump out every tub, and my geckos are totally freaked out. I just can't take another crisis with my geckos.

 

[dragonflyreptiles]

Marcia, I hope you can get them cleared up, ants are a TOTAL PAIN and hard to get rid of.

You also can;t just run out and fog your wholr house cause that would hurt the leos and feeders too.

After I talked to you the other night I looked this up and it looks interesting even though its from 2001
http://news-service.stanford.edu/pr/01/ants45.html

 

[Jeanne]

I had this happen to me the year before last, I tried everything to get rid of them. Finally winter came along here, and I cleaned all the racks down really good to get rid of their scent trails, and they never came back! Yeah!

 

[KelliH]

Oh man Marcia, what a pain. I'm so sorry about the milii baby. :-(

 

[nwheat]

That's awful!! :main_no: Ants suck. When I lived in Hawaii, I was convinced that the ony thing holding up the walls of the house was solid ants (maybe the roaches & termites helped). I found that windex does a great job of wiping out both the ants and their trails - away from the geckos of course. It kills the ants immediately and without the trail to follow, new ones may not go that direction again. That might help you keep new ones out of the gecko room. I've only had small trails heading toward the gecko room - cleaning them up and putting a Grants ant stake near where they are entering the house has stopped them so far (knock wood).

I hope your little milii will pull through for you!

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

Thanks for the article, Wendy. It's true that we have terrible ant problems in the hot, drought summers and cold, wet winters.

The baby U. milii seems a little better this morning, although it has lost all it's fat reserve in it's tail literally overnight... severe stress no doubt. Two years ago there was a hatchling pipping from it's egg in the incubator, and when I came back about 45 minutes later it had hatched, but was solid black covered with ants with a huge trail going into the incubator from the probe. The hatchling was still alive, but it looked like hamburger meat. I washed it off, and applied Benedryl and Cortaid cream, but it died shortly after.

About a week ago, I lifted the shelter in my Banded Gecko's tank, and there were no geckos... they were huddled in a far corner on the opposite side of the tank. It wasn't until I looked closer that I could see that the area under their hide was inundated with ants. I had to dump the entire tank, wash and rebuild it. One of the little banded girls was bitten all over her tummy, but responded well to Benedryl and Cortaid.

We stayed up late last night getting all the racks and tubs covered, using the shop-vac to get rid of any dead cricket or mealworm that wandered behind them, and sprayed the perimeter of the room with Home Defense. We also wiped down the outside of all the racks with the stuff as well. I dumped all the sand and substrate from all the tubs and replaced it with new. I was up literally every two hours checking the geckos.

I just called our bug exterminating company that comes out every 2 months, but they said there was little they could do that we haven't already done because these are Argentine ants that they cannot guarantee to eradicate. These ants are attracted to any dead cricket, mealworm, or other insect in the house, so we are going to have to move all the furniture and get out the shop-vac and go over every nook and cranny and then spray with Home Defense too.

 

[PaulSage]

That fucking sucks, Marcia. The only time I had an ant problem was when I first moved to Madison and the house had a small area where carpenter ants were setting up camp. One visit from the Orkin man took care of them. I can't imagine having ants that are so hard to eradicate. I don't think I've ever heard of Argentinian ants before either. Would Sevin Dust kill them? It's supposed to kill over 100 insects and they do list ants on there but not Argentine specifically.

I suppose if you put on a flame retardant suit and rented a flame thrower it would take care of the ants, but it would probably bring about a whole slue of other problems.

I'm so sorry about the baby milii. I don't know how I'd react to finding that ants were eating one of my geckos.

Could you bait them onto glue boards / fly paper with dead mealworms or crickets? I know glue boards are my answer for everything, but honestly, getting to watch them struggle to death is quite therapeutic. I can only imagine their screams, but I bet it's fantastic.

 

[Jeremy Letkey]

Marcia, that sucks. Other than the other mentioned solutions, be sure to defend the outside of your house as well. Some baits or other deterrent outside may impede them from coming inside.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

**update**

Two baby U. milii are now dead.

 

[Grinning Geckos]

That really sucks! I'm so sorry Marcia! Any luck yet in killing off the ants??

 

[nwheat]

Aw, Marcia, that sucks!! I'm so sorry!

 

[dragonflyreptiles]

Marcia I am so sorry, I hope you can get this cleared up soon so nothing else bad happens.

 

[BalloonzForU]

Oh Man Marcia!! Hope your luck turns around soon. I hate ants, such a pain in the ass.

 

[Grinning Geckos]

Can you get Ortho Home Defense Max there? It says it kills and prevents argentine ants. You put a 2' border around the outside of your house. I'm sure you could also put some in a dish inside...just make sure it's nowhere where your dogs can get to it.