Are ants hazardous to birds?

[danzmau]

Hi all,

Just wondering if ant bites are lethal to my parakeets and cockatiel. A friend warned us so, but I haven't been able to find sufficient claims online to back it up. Thankfully the bird cages never seem to attract a whole trail of them buggers, only the few wandering ants. We sometimes put the cages on a tray of water when we're gone for long periods of time.

Here is the photo of our ant specie at home:


http://img824.imageshack.us/i/imageykvs.jpg/

Should I be worried?

[Michael]

Don't know but the good thing is that ants tend to go for food rather than flesh. So most likely they just congregate on the bottom below the grate to pick up leftovers rather than specifically seeking out the birds.

[spiral]

i had a problem with ants being attracted to pritty bird pellets when i first got my parrot
but i dont use those pellets now think it was their sweet smell.

[liz]

If your cage is on legs, grease the legs with vasaline. Aunts don't cross vasaline.

I put one bowl inside another for the outside boxers and put vasaline on the outside bowl to keep the ants out. I also put vasaline on the trunk of my fig tree to keep them out of my figs.